Instagram’s feed is about to become more like Twitter’s recently altered timeline and Facebook’s News Feed. They’re going more for an algorithmic approach as opposed to the chronological one that users are used to.
According to Instagram, users (on average) are missing a whopping 70% of their feeds. That means they’re not seeing the images and videos they’re most likely to care about most. It’s essentially the same logic behind the Twitter and Facebook feeds.
“The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post,” Instagram says on its blog. “As we begin, we’re focusing on optimizing the order — all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.”
“If your favorite musician shares a video…it will be waiting for you when you wake up, no matter how many accounts you follow or what time zone you live in,” it adds. “And when your best friend posts a photo of her new puppy, you won’t miss it.”
The change will occur sometime in the comings months. That’s as specific as they’re getting for now.
As mentioned, the news comes as engagement on Instagram has plummeted. We recently looked at findings from Locowise for the month of January, finding that engagement rate was down by 66.07% over the previous ten months. It fell by 12.04% just from December to January.
This week, Locowise released data for February, finding that Instagram hit an eleven-month low with growth down 93% and engagement down 70%. That’s the low point for both metrics since Locowise started tracking the data.
“Follower growth in February was at 0.2%. This is a 45.95% decrease compared to January,” wrote Locowise’s Marko Saric. “…Follower growth on Instagram has declined by 92.86% in this time period.”
“Instagram engagement rate in February was 0.84% of the total audience,” he wrote. “This is a 11.58% decrease compared to January.”
The listed likely reasons for engagement decline are more brands/users joining and posting more often, Instagram ramping up its ad business over recent months (and adding more noise), and users are following more accounts.
Based on the data, images still drive 66% more engagement than videos.
Instagram recently announced that it now has over 200,000 advertisers with 75% of them outside of the U.S. The company says this includes businesses of all sizes in over 200 countries.
“Instagram is a place where people come to be inspired and [find] things they care about, and that includes content from businesses,” a spokesperson told WebProNews in an email. “In fact, 60% of Instagrammers say they learn about products and services on Instagram and 75% say they take action after being inspired by an Instagram post—like visiting a website, searching…or telling a friend.”
Instagram considers itself a “home for small businesses”.
Those paying to play have been faring pretty well, according to a report from Kenshoo. It found that clicks were up 280% year-over-year in Q4, while CPMs were down 11%, CPC fell 33%, and click-through rates were up 32%.
Article Appeared @http://www.webpronews.com/instagram-hits-new-low-in-engagement-will-coming-change-help-2016-03/