On April 20th, the Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) posted a video to his Instagram feed which explain some of the algorithmic changes for the coming year - and it was GREAT news for marketers!
One of the major reasons for this is because reposting content will no longer be rewarded. This is really significant, as even though re-sharing is a proven and incredibly popular option for brand growth, marketers will need to pivot their strategies based off of these new changes.
The key for marketers is that original content will be prioritized! The new rankings system will be based off of "originality" according to Mosseri. A quick breakdown of what this looks like:
Everyone will get access to both enhanced tags and product tags!
Original content will rank higher than re-posted content
Watch the full announcement below!
Our takeaway quote from @Mosserri's video was: "If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you're re-sharing something you found from someone else. We're going to do more to try and value original content more, particularly compared to re-posted content."
There are a lot of positives to come out of this - both for marketers and users alike. Aside from the fact that it will be updated over time to better define "original", users don't want to see their feeds cluttered with duplicate content, they want to see fresh, new content - and this update will ensure that users see much more new content as opposed to re-posts!
This is also good for marketers because on the surface, if a marketer goes to the lengths to create a piece of original content from scratch, they should absolutely be recognized and rewarded for that original piece of content and be ranked higher than someone who is re-sharing the same content. These updates get better because let's face it: as marketers, we know how annoying it is trying to get your content in front of people who have the same tik-tok video re-posted 30+ times on their Instagram account.
This will also help to crack down on the number of aggregate accounts on Instagram that do just that - just repost others content. These accounts may even end up disappearing over time as they may become completely ineffective as further updates are implemented.
These updates might be most exciting for content creators however, as when people would re-share your content, they would receive the benefits such as views, likes and shares. Now, with the new updates, the original poster (in this case, the content creator) should receive the majority (if not all) of the benefits!
To Recap
The shift Instagram is taking towards original content is going to achieve the following:
Reward original content in the rankings
Give everyone the use of product and enhanced tags
Penalize aggregator accounts
REMEMBER, your content strategies may need to change as a result of these updates - if user-generated content (UGC) is not as successful, marketers will need to pivot to other forms of UGC that will work better than reposting!