Instagram announced today via blog post and NYT interview that they’re beginning to test an algorithm-based feed, similar to those used by Facebook and recently introduced by Twitter. According to Kevin Systrom, co-founder and chief executive of Instagram, “on average, people miss about 70 percent of the posts in their Instagram feed.”
From NYT:
Instagram plans to rely on its machine -learning technology and a mix of signals to determine the order of photos and videos in users’ feeds, including the likelihood a person will be interested in the content, the timeliness of the posts and the relationship between the two users. As they are now, posts will be clearly stamped with the date they occurred.
While the new algorithm-based feed won’t directly affect brands advertising on the platform, it does bring into question how it will affect content brands post organically. I don’t have any research to support this, but I’d guess the vast majority of brands people follow on IG aren’t among the top 10-20% of accounts they most frequently interact with. Will brand’s posts show up in a curated section of the feed?
It seems the content our brands organically post on IG will undoubtedly get pushed further and further down the feed. Will users visit the platform often enough or scroll down long enough to see them? Is the ultimate goal to force brands into advertising on the platform if they want their followers to see the content, a la Facebook (which owns IG)? One thing’s for sure: creative on IG will have to work twice as hard to earn its place at the top of users (soon to be) curated feeds.