What Instagram’s algorithm change means for journalists

Reprinted from GateHouse Newsroom

It didn't take long for celebrities and influencers to start freaking out after Instagram announced it would move to an algorithm-driven feed last month.

The feed would work similarly to Facebook's algorithm, meaning that users wouldn't be able to see all posts from friends or people they follow. Instagram wrote in their blog that the feed would be rolled out slowly with a lot of user testing and feedback.

Nevertheless many celebrities and influencers started encouraging users to subscribe to their posts in order to not miss any updates, according to a post on Re/code.

If your newspaper has an account, should you encourage your followers to do the same? Not so fast, social media experts said, referencing Instagram officials saying the changes would happen slowly.

The New York Times quoted a spokesman that no feed changes have been made yet in an article on March 30.

No one knows what the changes means yet, but experts said the move was made to make room for more advertising and it to make promoted posts more effective. Ad week reported that engagement on Instagram dropped between 2014 and 2015,  and that users also miss 70 percent of posts in their feed.

If Instagram wants to continue to grow its audience and engagement, a change was inevitable, but it's too early to speculate on how to change one's posting approach.

If you are a newspaper or journalist using Instagram, keep posting engaging content, and consider posting more of it, as many users are already missing your posts. Most importantly, be sure to differentiate your content on Instagram from Facebook or Snaptchat as often as possible and post unique perspectives from your place in the community you cover.

Looking for more Instagram best practices? The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Marshall has some good tips here, and here are some best practices from American Journalism Review.

Penny Riordan manages digital content partnerships for GateHouse Media. She works out of the Center for News and Design in Austin, Texas. Prior to joining the company, she worked at Patch.com for four years, where she led social media, blogging and UGC efforts for the company. She also launched a Patch site in Maryland. Riordan also has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Maryland and Connecticut.