Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / NEW Instagram Algorithm Explained

Transcript

NEW Instagram Algorithm Explained · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:09
  Hello. Good morning. Good evening. Good morning. Oh yeah. Good evening for me. Good morning for you. How's it going?
• 0:16
  How is it going? It is going well, you know, just chipping away over here, slow and steady. How is London? I feel like it's so sunny at the moment and all my friends who are in London are having the best time because the weather has changed. It's true. It's a special thing here when that happens. You know all about that. I also feel like sometimes like you guys have a bad, like, I mean, I say you guys, but this is my own personal experience. Most summers...
• 0:47
  Like, I feel like more than not, more often than not, summer is not the best. But like 2020 was an absolute banger. And last year was an absolute banger. And I feel like the vibe is that this year it's going to be good. Oh, I like that. Let's make that happen. I have to say, I also, yesterday I would open my Instagram and start looking through stories and saw these bright, sunny days. And I was like, oh, it's probably going to be amazing. But I was in London yesterday and it was very gray.
• 1:17
  So it's a bit of a grass is greener situation. Don't worry. I think Sydney is still relatively lovely. Yeah, I feel like anytime I see content at the moment from London, I think it's like always looking good. But anyway, you know, classic London. Let's jump into exactly what you just mentioned. Let's talk about bloody Instagram because... Bloody Instagram.
• 1:39
  I feel like I'm a bit out of the loop and you're obviously very much in the loop. For anyone who doesn't know, Josephine is our Instagram gal. She is our go-to woman on Instagram. So if you ever have engaged with us there or messaged us there or consumed our content, this is Josephine. And...
• 1:59
  Let's discuss what is up. What the hell is going on with Instagram? What's the update? What is up? So yeah, listeners are probably very aware that there is some serious buzz going on right now about a new algorithm and a lot of changes happening on the space. And a bit of a background to that. Algorithms essentially determine what kind of content that we see on there. So how often it appears on our feed.
• 2:26
  how we're ranking and how our content is shown to other people. And much to our frustration, frustration of the community, just when we have these figured out, they seem to change. Dang it. They are always changing. And they actually change a lot more often than I had realized before I dug into this. But it can be multiple times a week.
• 2:50
  They are always changing and evolving and keeping up to make sure that they have a system set up where we are spending the most possible time on their app.
• 3:03
  And what is different this time is that the changes are so significant that the head of Instagram, Adam Moseri, he's actually been talking on Lives. He's been posting reels about the changes that are happening and kind of stipulating what a huge change this is going to be and what a big announcement this is. And I think for that reason, the community is taking it a lot more seriously than these other changes. Okay. So what does this good guy, Adam, have to say? Good guy or bad guy? Yet to be decided. Adam. Adam.
• 3:33
  Adam is a good guy and a bad guy. And I think overall, I'm feeling positive about these changes. Obviously, a large part of our mission here at Female Starter Club is that we want to champion creators and people creating original content and people, you know, hustling to put their ideas and work out there. And that is essentially what he claims to be the biggest goal from this algorithm change.
• 4:04
  So I've seen it essentially broken down into like two big changes that I can see. And that first one is that positive one that we just touched on. So we are going to be seeing increased reach for smaller creator accounts on Instagram. Yeah.
• 4:20
  And the way that they're going to do this is they're going to change the way that the posts are going to be ranked. So what would happen previously is that your posts would be shown within your followers primarily, unless you put ad spend behind them and then they were shown to a wider audience. Instagram is now adopting a bit of a TikTok style approach where your posts, your original posts are going to be shown to a small selection of non-followers as well as followers.
• 4:50
  And depending on how they do within that pool, it will be sent to a bigger pool of, say, say you start with five non-followers. It performs well, you get shown to a pool of 10 non-followers. It does well, you get shown to a pool of 15. So that provides that opportunity to go viral to unknown markets like we've seen with TikTok. So this is very much kind of a TikTok approach, which they've definitely taken directly from there. They all love to copycat each other. Exactly.
• 5:19
  Exactly. I wonder how they'll react. So it's basically like now, even if you're just starting a new account or you've got minimal followers, you'll still have the same opportunity as someone who has a bigger following to kind of get your original content seen.
• 5:38
  Buy more people. Exactly. So huge win. Huge win for small creators. People that are just starting up. Okay. People that have a small following. I have like 700 million questions.
