Instagram Algorithm Update: Will UGC Downgrade? What about brand marketing?
Recently, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, updated his personal account with a video introducing the new features of Instagram. The video announced a total of 3 updates, namely: product tags, enhanced tags, and ranking algorithm optimization.
Mosseri said that these three updates are all to better empower creators and help creators get the rewards they deserve on the Instagram platform. From the perspective of brands’ marketing on Instagram, among these three updates, especially the update of the ranking algorithm, brands need to pay extra attention.
Because the ranking algorithm determines the direction of traffic, the ranking algorithm can gain more exposure. Then let’s first interpret Instagram’s update to the ranking algorithm.
1. Instagram’s ranking algorithm update
Without divulging too many details, Mosseri said Instagram's ranking algorithm will give more value to original content. This means that content created and posted by users themselves will get more recommendations on Instagram than reposted content.
Mosseri also emphasized that, especially in the creation of Reels, Instagram hopes that those original creators can get due rewards (such as traffic and financial rewards).
But because the video content is too broad, this update will also raise a principled question: how to define original content?
Is it the first content posted on the entire network, or the first content posted on the Instagram platform?
Is the content only published using the native features of the Instagram platform, or can I upload edited content?
Mosseri admitted in the comment area that Instagram has not been able to determine whether the content is original or not, but comprehensively judges it through certain conditions.
In March of this year, Instagram clearly stated that it must avoid posting content that is obviously (that is, containing a watermark) repeated or reposted from other platforms. That is to say, videos with watermarks from other platforms (especially TikTok) will be downgraded;
Instagram will check the characters posted in the past videos of the account. If the protagonists of the uploaded video content are all different people, it is easy to be judged as a "content farm", and it is considered to be "reprinted" and "content aggregation". Accounts and videos will also be downgraded;
Judging directly from the release time, this method can only identify the duplicate videos on the same Instagram platform, the earliest release is the original, and the later release is the duplicate.
At the same time, Mosseri also emphasized that Instagram's originality ranking algorithm is still being optimized to better combat content aggregation accounts and encourage creators who insist on originality.
2. How do brands respond to ranking algorithm updates?
From a platform point of view, Instagram has implemented the key direction of its first year release, which is to vigorously support "creators". Therefore, by rewarding the original author in terms of ranking, it is an inevitable choice to reduce the right to reprint and duplicate content.
But it has a negative impact on the brand. For example, what about the UGC marketing that brands commonly use on social media?
In a UGC marketing data report by visual merchandising firm Stackla, nearly 80% of respondents said UGC had a big impact on their purchasing decisions — an influence that was 8.7 times higher than that of KOL content, and more than that of brands Content has a 6.6x higher impact on consumers.
Therefore, many brands will also actively collect users' UGC creations on social media, and actively forward these UGC content to their homepages for display. For example, we have studied brands such as Xiaomi, DJI, and PatPat that build fan communities to increase stickiness, as well as brands such as Snapmaker and Chuangxiang 3D that need to use user works to display product characteristics. UGC marketing is indispensable. important part.
Well, under Instagram's new ranking algorithm, brands directly reposting the UGC content that users have posted on the homepage will obviously affect their content rankings, and even the homepage weight. what to do?
Our advice is that brands can transform the way they think and approach UGC marketing with two other new features on Instagram.
- Product labeling function: The product labeling function means that users can directly mark products in their own posts, and support the function of jumping to purchase. On Instagram, the feature is often used by KOLs to tag products they collaborate with to promote. Today, Instagram has opened this feature to all Instagram users, which means that any user can tag products in their posts, even if they are not KOLs and have little influence.
Brands can consciously guide users to mark their products in original posts and give certain rewards, so as to improve the ranking and exposure of their brands and products through the original posts of every ordinary user.
- Enhanced tagging function: Instagram users can tag other users in their posts, which can increase the linkage and exposure between accounts. The updated "Enhanced Tag" function, in addition to displaying the user name of the tag, can also display the tags that the user has set for himself on his personal homepage, such as composers, food bloggers, photographers, etc.
Using this feature, brands can co-publish original content with creators. For example, post a beautiful picture on the brand homepage, and use the enhanced tagging function to tag the photographer of the picture; for example, post a short video on the homepage, and tag the starring and photographer of the video, both the brand and the creator. better cooperation channels.
3. Dos and Don’ts for Brands on Instagram “Originality”
In addition to bringing more collaboration and inspiration to brands, this algorithm update also brings some limitations. For example, Instagram does not disclose "the same account, whether the content first published on Instagram is considered original content?"
For many brands of overseas social media marketing, it is a routine operation to simultaneously publish the same content to different platforms. So if there is no guarantee that the content will be posted on Instagram for the first time, the best way is to publish different content on different platforms according to the characteristics of the platform.
However, for brands that have established a social media matrix and need to manage a large number of social pages simultaneously, how to save time and effort to customize original and first content for Instagram has become a problem.
Marketing Cloud is a global social media data marketing management platform that can help brands manage cross-platform and multiple overseas social media accounts on the same interface.
Especially when it is necessary to publish different content for different accounts, the "smart posting" function of the marketing cloud background can quickly switch the platform and homepage that the brand is managing. And on the aggregated posting page, Marketing Cloud also supports online translation of posts, regular posting according to different time zones, and direct preview of post posting effects.
By mastering platform algorithms and using new platform functions, brands can avoid more risks on social media and gain more exposure and traffic.