Instagram is making some new creator-focused changes to its platform, which Instagram head Adam Mosseri said was meant to “ensure that the credit goes to those who deserve it.”
The new content consists of three changes: Product tags are now available to everyone, so you can tag products in your posts; you can assign yourself to categories like “photographer” or “rapper” Show this category when tagging you in a post; Instagram will start promoting original content heavily on the platform.
“If you create something from scratch,” Mosseri said in a video explaining the new feature, “you deserve more credit than re-sharing what you found from someone else. We’re going to try and do more to try and value original content, especially compared to retweeted content.” Of course, valuing original content is nothing new, but Mosseri says Instagram will lean more in that direction.
translate? Please, please, please stop posting your favorite TikToks to Reels. We are begging you.
new function
We’ve added new tagging methods and improved rankings:
– product label
– Enhanced tags
– Originality ranking
Creators are very important to the future of Instagram, and we want to make sure they are successful and receive all the credit they deserve. pic.twitter.com/PP7Qa10oJr
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) April 20, 2022
Meta has made it clear that it sees Facebook and Instagram as the creator-centric platforms of the future, rather than tools for people to connect with friends. So both platforms have invested in shopping tools, ways for creators to build audiences, and many other things they hope will entice creators to stop being TikTokers and YouTubers and start being Instagrammers and Facebookers.
Scrolls in particular are at the heart of this work. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the short videos “our fastest growing content format to date” and they’re now available on Facebook and Instagram. But anyone who has used Reels knows that it feels like a copy of TikTok, often the same content that has just been republished from elsewhere – the TikTok logo, etc. What is one way Instagram is suppressing this practice? Bury it in the rankings. That’s exactly what Mosseri seems to be aiming to do.
As for how Instagram will determine what’s original, Mosseri only says it’s hard, “we’ll iterate over time.” This change can be a huge problem for aggregator accounts, many of which are very popular sources of memes and trends but are often accused of stealing content and credit from creators. Mosseri tweeted: “As we move more and more toward recommendations, it’s increasingly important that we don’t overestimate the importance of aggregators, which are bad for creators, and therefore long-term for Instagram.”
Pushing original content on Meta’s social offerings is nothing new, nor is it that the most popular stuff on Facebook and Instagram is often copied. Meta’s platform has the largest audience, but TikTok, Twitter, and other platforms are often where new memes and trends are created. If Instagram and Facebook are going to be successful creator platforms, they’ll have to figure out a way to turn things around. Starting with turning its most powerful knob — the ranking algorithm that determines what billions of people see every day — is a very serious first step. Another idea is to pay creators more, but given that Meta appears to be cutting back on its Reels payout, that might not come anytime soon.
