Jules Lund, former SCA presenter and founder of social influencer startup Tribe, has built his business around Instagram, so the new changes to the algorithm and any other future changes may make a difference, but he's not concerned.
Why you should love Instagram’s change
As an influencer, I get it. You’re angry. You put loads of energy into your content and you want the tribe you’ve cultivated to enjoy it post by post.
But since you don’t pay a cent to use Instagram… suck it up.
Focus on the positives. Here are five that come to mind:
We’re in the box seat
Traditionally brand accounts on Instagram attract lower engagement than yours, therefore they’ll now appear in less feeds.
Guess who they’ll be scrambling to collaborate with?
You.
Just don’t be a dick by promoting brands you don’t already love.
Rise of the citizen influencer
Influencers will now be rewarded for their engagement, not their audience size.
And since citizen influencers with less than 100,000 attract higher engagement than celebrity influencers, the most effective campaigns will be those made up of dozens of micro influencers rather than one big one.
From zero to hero, my friends.
Content will improve
Now that it’s a game of engagement, you’re only as valuable as your last post, so stop collecting followers, and focus on engaging the ones you’ve got.
And beware, that if you throw up a crap post because you haven’t done one that day, your average will be penalised.
Quality not quantity. That’s better for everyone.
Your followers will soon be worth more
As has been the case on Facebook for years, the size of your following is less relevant. In exchange, Instagram will soon release detailed insights so you can validate the location, age and gender of your audience, making them far more valuable to a brand who’ll pay a premium.
Your followers will increase
Users can now follow without fear, so your audience will continue to grow.
By the very nature of following more people than we unfollow, we have become hoarders, to ensure we don’t one day look at our feed and see garbage. We can now continue to follow more accounts, knowing that we’ll only be presented with the content we love. If you want more from a person’s account, click through.
By Jules Lund, founder of Tribe.