More changes to Instagram and how they might affect your small business marketing
Adam Mosseri popped up recently to give us a heads up on some testing they are doing with the Instagram experience. The fact that he’s mentioning it means it’s probably a done deal so here’s what’s happening, followed by my thoughts on how you can prepare for this kinda major change.
Firstly, how does Instagram work in 2022?
I’m a pretty visual person so when I sit down and think about the Instagram user experience, I see it like a bit of a cruise ship these days. You’re signed up for it, you’re kind of stuck in it but you have heaps of choices of what to do each day - you just can’t do all the things at the same time.
Let me push that metaphor out for you:
Messages: Do you want to hang by the pool today with your besties and chat?
Discovery: Do you want to hit the bar and meet new people?
Reels: Do you want to go to watch a live cabaret show?
Shopping: Do you want to hit the boutiques?
Guides: Do you want to go on shore and do a little tour of the island?
Ok I won’t bang on with that one BUT I hope you see what I mean.
We all have limited time to spend in Instagram, so when we’re in there, we need to choose what kind of experience we want to have and where we feel the most entertained. It’s cluttered and it’s noisy for users.
As a business using it as a marketing tool, it’s important to remember this and to remember that Instagram is also very segregated these days. There is no such thing as ’scrolling THE feed’ anymore.
What are the proposed changes to Instagram’s experience?
All we know is that they are testing a way to further segregate our various feeds and further split our ability to connect with our audience.
Ooh that sounded bad - don’t panic!
What we know is that users’ Instagram feed will now be divided into: home, favourites and following. Home will be the newsfeed we recognise. Following will be a chronological feed of the accounts that you actually follow (no suggested content) and Favourites will be profiles that you choose to go on a list.
Preparing for the changes to Instagram’s experience
There’s not much you can do just yet except plan and strategise and continue to refine and develop your content strategy to be as relevant as you can to your followers and customers.
Here are some of my thoughts:
Favourites
You want to get into this list of course! But the reality is that it will probably be reserved for family, friends and stuff your audience is really into.
So, if you haven’t already, how about asking your audience what they are really into? Sounds captain obvious BUT most of the time we are just guessing at what our audience is into in the context of what we offer. But if you want to get into the favourites list, you’re going to have to do more and be more.
Following
This sounds like it will be the kind of feed we all miss - the one that wasn’t filled with suggested content and ads. Ok I know there will still be ads, but the idea that I could get a less cluttered feed and have a better chance of actually seeing content from the profiles I follow makes me happy.
Home
So this will be the feed you scroll through when you’re looking for something new or if all your friends are taking a social media break or if you’re just looking for something more. I have to say that I’m not confident this ‘home feed’ is going to get much of a run but we will see.
What next?
Well that’s my take on the limited information I have, but the large understanding I have about consumer behaviour and how to use a tool like Instagram to market your small business.
We are going to have to work a little harder, a little smarter and really truly assess exactly what we are using this particular marketing channel for. No more slapping up a random motivational quote - every post will need to have purpose.
Can I help you with this? Of course I can.
Get started for only $20 with my Content Smash® and Guide to Hashtags bundle or book some time with me to; build strategy, create content, build confidence or, get you more focused on how you can get your social media actually working for you in 2022. You can get a free discovery call here or simply email me and let me know what you need.
Take care ✌🏻 Erika
