Instagram Just Changed Everything: Series Content, Adam Mosseri's Algorithm Update & What Creators Need to Do Next

Speaker A: Happy Monday. Instagram is testing a new type of content and it is going to change everything. And I know we say that a lot, but this one's for real. And then we're going to talk about Adam Mosseri's cryptic post on Instagram. I don't know if you saw it, but it was kind of random. We need to talk about it. So let's get into it. Hey, friend, are you serious about growing your business using the most up to date social marketing strategy, as well as getting your mindset right and your business systems and strategies in order? Well, I've been helping entrepreneurs grow businesses for more than a decade, from mindset to money systems to strategy, and of course social media marketing and marketing that actually works. I'm Michelle Gifford and this is the Social Strategist podcast. Let's get to work. Welcome, my friends. I'm excited that you're here for another Instagram update. This is where we are talking about what is happening. There's always some Instagram news, always things changing and I want to be able to deep dive and talk about a. Okay, yes, they're changing, but what does this mean for you and your Instagram strategy? Because things change so much. I want you to not get so overwhelmed by all of the change. And I want there to be a place where we can really talk about it and dive into how this affects your Instagram strategy and what you should be doing right now. Just today I was scrolling on Instagram and one of my favorite creators, she's one of my favorite people. It's. Her name's Hayley from Bones and Builds. She started on Instagram just a few years ago actually. She did a. She did the Real Love Challenge with me. She had like 300 followers and she did it, committed to it, continued on with it, and now a couple of years later, she has over 750,000 followers. She's making huge brand deals. She's been in one of my coaching groups and she is just so fun to watch. And I was scrolling today and I saw that People magazine Instagram account featured her because she has done a series where she's building a kid playhouse neighborhood in her backyard. So she, she's going to Facebook marketplace places or garage sales. She's finding these old tree houses and bringing, uh, them to her backyard. And she's built this whole neighborhood that her kids can go and play in. There's a post office. It's just really magical. And she has been doing this series for a while and now it's getting more and more Attention Instagram account picked it up and they were sharing it and I'm like, this is so brilliant. We have been talking about building series content for a long time. Probably the last year it's really been taking off. And I love to see how creative people are about things. And especially Hayley, she knows what she's doing and she is very good at keeping people's attention, paying close attention to analytics and doing things strategically and in a really fun way. So she deserves all the love, all the views, all the things that she gets. But it really leads into something that Instagram is testing right now and it's series content. Now this has happened where you can link a reel to another reel and that is kind of a type of series content. It's helpful, you know, those kinds of things. But what Instagram is testing right now is kind of like Netflix style series where you can intentionally set up episodes and set up a series so that people are viewing your content like they would a show, you know, tune on Netflix or whatever, and they're watching a show and they can go down a series and this will be in the reels feed. So it'll be more powerful because it's something that people can see and start watching and binging all the way through without having to go search for things. Because right now people are doing series and you have to in some ways, like mark that this is part of a series. And so you can do that with like a thumbnail or something. But now these will be connected so that when someone can come to your account, look at your series and just like watch them all the way through, this is going to be really helpful for tutorials or for story content. Just a few months ago, they made it so that you could watch your reels and Instagram content on your tv. And I thought that's really interesting. But it really is a peek into where things are going because I don't know, I have teenagers and some preteens and they really want to watch YouTube shorts all day, right? They love YouTube shorts and they can watch it on their TV. I really picture that kind of thing is what it's going to be like for you, right? And Instagram wants to be more like that. So they are testing these series content and they're letting a few content creators try it. And I suspect that we will be getting this sometime in the future. Now let me tell you some other things that are going on and then we're going to talk about what this means for you and how you can think about this going forward, because TikTok just announced that they are partnering with Sundance. So, you know, the Sundance Movie Festival, but they are partnering together where they're going to offer some training to some people. I think you have to apply. And it's a micro series storytelling program. So they are going to choose some people that are creators and they're going to teach them script writing for micro series. This is wild. And there was just a TikTok micro series that just went live and it has millions of views already. And this is just the way of the future is picturing yourself as your own, like, media channel. So that's what's coming. And this. Don't feel overwhelmed by this. But this is actually, to me, sounds kind of fun and easier to think about because for a long time we've been thinking about we just have to choose our pillar content. And I have tried to teach this. I've taught this in different ways to different people. And people always, like, kind of look at me like, what is it? What are you talking about? And I know