Social Media Platforms change & evolve.  It goes with the territory.  Over the last decade everything has changed (yet it mostly stays the same 😉 ~ more of that in a wee bit).  

You may have seen lots of people sharing Instagram Stories recently that are giving the call to action to return Instagram to how it used to be, a visual platform to connect with friends.  

On the 26th July Adam Mosseri, head at Instagram, shared a video over on Twitter that detailed the evolution of the Instagram platform >>you can view that video here << and in essence talked about video being a much more dominant player in the market place moving forwards on the platform.  

Consumers consume video content.  People get lost in the Reels feed on Instagram and the “shorts” feature on YouTube.  Video is a strong player in the market place.  

I know it’s a funny one.  Firstly I was talking to my husband who was frustrated about consuming “shit” on YouTube shorts on the search for something good.  Perhaps there’s a double sided problem here.   I suggested that that consumption drives the algorithms to believe that shit content is what you enjoy and therefore supplies you with shit content.  It’s kinda a be careful what you’re telling the algorithm one.  Perhaps this is happening across the board with the viewing figures suggesting people LOVE this stuff whereas in reality they might find it frustrating or a time drain.  Whether it’s the genuine love of this form of content or not the stats are saying that it’s the dogs do dahs of content right now on Instagram.  

If we view, like, share & comment more on video content then video content is going to be the big player.  

Mosseri is saying that Instagram will continue to support photograph based content but over time it’s going to be much more video focused.  

Apparently there’s tweaks and changes to the feed right now that they admit aren’t perfected at this stage and that evolution is a work in progress essentially.   

Seeing more accounts that you aren’t following is being billed as an opportunity to find new content and creators – perhaps a great thing if you’re using Instagram for business.  

I know there was lots of noise recently about business owners feeling that Facebook was no longer the place for their business and either jumping ship entirely or creating much more focus on Instagram.  Just a reminder that Instagram is part of the Meta family.  It’s essentially Facebook’s sister AND it is a business which strives to increase it’s profitability.  We can expect Social Media to continue to change & evolve, to seek to be innovative and relevant (and, sssshhh, where possibly platforms are seeking to be market lead and keep the market share amongst as bigger demographic as possible because that = more revenue). 

• Instagram will continue to support photos.  The same considerations about keeping your content fresh & engaging apply. 
• Don’t feel you need to throw the baby out with the bathwater following this annoucement.  Yes, start to think about your strategy and think about how you’ll evolve it & grow moving forwards.  
• Start to consider how video can become part of your marketing strategy if it’s not currently featured or given much attention.  Shout up if you want me to dive deeper into this one and how you can create content that isn’t the typical face to camera video and how you can develop a strategy that works for your business.  Dive into the comments and let me know if you want some help on this one.
• Think quick & easy content.  As the world gets noisier people’s attention spans get shorter.  Are you currently using things like Stories to connect with your audience? 
• See the opportunity in being able to reach new people.  Make sure it’s clear what you do & what you’re about when you’re popping content out into the world.  Remember, each piece of content could be someone’s first experience of your business.  

Like I alluded to above, everything changes and we have to move alongside those changes but equally, everything stays the same.  In the decade or so I’ve used Social Media for business there’s been so much change! Algorithm change after algorithm change has caused panic.  The introduction of live stream broadcasting sent people into a wee frenzy about their business and the sheer volume of accounts that your posts are essentially competed with has become mindblowing.  

Yup, there’s been a lot of changes. 

BUT, the same rhythm of content applies.  Make is engaging, speak to your audience, tell stories, make connections, be social, communicate don’t broadcast etc etc.  There’s some free training in The Vault (see below) all about reach & engagement and also questions to ask on Social that will increase your engagement – you can grab it all for free…. 

In the meantime, yell below if you want some pointers of enhancing your video marketing strategy.