• 5:50
  Hit me. Let's go. But I'm going to wait until you give us the second half of the update because it might already answer my questions. So let's just see. What's the second part of the update? Okay, one more part on this one is that, I mean, when you see how the community is reacting to this, a lot of people are not happy. Oh, okay. So if you check out the comments underneath Adam or Zeri's posts, everyone's saying, great concept, love the idea. Yeah.
• 6:19
  But I'm not seeing this reflected in any of my stats. And the same is happening within our community. Okay, this is where I was going. Exactly. So a lot of people within our community are saying, okay, this is great. I am seeing more non-followers.
• 6:34
  reach my content and that those numbers are slightly increasing. But none of my followers are seeing my content anymore. So I think this is going to be a bit of a case of, as with anything new, there are going to be growing pains. It's going to take a bit of time to get this figured out. But I would say that right now we are not yet kind of seeing the huge benefits that this should theoretically be offering. Which brings us to the second big change.
• 7:03
  This one is super important and is really going to change the game for a lot of people on the platform. And that is, I touched upon this already, that the algorithm will prioritize original content. So this is anything over aggregated content. So if you look at our account, we have a mix of both of these. So we'll create some of our own reels from scratch.
• 7:29
  We'll use audios, we'll use B-roll content, and we'll use different audios, then we'll create that entirely ourselves from scratch. However, we also have a selection of our content that's aggregated content.
• 7:42
  So we'll take content from small creators, female founders, credit them and repost that to a larger audience and to get larger reach for that piece of content. That's where a huge change is going to jump in. And so what is considered original content?
• 8:01
  As in like, my question is like, let's say, because we post a lot of meme content, right? So like, let's say you post a video from the Met Gala and you've put the meme text on top. So technically it is aggregated, but then there is a twist and it becomes original to us because we've put the FSC kind of touch. Is that considered original or is that considered aggregated? Yeah.
• 8:26
  Our memes are safe. Phew! This is great news. I know, because I was so worried about this. I love that for us. Especially for you, the meme queen. Yeah, I love these. I love these. It would have been such a shame. And I also think there's an art to them. There is an originality to taking a piece of content, crediting the original, and also creating something new out of it. So they have already come out to say that memes are safe. Yeah.
• 8:51
  Any content that's significantly adjusted or repurposed to essentially create a new art form will be safe. And this can also look like a reaction video. So kind of those videos that you stitch together and you have a reaction at the end. Similarly, we'll post a lot of reels where the caption has changed and we'll add some stickers on the reel itself. Still credit the original creator. These should also be safe.
• 9:21
  The thing that's still very much in question is how Instagram is going to decide which is the original post and if that's actually by the original creator. Because if you look at Instagram's current kind of content moderation system, it's not the most reliable thing in the world.
• 9:40
  You hear of some ridiculous cases of people's content being banned or blocked or being deemed inappropriate when there's absolutely nothing going on in the picture. So I think there's a bit of a worry out there of original creators not being credited to their original work and someone else maybe reaping those benefits. And also, like, what if you've created the video, but then you repost your own video?
• 10:06
  Mm-hmm. And he has come out to say this, that this should apparently be fine. Because you're the original creator, it will be credited back to your account, and that connection will be made in the back. But another thing, this seems so technical to me that I can't imagine that flowing so easily, but we will see. What will apparently happen...
• 10:27
  is that if you do post a piece of unoriginal content, so you get a reel from another creator, you repost it, that post will not be recommended at all. Instead, the original piece of content will be posted in recommendations instead. That original post will be ranked up in the algorithm to start performing better. So it will essentially be replaced by,
• 10:54
  by the original creator, which I think is great. The original creator will get a notification saying, you have been deemed the original creator of this content, and they will see more reach coming towards them directly, which is also theoretically a great thing. The technical part behind this is that if an account repeatedly posts, reposts, and they've put a limit to this to 10 plus times in 30 days,
• 11:24
  So if you're posting 10 or more times in 30 days, that's direct repost, content from other users that you didn't create, then all of your content is going to be completely removed from recommendations. So your reach is going to completely plummet and will only become eligible again after 30 days. If within that period, you don't penalize again. So you're really punished. Mm-hmm. Serious stuff. They're like, listen, do not do this. Exactly.
• 11:54
  So let's talk about collab posts because what if, like, for example, we just did a partnership with Thinkific. So it's me and the recording. It's original content that we've co-created. They've posted the content. And I think we did like a triple collab post where it was Female Setup Club, my personal account. But it's coming from their account. Are we all equally, you know, the original creators? Yeah.
