The head of IG, Adam Mosseri said that IG is no longer going to be just a square photo sharing app. He said people are looking to be entertained on IG. He acknowledged that TikTok is huge and YouTube is even bigger.
So it’s clear to me that IG is going to be pushing video in the form of Reels and Stories more than ever before.
RECOMMENDATIONS
He said in the upcoming months they’re going to experiment with what they call Recommendations, which means showing you things in the feed from accounts you might not already be following. Now to me, this sounds a lot like TikTok’s “FYP” and YouTube’s “suggested videos.” That means there is a lot more opportunity to be found organically by people who don’t already follow you if you’re posting engaging, entertaining videos!
That’s really exciting to me because over the years, Instagram has become a little bit more challenging to get found on the platform by people who don’t know you. Generally speaking, people aren’t really searching through hashtags and unless you’re doing collaborations with people who has similar audience to you, it can be hard to find new people on Instagram.
That is one of the things that really appealed to me about TikTok is that on the For You Page, anybody can pop up. And it sounds like based on what Mosseri said, Instagram is gonna start being similar to that in its Recommendations section.
HOW CAN YOU GET ON-BOARD?
I’ve been on social media in business for many years now and I’ve noticed that when a business adapts to new platforms or new trends on social, it’s easier to attract your ideal following and gain traction on that platform versus waiting until everyone and their grandma is on the platform and then deciding you “need to be there.”
The early adopters to Instagram, for example, easily grew their organic following because there were more users than content (AKA your content could be found much more easily). The same thing happened with TikTok. And now, TikTok is clearly a huge competitor for IG and has been for a couple of years!
So, what I’ve decided to do is learn how to use TikTok for my business. Decide what people like over there for organic traffic and then repurpose that content on Instagram to take advantage of Reels.
I always tell my students, “Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with new platforms or new trends. Just stay consistent with one platform and then move to the next.” But honestly what I see now is a huge advantage for businesses who start using short form videos (aka Reels) on IG.
TODAY’S TIP: based on what the head of IG said on June 30th about how IG will be prioritizing video, I’d love to see you make a reel for IG once or twice a week and see how your audience responds. I think you’ll be surprised at the organic reach you’ll easily get. We posted a reel for the first time in a while a couple of weeks ago and got around 40 new followers from that one post (and it was something I’d copied over from TikTok).
I’m committed to posting on TikTok everyday for 12 weeks, so if you want to come hang out over there I’m @taviaredburn and if you start taking advantage of Reels, make sure to DM me on IG @_thebeautyinbirth_ I’d love to see what you come up with!
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