If you’re a stickler for an Instagram update, you might be interested in the platform’s recent (Feb 2020) the announcement. Yesterday on Twitter, Instagram announced that users are now able to see which accounts show up in their feed the most, and which accounts they interact with the least.
This is an interesting move for the platform – but one that makes total sense – there are a number of ways users can use this handy feature to audit their own accounts and understand more about what they could be missing out on without knowing.
Firstly, from Instagram’s point of view, it shows users whose content they effectively like and interact with the most, which is something users are probably already aware of since it is based on their own actions. What is extremely interesting is, in fact, the ability to see who you don’t interact with, or whose posts you don’t see. Users can consider this in one of two ways.
Firstly, it might demonstrate old accounts that a user previously followed and are no longer interested in – so they can tap that unfollow button. This clears up their feeds but also gives Instagram a better understanding of what they are actually interested in (helping them target content more specifically, and cull inactive users from influencer’s pages). Whilst accounts may lose followers as a result of this feature, their audiences will be more specifically interested in their content, removing inactive or unengaged users.
Whilst at first, losing followers might sound like a bad thing, if accounts retain active, engaged users and lose unengaged users, their engagement rate overall will likely increase, as the people following their page are genuinely interested in the content they are putting out.
On the other side of the coin, due to Instagram’s ever-changing API, a lot of Instagram pages are no longer shown to users that often. By taking a look at the new following tab, people can get an idea of the posts they aren’t actually seeing. If these accounts are ones they are genuinely interested in, they may consider engaging more with the profiles, in order to ensure they see the content on their feed. It may also remind them of pages they liked and followed, but whose content they haven’t seen in a while.
We’re interested to see how much impact the Instagram following update (Feb 2020) has, as well as our audience’s thoughts on this new update, so let us know what you think in the comments below!