you know in conceptually what I'm talking about. And I've tried to say, like, hey, picture it like a house, right? So you have four pillars that you have to hold up the walls, right? So you have like an overarching roof. That's like your overarching message. So my overarching message is I want to help you grow a successful business on Instagram. So Instagram strategy, right? That's my overarching message. Now if I just put that out there and I don't have any pillars to hold that up, then it crashes, right? So then I come up with three to five pillars that hold up that route, hold up my main message. So that can be Instagram news and updates, it can be Instagram strategy, it can be quick content creation, tips and motivation. Okay, those are my four pillars. It's saying, like, this is my overarching message. And here are the sub topics that we're talking about. And still, I think people struggle with figuring out what are their pillars and they can get stuck a lot of times. And so I've been thinking about this series content and like, what if instead of thinking about it as you're creating content in pillars, thinking about it in channels, like a, uh, TV channel. So let's picture, your account is like hdtv, right? And it has different TV shows, right? And so what if you decided, okay, like, I am hd, which means I. My whole channel is about interior design, you know, fixing up houses. Okay, then what are the different television shows that I want to do. So for me, let's say that my channel is growing on Instagram, right? One of my series could be Instagram News and Updates. And I would just think of that as like, okay, if what would someone tune in for every Monday? What would someone tune in for? And what would they need to see to get hooked and want to listen to everything, right? And then I could say, okay, like, great, now what if one of the TV shows is, for me, is all about Instagram strategy and, like, deep diving in how things really work and how to apply it to different types of businesses? Okay, now listen, this is basically saying the same things as my pillar content, but I just am wondering if you kind of shifted and said, okay, series are going to be a big deal. So how do I make content that isn't just, like, attached to a pillar, but is attached to the content that comes before it? You're doing episodic content, so maybe you can build something, right? Tell a story. Just like Haley from Bones and Builds was telling the story of, like, hey, I. I have a goal. My goal is I'm going to build this magical backyard with all of tree houses, and I'm going to take you along because I only have one. And this is how I built it. This is how I changed it. This is how I renovated it. This is how I'm sticking it together. This is how I'm building a bridge with little trolls from Frozen on it. It is fantastic. You need to go look. But if you just start looking at your pillars as things that you need to connect together so that it is a series like it's a channel, like it's a TV show, it could change how you show up. It also changes how your content is viewed because you don't have the option to do, like, series yet. That hasn't come to you. That's not a thing yet. But it really could be, right? It could be very soon. And if you start thinking about your content that way and know that that's. That's how Instagram is kind of pushing things. And I think Instagram is going. Anyway. Now we're getting into the Adam Mosseri post, but he posted on Instagram, I'm gonna read it to you. Cause it's kind of, I don't know, I find it pretty bizarre. And it's fine, Mosseri, but it doesn't give a ton of explanation. I'm gonna read it. It's not that long. So here it is. As, uh, software gets better at, uh, predicting what we want, our Sense of agency smaller the main feed on every major app is now mostly Accounts you never decided to follow surfaced by algorithms rather than your explicit choices. TikTok built its main feed on this model from day one. YouTube made the switch in 2016. X and Threads followed in 2023. Instagram moved more gradually starting in 2020. The model worked. These apps would be much less important without it. Recommendations surface things you wouldn't have thought to look for in feeds that would otherwise have gone quiet. Personal moments moved to stories and DMs years ago. A feed where 1 in 50 friends posts a polished moment is not interesting. Recommendations filled the gap. Who you follow used to be a meaningful tool for shaping your experience. As recommendations took over the main feed, that tool quietly stopped working. The conversation with the algorithm became one sided. It learns from what you tap, watch and share, but you don't really get to tell it what you want. I think this loss of agency is part of what people feel when they feel uneasy about social media. Not the content itself, but the sense of the experience. Experience is happening to them rather than by then being shaped by them. You can't have agency over a system that lacks an interface, you understand? Ranking systems have long represented content as embeddings, a kind of map where similar things sit close to one another. But to the system, that map was just numbers. In the caption it says, today we're bringing your algorithm to the main feed. You can now see the topics we think you're interested in and change them across all the major parts of Instagram. Some thoughts on agency, algorithms and where this is all going in the slides. Let's break down what he is talking about. He's saying a lot of people are feeling uneasy about social media because there's a lack of agency. And this is true because now it's no longer like, you follow me and so you're gonna see my content, right? That's not true anymore. And because of that, the worth of a follow is a lot less than it used to be. Because you could follow me, never see my content, never engages my content. Because the algorithm is looking at how you're interacting with the content. If you interact with it, you engage, you stick around, you watch, then it's gonna give you