• 12:20
  Yeah. Okay, right. So there's a huge opportunity here for people to capitalize on collab posts even more. Ooh, okay. So they want the collabs. They want the collabs. And another thing that's been mentioned is that carousels are also a way to kind of get around this or kind of use this to your advantage.
• 12:51
  style of content I'm talking about. The videos, kind of the reaction videos we have with... Last week we posted Anna Wintour. And we have a little title on the page. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Essentially saying what the video she's talking about. This will still be considered original content. Got it. Okay. Because we've created our own cover and our own title. And then after that, we've credited the creator of that original second video. Got it. And so...
• 13:21
  Hang on. I've got many thoughts. I've got many questions. What's the impact been for us? What have you seen on our account? I have seen our reach has definitely plummeted. I think this month compared to last, we're down about 24%, which is not great. I think we're in a funny situation where we have both a mix of original content and aggregated content.
• 13:47
  A big change in our strategy. Yeah, we need to like switch our strategy as of tomorrow. As of tomorrow. And that's also a big reason why we're recording this episode today. So a peek behind the curtains for people listening. Thank you. Well, for everyone listening, we have not discussed this yet. I have not received this update. This is all new information for me. This is the information being transferred right now.
• 14:13
  Right now. And we have our very own algorithm crisis session on Thursday morning. Got it. And we just thought that after sitting through kind of all the overwhelming information out there, we thought we might as well jump in here before, chat through everything. And we absolutely recommend everyone doing a similar sort of crisis session and reflecting on their strategy because a lot of things are going to be changing.
• 14:38
  Yeah, I feel like I've already noticed it on my personal account too. Not that I'm like such an avid poster compared to what we post on Female Startup Club, which is obviously multiple times a day. But for me, yesterday, you know, we did the collab post and it immediately tanked.
• 14:54
  And it's such a post that usually would have performed. So it's just really telling that it didn't. And, you know, when you look at the insights, it just didn't go anywhere. And I was like, but why? I don't know. I'm also wondering, is it reels? Is it not reels? Is it back to pictures? Is there a recommended style? Or is it? Reels are still very much all the rage. Okay. And the opportunity to get the greatest reach out there.
• 15:25
  What I find difficult at the moment is that a lot of the things they're saying is just not being reflected in people's experiences. So the post that you posted yesterday, it was a personal story. It was 100% an original post. And like you said, it was something that would resonate really well with our audience. The thing that I think might happen there is that it's being pushed to more non-followers.
• 15:51
  who don't know who you are and don't know your story and therefore don't have the same invested interest to like and engage with that post. And therefore, it's nice. The context is, there is no context, really. Oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I can see that now.
• 16:09
  I also saw, I think I might have even sent it to you, I saw a video that Rachel Peterson did where she was saying they're also looking at introducing another new pay-to-play model. Is that also part of this announcement or is that a separate thing? Separate thing. And I think we should definitely record a separate episode on that in the future. We can circle back on that. Exactly. Let's circle back on that. That's not for now. Because there's so much to unpack.
• 16:37
  Okay, so basically what we're saying, it's already started, right? Like the algorithm has changed. We now need to make, you know, immediate moves to change the content strategy. Exactly. So a lot of places say that since the 30th of April, these changes have been implemented. I think Adam Mozzeri himself said that officially from summer. Yeah.
• 16:59
  which is nice and ambiguous, especially considering everyone in the world uses this app. But I think we can act as if it's definitely changed. I definitely feel changes in the algorithm and most of the users seem to as well. I have a list of about three things that I think
• 17:19
  People can start actioning right away today already and start actively thinking about from kind of a practical standpoint before their crisis meeting even kicks in. Oh, hit me. So number one, a lot of the information out there is stating that you should make sure that you have a professional account and within that specifically a creator account.
• 17:44
  So under the professional umbrella, you can be a business, you can be a creator. There's a couple of different options. A lot of these changes seem to be geared towards helping creators and helping small creators grow. So a lot of the narrative out there is make sure you're a creator account because it seems like... I'm checking mine. Wait, how do we check it? Okay, I'm in the settings. For real, that pops up. Well, it was so loud. Yeah.
• 18:12
  Okay, so, okay, I'm in settings and privacy. Am I going to account center? Am I going to business tools? Am I going to? I think account center. Let me have a look. Let's have a little look. I want to know, like, what am I? What am I? What am I? So it's account type and tools. Oh, okay. I'm in the wrong area. And then there should be a list of categories.
