Thursday, March 31, 2016

The End is Nigh - Instagram Changes Their Algo


Been seeing a lot of this in your Instagram feed lately?  The interwebs is bugging out because Instagram is changing their algorithm so that more popular posts will populate first in users feeds versus the feeds populating in reverse chronological order.  They say it is to improve the user experience; so "you'll see the moments we believe you care about first".  

Does anyone believe this?  Lest you forget, Instagram is now owned by Facebook.  Facebook conveniently has the same theory when it comes to their users feeds.  Pretty sure I am personally not seeing all that is important to me on Facebook so I am on the fence about how I feel when it pertains to the Instagram changes.  Even when Instagram does institute the changes, you can apparently circumvent the update by choosing to turn on notifications for individual Instas.  It is important to note that these changes are not in full effect yet.  All of the changes are being tested and will be rolled out slowly. 

That is not the point that matters though.  Why is Instagram doing this? Because they are basically telling brands to "Show me [Instagram] the money!!"   Essentially, they want brands to pay to play but Instagram will dispute this.  Their party line is the algo separates the wheat from the chaff for their users.  Brands, however, who are playing along with the new, now old, Facebook situation.. They have learned that the algorithm favors video.  So they, in turn, publish more video in the hope of gaming the algo and bumping up their status.  Gone are the days that a Like meant something... What will become of the Instagram heart and followers?

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