The head of Instagram is speaking out regarding criticism from users and celebrities alike of its recent efforts to push more videos and recommended content.
In a reel posted to the platform by CEO Adam Moressi on Tuesday (July 26), he confirmed the platform is still committed to supporting photos on the app, though they will be “shifting more and more to videos over time.”
“I need to be honest — I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” he said in the clip. “We see this even if we change nothing. We see this even if you just look at the chronological feed.”
Mosseri’s comments come the day after both Kim Kardashian (326 million followers) and Kylie Jenner (361 million followers) shared a viral post on Instagram asking the platform to “stop trying to be TikTok” as its rival app continues to gain popularity, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The post, created by Instagram user Illumitati, says “Make Instagram Instagram again” in bold letters, adding in parentheses underneath, “Stop trying to be TikTok I just want to see cute photos of my friends. Sincerely, everyone.”
Kardashian, 41, shared the post to her Instagram Story, writing beneath it, “PRETTY PLEASE,” while Jenner, 24, added, “PLEASEEEEEEE” to her Instagram Story.
In the Instagram CEO’s video, he acknowledged the concerns voiced by Instagram users and said Instagram has been “experimenting with a lot of different changes” aimed at improving the user experience. “Now, I want to be clear: we’re going to continue to support photos,” he said. “It’s part of our heritage, you know, I love photos and I know a lot of you out there love photos too.”
But promoting videos is still among the platform’s priorities since that is what users are posting more of and consuming. Mosseri said Instagram will continue to “lean into” the shift toward video content, though much of the app will “stay the same.”
There are ways users can avoid Instagram’s recent changes, like getting rid of recommended posts. You can “x” out of the recommended post at the top right-hand corner of a post and snooze all recommendations for up to a month.
Mosseri claims in his video that the reason for the recommended posts is to help their creators to have their content reach more people as a more ‘effective’ and ‘important’ approach.”
10 Ways To Build Your Brand On Social Media
1. Determine your specialty
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Influencers on social media tend to specialize in a certain area—whether it’s the beauty, parenting, or financial coaching spaces, specificity is key. Finding a niche can sometimes be challenging for one with myriad interests, but it helps for an influencer to hone in on a specific audience and establish authority. Your niche is what you’re genuinely interested in and what suits your personality.
After deciding what you want to focus on, begin creating your posts around that topic. It helps to tag other accounts closely related to your topic of interest.
2. Know your audience and demographic
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What does your business know about its customers? What are their age groups? Where are they located? These are questions that companies need to ask in order to learn about their customers.
In terms of selecting influencers to represent their brand, companies will want to partner with influencers followed by the same group of people who purchase its products and services. Influencers who are authentic, engaging, and who have an understanding of the brand will be key to the success of the company’s social media campaigns.
3. Target the right social media platforms for your brand
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It’s important for a business to know the demographics of its target market when deciding which social media channels to use. Brands that are more visual may lean toward Instagram and TikTok, while brands focused on real-time events may find Twitter to be more suitable.
It’s beneficial to define social media goals and to figure out the social media channels the company’s audience uses in order to develop a receptive audience. Take time to analyze the type of content the business is posting on its channels and how the content works for each social media platform.
As of 2021, for business-to-business companies, Facebook and LinkedIn tend to be the preferred social media platforms. For business-to-consumer companies, Facebook and Instagram were the most popular platforms.
4. Define your brand’s voice and tone
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A brand’s target audience is the most crucial aspect of developing a voice and tone. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and consider what would inspire them to take action to buy your company’s product or follow your brand.
Often, companies take more of a general approach, directing social media posts to a broad audience, but catering to more niche users may work better. Brands need to think of what it is they wish to accomplish—when the dust settles, what is the primary purpose?—and how the answer to that question can resonate long-term with its audience.
5. Connect with influencers in your industry
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Networking on social media has been a way for many companies to get their name out there and build brand recognition. It’s no different when influencers decide to join forces, even if just for one specific event. It can be highly beneficial to collaborate with fellow industry influencers, whether it’s launching a cross-promotional giveaway experience or appearing on another influencer’s podcast.
Whether you’re looking to expose your business to a bigger audience, generate leads, or boost traffic to your blog, partnering with fellow influencers with a similar target audience can be impactful. Collaboration can diversify an influencer or company’s possibilities, build connections, and create more opportunities overall.
6. Identify which products or services you want to promote
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For the most part, influencers work independently and generate their own content while integrating a brand’s marketability. For relevant influencers, creating content takes time; therefore, a brand must recognize and value the work required in growing that influencer’s following and establishing their voice.
When it comes to promoting products and services, in-demand influencers tend to lean toward companies that offer paid partnerships in addition to complimentary products. This is not to say that influencers will only work with a company that gives away free products, but the pull of a partnership arrangement is certainly a more attractive, mutually beneficial arrangement.
7. Pay attention to trends in social media and video content
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Companies should focus on trends to better hone their marketing efforts. Some trends include the rise of short video content shared on platforms, such as TikTok, or via Instagram Stories and Youtube Shorts, all of which have resonated with marketers and brands, notably throughout the pandemic.
The e-commerce option for social media platforms has also taken off as brands can connect their online store with their brand’s social media account, removing the need for a third-party website. Paid advertising on social media also gives brands the opportunity to showcase content in front of a target audience.
8. Be consistent with your social media posts
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It can be challenging to post consistently on social media, especially when managing several social platforms or multiple accounts across platforms. But consistency is key when it comes to audience recognition and follower growth and retention.
Posting strategically and consistently maximizes your organic reach, which is the number of people you reach without paying for an ad or boosting a post. Scheduling your content ahead of time with news or upcoming events can make it feel more timely. Planning in advance also allows you to keep a steady stream of posts in front of your audience at times when you may not be online.
9. Engage with your consumers and followers
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Engagement develops customer relationships, builds trust, and helps businesses reach a larger audience. It’s also a quick way for companies and influencers to receive feedback on what’s resonating with their target audience. Some ways that companies and influencers engage on social media is through responding to comments, sharing content, responding to direct messages, and creating polls to generate responses on insights for particular topics.
In most cases, engagement is often more important in terms of impact than the number of followers, as a business can have 20,000 followers on social media with zero engagement. This results in a low return on investment. But if there are, say, 5,000 followers with much higher engagement, a higher ROI makes the business appear more credible and not like there’s a bunch of ghost followers.
10. Define your metrics of success and use them to inspire future content
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In recent years, social media has served as a major tool for businesses and influencers to have a better understanding of their audience. There are ways to analyze social media data through built-in insights and analytics that are provided by most social platforms. These findings show information such as demographics, impressions, and reach, all of which are essential metrics for building an audience.
Analytics and metrics help to track progress, such as the speed at which you’re building an audience and which posts are performing better than others. The posts that do well can be an example of what may work for similar future posts.
Social media engagement can be a war of attrition, so weeding out content that is not engaging your target audience will result in a stronger overall profile and present an image of brand authority.