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- Where is all the Instagram reach going?
Where is all the Instagram reach going?
The revenge of the long-tail
Instagram has been tweaking its algorithm to be more like TikTok for years now, but around April this year, the rate of adjustment accelerated, when M. Zuckerberg told us that “more than 50% of the content people see on Instagram is now AI-recommended.”
This evolution is welcome: TikTok’s meritocratic algorithm (i.e., followers matter less, content quality/fit matters more) makes for a better user experience, increasing platform stickiness across most age groups.
A meritocratic algorithm is behind TikTok’s best-in-class stickiness (Source - eMarketer, early 2024)
Think of it this way: your Instagram content is now shown to a lower share of your followers, but this drop is partly compensated by a rise in reach to non-followers selected by Instagram’s AI:
If these first few non-followers don’t engage, IG culls the post, and your reach ends up lower than a year ago
If they do engage deeply with it, IG shows it to even more non-followers, leading to more engagement and faster follower growth than before
This bifurcation explains why we are seeing a tiered Instagram economy: the top 10-15% of brands are doing much better than before, another 20-25% are performing about the same, while the bottom 60-70% are doing worse (less engagement, slower follower growth).
Top performing beauty accounts have better owned content, but also boast more UGC: read on to find out why
Now that we’ve determined how Instagram distributes reach among brands, a new challenge emerges: if we average out a lot of brands doing worse with a few doing much better, the net result is still an overall decrease in reach available.
Where is all this “missing” reach going?
Both brands and larger influencers are seeing their overall reach & engagement per follower falling - where is this missing reach?
Instagram is finally granting smaller accounts greater reach rates at the expense of larger accounts. More specifically, it is prioritising posts that fuel more discussions across all size tiers, but especially for smaller accounts.
Two excellent improvements for Instagram: give smaller accounts more of a chance to stand out, and reward posts that fuel discussions
So what are brands supposed to do now?
There are plenty of ways to thrive on and through Instagram, but brands need to rethink their approach, marketing mix on- and off-social, content and KPIs:
Improve their content game so posts are loved rather than just viewed and “liked” — because trust is paramount and distrust of branded content is at a peak, social media today is a lot more about “social” than “media”: aim for emotional reactions so strong that viewers want to engage others
The same is true on paid influence: do less of it, pick and reward skilled creators able to land more social interactions, not potential or partial views
Some offline investments stimulate more social UGC than others — typically from smaller accounts, UGC is a key source of trial because it is trustworthy. Select, design and integrate offline investments accordingly ⬇️.
What we’ve been seeing and saying about TikTok for years is bound to become increasingly true on Instagram as well