Instagram Has A Problem, Facebook.
The hand that brought Instagram to global notoriety is also the hand that is quietly killing them.
Let’s take a step back and say, in general, social media has a problem, it’s defined by Insta — excuse me Facebook. In the year, 2019, there are so many other social platforms doing amazing work to build real connection and value, yet all that continues to grab consistent headlines is the buffoonery happening within the walls of Facebook.
In our society perception is quite frankly king and none of the positivity platforms like Pinterest, VSCO, LinkedIn, etc, promote, matters. This is where the real travesty rests.
When I think back to the seemingly horrible 2018 calendar year from Facebook, these few headlines come to mind:
Public perception of Facebook has continued to plummet (albeit through Facebook’s own doing) with what seems like mistake after mistake, month-over-month. So, is it any surprise that the once cavalier platform, Instagram, now run by them, is quickly gaining negative sentiment.
Five months ago Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger stepped down amidst warring tension with Mark. The news sent ripples through the social media community as many other early employees of Instagram started leaving as well. Their movement officially stamped the dawn of a new age for the social platform, on in which Facebook no longer had to hide from the shadows and pull strings, they could, now, openly do so.
If you think back to roughly September, the time it was announced the founders would be stepping down and really let your brain take it all in, do you remember where the engagement was? Where your engagement was?
If you don’t I challenge you to do an experiment and go check and track it against what it is now.
It was waining, yes, but it wasn’t at the near catastrophic levels of today.
For me, from September — December I had roughly 2970 followers (I eventually got all the way to 3040 and have proceeded to continue to decline and decline since late November — January to my lowest point of 2950).
From an engagement level I received, easily, anywhere between 160–300+ likes on any given photo or cinemagraph posted. Back then posting consisted of knowing the right hashtags where the audience would appreciate the content, because they could actually see it. Now-a-days, not so much.
Now, in late January, I, not only have continued to decrease month-over-month, since the founders left but also I have lost significant engagement and struggle to gain likes above 90. It’s alarming for me as I have relatively the same number of followers and the content being produced is a higher quality that those posted 4 months ago.
Analytics on the platform don’t quite make as much sense as they use to, especially when it comes to the significance of the same set of hashtags “blowing” up in terms of impressions (but not at all leading to a ratio of engagement that makes sense) yet underperforming in another use case.
Or, even the limited impressions hashtags provide in general now thus making them slightly irrelevant but “important enough” for Instagram to recommend using to grow a brand or business.
As a social strategist it’s my job to stay up to date, constantly, with this ever volatile world and I suspect that a lot of this decline after the founders left hasn’t just affected me, but millions upon millions of users worldwide.
In this farewell post Kevin writes “Mike and I are pleased to announce that Adam Mosseri, our current Vice President of Product, will become the Head of Instagram starting today. We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity — as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community.”
The funny thing about this caption is Adam (FB appointed VP of product) and the team at Facebook had already been “Heads of Instagram,” the moment they bought IG. The plan was always to turn a fun startup into a piece of a machine built for scale. They ran into the same problem most startups run into — to quickly scale is to sell your soul to the devil. Point blank.
Mike and Kevin were the purveyors of a quality product and experience. They and the close team they had built cared about the user experience, simply to help people have an avenue to share. They didn’t care as much about the money and that showed, especially in the beginning.
They didn’t do everything right but there was a general sense that they cared for this platform, treated it with respect, because it was their baby. One that they had created with a purpose outside of just monetization.
Since their split engagement has slowly been bled dryer and dryer by the Facebook team. I truly believe that the founders of Instagram were the last gatekeepers in upholding the platform to a somewhat fair standard, while allowing creators to reap the rewards of putting good content out there.
Now that they are no longer there, the focus has drastically shifted to monetization and implementing the key features that have worked within Facebook and/or testing new features that can then be brought into Facebook.
This, in hindsight, may actually be one of the many reasons they left. Facebook’s bloodthirsty quest to scale at all costs has lead to the detrimental need to monetize screen-time by creating algorithms that, “show you content you ‘want’ to see.” This algorithm has created many problems but the two that really bother me are these
- ) Algorithms are really a means to improve a companies ability to make money from two stand points, research/development (whether that is to sell data from the learnings of algorithms to third party company’s and brands or improving their own platform so that you can stay on the platform longer) and ads, in which the longer amount of time you spend on a platform matters so that advertisers can reach you. Now, couple that with insights companies can get while the algorithm is learning about you, results in ads that are more effective and may lead to you purchasing more.
- ) Agorithms create known echochambers which, in our society today, is proving to be more and more dangerous. If you like something a few times the agorithm will continue to show you exact copies or things like that. It all sounds fine and dandy but how then are you suppose to learn and grow and understand all that is out there when you are seeing cat videos all spread through your feed because you like a couple funny ones a week ago. The irony is that algorithms force you into a box of your own design instead of actually helping you discover new things that you like.
Now, while part of me was shocked & upset by the news that the founders were leaving, the other part always knew this is where the end of the road would lead.
This new direction has caused friction internally resulting in people speaking out. One of the best articles I’ve read in recent months came from a woman by the name of by Elizabeth Dwoskin for the Washington Post. This article featured Bailey Richardson, one of the 13 original Instagram employees, starting back in 2012. It was incredibly well written and shared amazing insight into the growing rift between Instagram & Facebook employees.
Over time it became clear that Instagram was no longer to act as an independent entity but as part of a larger conglomerate.
There are so many good lines from Richardson, like this one
“In the early days, you felt your post was seen by people who cared about you and that you cared about.”
How true does that ring now, in the wake of all the algorithm nonsense. It has gotten so bad Instagram has had to take to Twitter in order to make public announcements in an effort to ease the furied minds of their audience.
Not for one second do I believe this. Using my own account as well as my knowledge into the industry, I know for a fact that posts that you like or engage with don’t always appear where they should like how they would like to have you believe.
Furthering this point, Instagram itself has admitted to this
Instagram is aware that its software was offering up too much celebrity content and content from people with large followings at the expense of posts from people who users know personally
Although they have taken some steps to try and rectify the situation it is still rampant.
A quick Google search of IG’s algorithm will result in the top 3 articles
People are growing incredibly frustrated with the platform as 2019 continues to roll along. Everyone knows there is a problem but Instagram won’t admit it, so no one knows what to do. It’s impossible not to notice all the changes. So, we stick with it because we don’t have a choice, but I promise you, whenever the next best choice becomes available (and it will eventually) people will flock to it in droves. A war is waging against Facebook and people will use any and every excuse to leave the platform, if given a good one.
The sad part is that, all of this is just the beginning of what once was “the darling” of the social media world becoming more and more repulsive; the tool has been hijacked for monetization to cause our minds to get “hyped up” and overstimulated, but there are people who see it. People who don’t accept it. And people who just won’t stand for it anymore.
For one me, possibly you, and a few of the original members of what used to be an amazing platform for all.
“It feels like we’re all addicted to a drug that doesn’t get us high anymore,” she said of the decision (to quit instagram). “So I wanted to make space for something that really does.”
Written by Charles Etoroma
Website: Charlesetoroma.com
