Did you know: the average Instagram user only sees 30 per cent of their newsfeed? As social media continues to evolve as a business tool, Instagram (conveniently owned by Facebook) is likewise making large strides to adopt the business-minded algorithm that Facebook newsfeeds adopted years back. With this in mind, here’s why the new algorithm is going to affect you and your brand a little more than you think it might:

You’re going to have to try a little harder

Any savvy Instagrammer that you currently follow – businesses and brands included – will be battling it out to be categorized in the aforementioned elite 30 per cent. How do you do this? The answer’s never as straightforward as you’d like, but the bottom line is that you simply need to generate more appealing content so you don’t get buried in the other 70 per cent. ‘Likes’ and comments matter now more than ever.

So how does this affect the once-authentic (and chronological) nature of this image-based platform? Plenty if you ask John Mayer…

Turning post notifications on may not be the answer

If you haven’t been living under a rock the past week, you’ll have definitely come across brands begging their followers to turn post notifications on in light of the new algorithm changes. But, as a business, is this really your best and smartest option?

Asking followers to turn notifications on is a big ask and it puts the pressure on you to deliver. If people start to get flooded with too many notifications, the quick fix is – you guessed it – to turn those notifications off.

The short answer to keeping people engaged with your page is simply to create engaging content that entices people to ‘like’ and comment on. Unfortunately for content creators, this probably means extra brainstorming hours, but if you keep people coming back despite the new algorithms, you’re golden. Just remember: quality > quantity.

The “Golden Age of Advertising” is now

Advertising on social media doesn’t carry the same stigma now that it did when it was first introduced on Facebook, then Twitter. There’s a reason you’re starting to see more sponsored posts on Instagram these days – it pays off.

And, thanks to the new Instagram algorithms, you’re seeing ads from businesses that are deemed interesting and relevant to you based on the people you follow and things you like on Instagram and Facebook.

As a business, considering advertising buys on Instagram isn’t a sign of defeat. It’s a means of generating engagement from an audience that is hand-picked to fit your target market. The ads are also unobtrusive meaning they look just like any other shared image or video. So, while you may be seeing less organic reach in the future, you’ll at least be seeing more lasting engagement.

So, for now, we’re saying goodbye to the chronological Instagram newsfeed users have come to know and love and embracing (or at least trying to) its new algorithms. Above all, keep calm and don’t turn on post notifications…just yet, anyways.

Tags: digital marketing, digital media, Instagram, instagram algorithms, social media

Social media is central to many of our campaigns at Peak. We consume news about the impact these channels have and apply our learnings to client projects.

If you’re still struggling to get buy-in on social media, this list of 30 facts provides useful need-to-knows on why engagement is important.

Did You Know?

1. Over 75 percent of all internet users use social media (source: Makeuseof)
2. 71 per cent of women use social media compared to 62 percent of men (source: SearchEngineJournal)
3. 91 percent of brand mentions on social media come from people with fewer than 500 followers and 94 percent of those mentions are positive (source: Business2Community)
4. 21 percent of consumers will unfollow brands that post repetitive or boring content (source: Social Times)
5. 89 percent of 18-29 year age group use social media (source: smallbusinesscan) and 84 percent of C-level/VP execs use social media to support purchase decisions (source: smallbusinesscan)

Facebook:

6. Facebook accounts for 21 percent of all social media referral traffic globally (source: TechCrunch)
7. Facebook drives 23 percent of all traffic across the internet! (source: Shareaholic)
8. 189 million of Facebook’s users are ‘smartphone only’ (source: wersm)
9. 23 percent of users check their accounts at least five times a day (source: SearchEngineJournal)

Pinterest:

10. 80% of pins are actually re-pins (source: Mashable)
11. Shoppers referred to a site from Pinterest are 10 percent more likely to buy (source: Socialmediatoday)
12. Pinterest referrals spend 70 percent more money than visitors referred from non-social channels (source: Socialmediatoday)
13. Pins with a call to action increase engagement by 80 percent (source: Socialmediatoday)
14. 80 percent of Pinterest users are women; 50% of all users have children (source: Socialmediatoday)

Twitter:

15. The fastest growing group of new users on Twitter are aged between 55 and 64 years (source: wersm)
16. 65 percent of users expect a response on Twitter in less than two hours (source: SearchEngineJournal)
17. 88 percent of Twitter users are on mobile and 500 million tweets are posted each day (source: Jeff Bullas)

LinkedIn:

18. LinkedIn has nearly a quarter of a billion users (source: smallbusinesscan)
19. Only 20 percent of LinkedIn users are under the age of 30 (source: SearchEngineJournal)
20. 40 percent of B2B buyers say LinkedIn is important when researching technology and services to purchase and 65 percent of B2B companies have acquired a customer through this channel (source: business2community)

Instagram:

21. More than 70 million photos and videos are sent daily (source: Hootsuite)
22. 53 percent of internet users aged 18-29 use Instagram (source: Jeff Bullas)
23. Instagram is considered the most important social network by 32 percent of American teens (source: Hootsuite)
24. Among top brands Instagram has been adopted by 85 percent (source: Hootsuite)
25. Brands on Instagram are seeing a per follower engagement rate of 4.21 percent – that’s statistically 58 times higher than Facebook and 120 times higher than Twitter (source: Hootsuite)
26. Still photos are more popular on Instagram than videos – generating 36 percent more likes (source: Hootsuite)
27. Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6 percent more engagement and posts tagged with a location receive 79 percent higher engagement (source: Hootsuite)

Google+:

28. 18 percent of marketers plan to increase efforts on Google+ this year (source: SearchEngineJournal)
29. The +1 button is hit 5 billion times per day (source: Jeff Bullas)
30. Google+ has more than 2.5 billion users but only 10 percent are active (source: smallbusinesscan)

Tags: facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, social media, Twitter