• 18:40
  Like, are we in settings and privacy? Yeah, in the little hamburger? Yep. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Settings and privacy, yep. Account type and tools, it's telling me. Okay, I also, I mean, I don't think I have that. And I also feel like my app isn't up to date. So I'm going to circle back to this. Yeah, I don't think we have this. So very much on the list for crisis meeting on Thursday. It's asking me to set up right now.
• 19:09
  Oh, okay, great. Fine. All right. So basically you need to have a professional account. So it's going to be a business and then a creator underneath that. That's what you're saying. Within that specifically creator. Exactly. Number two, as soon as you can, really truly be consistent, both in the quantity that you're putting out there and in the messaging that you're putting out there. So at the very minimum, be posting daily stories.
• 19:35
  It's hard to have a break on the weekends, but if you can pop in and just post once and just keep that movement going and keep showing that you're very active on the platform.
• 19:47
  And just here before you go into the third one, is that like I read somewhere and I don't know if this is part of the new update, but is that like this whole strategy now where we're leaving the stories to go out, like to basically expire and then you post the story at the same time every day. And like instead of adding to it multiple times a day, which is very much my style, it's like, no, you post stories once a day.
• 20:11
  Exactly. This is kind of a side strategy related to this. A lot of people are seeing success when they let their stories completely run out. So let 24 hours pass after posting a batch of stories until your profile is completely reset and then post again.
• 20:30
  starting with either a question or a poll or something with a CTA where someone will action something. And you will see your views on your stories just skyrocket. And we've seen this ourselves as well. Yeah, big time. Amazing. Love that for us. Okay, cool. All right. Yep. Okay. And point number three, what's the third piece of advice? And point number three is start really thinking about creating a style for yourself. So what we can learn here is that individuality is rewarded big time.
• 20:57
  If most of your content is aggregated content, it's time to go back to the drawing room, rethink your style, start testing things out as soon as possible, see what happens, see what works well within this new algorithm and do not be resistant to change. So what I'm hearing is our strategy is about to change. Our Instagram is about to change. Exactly.
• 21:23
  Because a lot of people are saying, you know, I'm not getting any views on my stuff right now. This sucks. And of course it does. But I think the cold, hard truth of that situation is that it's a sign to change stuff up. We say this all the time on the show, but kind of adjust, pivot, action as soon as possible. You'll lose absolutely nothing by testing out a few different content styles and seeing if one of them sticks.
• 21:49
  And now's the time to start getting experimental and start getting serious about, you know, your personal brand and the personal feeling that you want to bring onto the platform.
• 21:58
  Wow, I'm excited. Hard truths. Dropping some hard truths here, some hard facts. But I'm excited for this change. I'm excited for us. I'm excited to mix it up and like go back to the drawing board. Exactly. And I think it's a good, it's always going to be a good thing when these things change up. I know we all like, I know myself, I hate change inherently, but I know it's a good thing. And this is the way that's just being forced upon us.
• 22:23
  Now, a big kind of resource recommendation is to keep following Adam Mosseri on Instagram. He directly replies. Oh, OK. How do you spell it? Let's have a look. Adam, M-O-S-S-E-R-I. We'll link it in the show notes as well. M-O-S-S-E-R-I. OK, great.
• 22:43
  He regularly reposts Ask Me Anything sessions and responses as reels, addressing a lot of questions that Instagram users have. And it's super interesting. The majority of the information from this episode has come from him directly.
• 22:59
  So it's a great resource to check out. Yeah, good on you. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate it. And what about for us? Are we keeping our community updated on the changes in the Facebook group? Or are we going to stick with maybe doing these updates on the podcast? Like, what's our vibe?
• 23:14
  Let's see what the response is to this. I think we've had a great response so far on Instagram. A lot of people got involved on one of our posts. So we'll definitely be reaching out to people directly who asked us to create this episode. Ooh, okay, great. Seeing what they think and whether we should keep this up. Yes, and you know what I'm just thinking? For our next part in this series, like this whole Instagram series, we should discuss should we have a broadcast channel? What has happened to Threads?
• 23:42
  And what Rachel Peterson spoke about. Because I feel like those three things are things that I'm curious about and have already been kind of like in my mind. And now that we know, you know, changes are coming, what do we, you know, what are the steps basically? I love it. I love this too. This was awesome. Thank you so much for all the updates. I'm excited for our session on Thursday. Our session on Thursday. Me too. Me too. Thank you. That's the pod. That's the pod. See you next week.
• 24:16
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 24:40
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• 25:03
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