Instagram’s Algorithm News Feed goes Live

The moment people have either been waiting for or dreading has arrived. The algorithm for the Instagram news feed has gone live! Well, not totally live, it’s rolling out over the month of June. This is definitely going to be a game changer on Instagram. Good or bad it’s something we have to live with on the network.

Instagram is my favorite social network. I love taking pictures and posting pictures. Pictures in what I take on vacation, road trips and things around town. Selfies I don’t do a lot of these days. Photography has been a love all the way back to Polaroids. I moved to 35MM and now digital. Instagram is a great way to show off what I have shot.

There are some questions that haven’t really been answered by the posts from Instagram. Facebook lets you set close friends that you want to see posts from and more often. I hope this ability is part of the new Instagram feed. Also, how will the new brand profiles figure into the feed?

Twitter has been experimenting with a curated feed in the last year. You may have noticed the “While you were away” posts at the top of your feed. They are posts Twitter thinks you should see. Their feed has been pretty good at showing me things I would like to see. Also, after you refresh the feed it goes away. There is a rumor they are working on a new tab for curated tweets.

This I feel is a great way to do it. It gives the person control of your feed. If you want the network to show you a curated feed you can click a tab. If you want to see the unfiltered feed, its available for you as well. However, networks are creating their own feeds.

Over the next month we will have to see how these changes affect social media strategies. Will reach go down? Are the new brand profiles going to be similar to brand pages on Facebook? Is pay to play going to be on Instagram as well?

Tim is the founder of Element33. A social media agency specializing in education, management and strategy for small businesses. He comes from a traditional marketing agency but has embraced all things digital. He considers himself a marketing nerd and believes that all marketing is tied together. This means no matter what silo you are in, social, email, seach, etc, changes in one will affect the other!

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