more of that type of content. For example, today I was looking for a specific fashion account that I follow because someone had asked me about someone who was doing substack really well and I was like, oh, I follow this girl and I was trying to find her. So I went to the search And I was typing in the keywords that I thought she'd be under, and because I kept searching for that content, and then I was engaging with that content. Now more of my feed has a lot of fashion in it because the algorithm is taking cues from my. From my engagement. So now we know how the algorithm. So it doesn't matter as much who you follow. It's how you engage with content. And so that has completely changed things. Now, this is exactly how TikTok started, and then YouTube and then Threads. And Instagram has been moving gradually towards that. The other social platforms have been doing this for longer. And this is a good thing. I know we hate it, but we've got to figure out a balance here, because there are a lot of accounts, there's a lot of content that will. If we were fed content from only the people that we followed, we probably wouldn't be on Instagram as much. And maybe that's your goal. So you wish that that would happen. But Instagram really wants to put content in front of you that you will enjoy, that you'll watch, that you'll stay on the app for. And so recommendations is actually pretty powerful. And as a business, it's a good thing because your content can be seen by people who don't follow you. Yet I have people that I see their content all the time and I don't follow them. And I didn't realize I didn't follow them because I interact and engage with them. And then I was looking at it, I was like, oh, I don't even follow this person, but I see their content all the dang time. And so there's a lot of power in that, because as a, uh, creator, you could have 10 followers, and someone could have 10 million followers. And you with 10 followers, if your content is good and proven and people engage with it can get pushed out so much bigger than it could 10 years ago. And that's a. So it's a really good thing. There's some equality that it brings to creators. It's not just about the big creators anymore. It's like, do you create good content? And it's also tricky as a consumer because you're not seeing the content that you choose. And yes, you're choosing by your engagement. But you know, when someone follows you, they're voting for you, right? They're like, oh, I want to see more of this content. And so that's what he's breaking down here, is that it's good. And it also takes away some of the user's agency. And then he also talks about how personal moments have moved to stories and DMs years ago. And if you think about how you interact with your close friends and sisters or your mom or whatever, it's probably because you saw a piece of content, you shared it in the DMs and it made you laugh together, right? It's this shared moment of consumption and laughing about the same thing. And then I see it from a personal standpoint where my husband will see a reel and then he'll share it with my girls. And now they have some shared language where they can say something that they think is funny. And I think that's what's happening, is we're using this content to connect because we no longer have five television shows, right? There used to be when there was less choice, everyone was watching the exact same things, right? Because that was the only choice. And now our attention is so fragmented that we are always finding these ways to connect because we're humans, we want to connect, we want to build these relationships. And so we've taken this fragmented content system and we found a way through DMs and stories to connect it so that we can have these shared moments with each other. That even though my sister lives in Farmington, Utah, and one lives in North Logan, Utah, like, I can share a reel with them and we can have a joint reaction and that can connect us, and we all thrive and we all crave that. And so that's why we've moved our personal things to stories and DMs. So the last slide. It says, ranking systems have long represented content as embeddings, a kind of map where similar things sit close to one another. But to the system, that map was just numbers. So one of the things that's like, super interesting is I've talked to Meta people before. Like, people at Meta have called me up, we've chatted, and it was fascinating because I realized that they really don't know exactly, like, how the algorithm works. Now, of course they know how the algorithm works, but there are some things about the algorithm that they're like, they can't necessarily pinpoint. Like, why did you get shown this piece of content over this piece of content? There's some magic that's happening and it's responding to your engagement and the types of things. And like it says here is that the ranking systems have represented content as embeddings, a kind of map where similarly similar things sit close to one another. So if you like surfing videos, then you might beach volleyball. I Don't know. That's not truth as far as the algorithm goes. But those two might be close to each other. If you've watched surfing videos, then it might start feeding you the next thing that's close to surfing videos to test to see if it's something that you want. And the thing here is it says but to the system, the map was just numbers. And I think Mosseri is trying to really, Instagram is trying to bridge, to make this bridge of like, yes, we need recommendations, otherwise people wouldn't be here and stay around this long. And people do want to have that control. And once you lose that control and agency, then we start having this discontent with the content and with the app. And I mean, I read some of Adam Seri's comments to his posts and I'm like, wow, people are real angry with Instagram and I get it. But as AI gets stronger and as people get stronger opinions and want stronger connection, it's going to be really interesting how this shakes out. I think it all