Instagram Changes: Oh, My!

Author: Kaitlyn Partington Category: B2B, B2C, E-commerce & Retail, Marketing, Nonprofit, Social Media & Digital Date: May 12, 2016

If you have an iPhone or Android set up to automatically update apps on your smartphone, and you have the Instagram app on your phone – then you may have noticed a small (ha!) change to your Instagram icon.

Or maybe you don’t even know where to find it…because it’s THAT different!

Well, Instagram rolled out a new logo yesterday, May 11th. And, it’s much different than before. Not only has the logo changed, but the design of the app has changed as well. Take a look at some screenshots of the old and new:

OLD INSTAGRAM DESIGN…with the blue bar, and the blue camera icon.

NEW INSTAGRAM DESIGN…it’s now a black and white monochrome design.

In addition to the Instagram logo, their collection of apps including Layout, Boomerang and Hyperlapse have all new updated logos as well. They all match…great job at branding, Instagram!

According to Instagram, this simpler look puts more “focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app.”

Recent Instagram Functionality Changes

In the last couple months or so, Instagram also rolled out some new functionality changes. In case you weren’t aware, Facebook owns Instagram. (Ah!) So, whatever changes you may see, are a result of a similar team to changes you might find on Facebook.

The most impactful change was the fact that Instagram announced an algorithm change to how users see posts. This means that your posts are not chronological as they were in the past. This is due to the fact that Instagram users have soared enormously in the past couple years, and users are now sometimes stuck looking at images they don’t necessarily want to use.

Although some were in arms about this, social media experts (including Paradigm) believe that this is a wonderful thing for the engagement of Instagram. As with Facebook, users are not shown the most appropriate posts specific to that user. Using all sorts of data, Facebook and now Instagram are able to show the poses users want to see first, resulting in a higher engagement platform. Eventually, you’re able to see other posts, but who really has the time to scroll through their entire Instagram feed all day? Remember Twitter? Do you see every Tweet in your feed? No, I didn’t think so.

Yes, as marketers and businesses this can be frustrating because you think fewer people are seeing your posts. And, they are. But, the people that want to see your posts (supposedly) are seeing them first. And, the ones who are less interested in your posts, but do follow you, may not see the posts unless they are spending their entire day on Instagram. This is what you want! It’s about quality…not quantity.

This brings us to the last point about Instagram advertising. I’m sure you’ve seen more sponsored posts now on your Instagram feed. And, as a business, you have the opportunity to pay to have your posts shown to the world. Or, rather, the target market that you choose. And, all good businesses find a way to optimize their profits. So, let’s applaud Instagram for thinking like a business. It is, after all, the fastest growing social media platform in the last two years.