The Latest Instagram Updates for 2021: Are You Up For the Challenge of Change?
It’s not a bomb, but Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri certainly dropped something on the first day of July 2021. “I want to start by saying we’re no longer a photo-sharing app.”
So what was your first reaction upon hearing it? Did you need your chill pill to catch up? Oh, did you remember all your hard work for your content, years of curating your feed, time spent engaging with fellow users? Or were you slowly haunted by the fear of what will happen and how to adapt to the seemingly huge changes about to take place? This statement made by Mosseri undeniably had people all over social media flustered. Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app, but will it completely stop the sharing of photos feature? Certainly not. But Instagram will become an entertainment app. Now we need to understand what that means, and maybe consider a few different perspectives on this matter that’s upsetting so many users.
The New Experiences in Four Areas
Let’s hear their side, once again. As stated in the first part of Adam’s video announcement, the app will be focusing on four primary areas - creators, videos, shopping, and messaging.
Instagram is working to shift power from institutions to individual creators. You may want to consider that now for it surely has huge impacts, whether you’re an individual content creator or a business owner making the most of the platform.
Videos are to prevail too. But will it be like Tiktok? We could discuss this later separately and in a broader sense. Shopping and messaging triumphed greatly when the pandemic happened. So introducing a new shopping and messaging experience for the users is no surprise, to be honest. Most start-ups and small businesses thrive on the platform, and it will be more of a benefit for them than a disadvantage. For individual/overall users, online commerce will take a major role in the next normal, the post-pandemic world. Wouldn't you think Instagram will let go of the promising opportunity that they already have with the shopping and messaging features? Instagram is a business. Simply put, they want profit.
Why Videos?
Whether we accept it or not, Instagram does not exist to serve us. They are here to earn profit and they will continue to do so as long as they want it. Today, videos immensely bring revenue to social media platforms. Data and the numbers won't lie. No matter how much users react to an upcoming change, facts are still facts. From a business perspective, a company will not simply sit around and wait for its customers to change their preferences. The usual and sane thing to do is to adapt to changes. That is what Instagram is doing. They cannot remain solely as a photo-sharing app. Because in the first place, Instagram never started as a photo-sharing app. Just try to remember its very first brown logo inspired by a polaroid camera and the filters we all fancy a decade ago! The creators only wanted to produce Polaroid-like photos on mobile phones. Instagram only evolved into becoming a photo-sharing app upon positive reception from users.
But come to think of it, videos are motion pictures, right? We all loved this platform serving our love for sharing life through pictures for the past ten years. But as the planet evolves, we as humans also do. Our needs and wants change, and before we know it, the shift that we’re not yet aware of is already changing the narrative. So who’s ready for more videos on another social media feed? Will there be dancing videos of all sorts in our feeds for the coming months? We still can't answer that now.
Afraid of Experimenting
We might be stuck but don't know it yet. It might be the users’ boredom that made Instagram's revenue go lower than other social media competitors. If users really enjoy pictures alone, why is Tiktok’s revenue double of Instagram’s? That’s why this CEO of a billion-dollar company fearlessly announced that they will be experimenting in the coming months. Accused of not wanting to listen to their users, Mosseri openly shared the company’s desire to experiment on what to do next. It isn't, after all, a giant and solid move they wanted to take. They are still trying to consider how users will react. No one is still certain if Tiktok entertainment will flood Instagram as well.
Are You Up For the Challenge of Change?
What shall we do if we can’t transition to videos? How about photographers and artists niching on the platform for a long time already? How do we upgrade our content to keep up with Instagram? These may be some questions most of us are asking now. And together with the leaders and creators of Instagram, we will discover the answers in the coming months. This is today, and this is happening now. All we really have to do is to adapt and embrace the challenge!
This may be the opportunity to finally discover why our number of followers is not increasing significantly. Like Tiktok, maybe we need to engage our accounts publicly. Maybe we need to entertain those recommendations and dive into the trend so we can produce better content. Maybe it’s the change that we never know we need. So whether you’re an individual creator or a business/institution, just do what you do. Then add extra work on keeping up and creating your future video content, as soon as you can. Change is uncomfortable, but focus can be an antidote to it. So keep your eyes on the goal and continue shooting for the stars! You may also want to start shooting clips now.