really builds upon each other. So now you can go and you can look at your algorithm and you can see what the algorithm, what is being fed into your algorithm and you can make changes and you can choose. And so that was the whole point of his, as of his post is like, hey, we want you to have some agency. We don't want you to feel like you can't do this. And so that's the whole point. So I want you to go figure out, look at your algorithm and see if it's what you like. So to do that, you're going to go to your reels icon at the bottom and then up in the right hand corner there are two lines with two hearts and that is your algorithm. So you can check there. And when you do that. So mine says lately you've been into making engaging content, figuring out effective online strategies and using humor to skewer the norm what you want to see more of. So then it gives me a list of things that I can add to my algorith. So it says what you want to see more of based on your activity, summarized by AI. So it gives me a list of content creation, mindfulness, AI and business. And then it gives me some options of things that I might want to add to that. And then I can. And it says what you want to see less of. So I can click the plus sign and I want to see less of fitness. I don't know, whatever I want to do, you can type it in. So that is one way that you can alter and change your algorithm. And it also gives us a sense of like, based on how I'm engaging with Instagram, this is what Instagram thinks that I want. And so I think that's a valuable thing. You can also, if you have some creators, um, that you really love, then you can go and make sure that you get updates from them. And so that's a really powerful thing. So, okay, so we have the coming of testing series content. I do think that's coming. It's already being tested, but I do think it'll be laid out because TikTok's already gone in that direction and Instagram's usually a few steps behind, but they do catch up. And then we have Mosseri talking about the algorithm and figuring out what your algorithm is. So those two things. And really, people want connection, period. Like, people want connection because of AI and how things are, people want connection. So one of the biggest and easiest ways for you to do that is to start looking at your content like a series. And that series can be storytelling. Ah, uh, man, it's huge. And think about like, okay, maybe you're doing some kind of fitness journey, or maybe you're trying to be more mindful, or maybe you are want to get more houseplants and you keep adding a house plant to your whatever, like fancy plants club. I love Dana. She's also been in one of my groups, but like, she has one where she is making different, like DIY plant accessories. So start thinking about how can I tell my story or tell a piece of my story so you don't have to make all of your content like your fitness journey. But you could say, okay, this is going, I want not, you know, every Monday I'm going to talk about my fitness journey and I'm going to talk a little bit about lenses for a second. So the way I look at it is a lot of people ask me like, I want to talk about this, but it's, I want to talk about fitness, but my account is about business. And it's all about the lenses that you put on your content. So if you are a business and you're teaching people how to run businesses, but you want to talk about fitness, then you put the lens of business over fitness. Okay, so instead of being like, I want to get a smoking hot body and you can follow my fitness journey, because that would be kind of random. So we're going to put the business lens on it and say, I want to be the best CEO and leader that I can be. And the only way to do that is make sure that I take care of myself first. And so I am determined to get healthy. And I'm going to take you on this journey where I'm going to show you what I do to embody the CEO life. Okay? And then you can do that. You can talk about what you're eating, you can talk about how you're sleeping better or the exercises that you're doing, but you're always doing it through the lens of what your niche is. People get a little bit crazy about this, but if you can figure out the lens thing, then what it does is it allows you to talk about what you want, but always brings it back to your niche. And the reason why we want to do that is we have to make it very easy for people to understand what we're doing, why they should follow us, because it's really too confusing. It's. If you don't. People can't interpret things. You have to just tell them and make it easy for them to understand. This was awesome. It was a lot. But I am going to put a reel out about these two things, and this podcast, I'm able to talk to a lot more about it and go into depth, because I don't. I don't know. I just feel like sometimes we talk about all the changes and you're not given a chance to, like, hear how I'm thinking through these changes and how they connect and what it means for us going forward. So your assignment today is to test out a series. And the way that you're going to do that is you're going to go back to your content and you're going to see what things are people really responding to and how can you repeat those and duplicate it. Obviously, you're not going to copy the same thing, but how do you turn that into a series? Or you're going to look and say, what am, um. What story could I tell right now? What is something that I'm working on that I could bring people into? And then you're going to test out some series content. And one other option is that you're going to think of a tutorial or a series of tutorials that you can start teaching. I just want you to choose one of those. Okay. And start testing out series content. Because when you do that, you're going to be ready for when the series stuff hits. And you'll have tested things out. You're ready to go. And whether you get the series content tomorrow or in a year, you're going to be ready because this series content, whether you have that function or feature or not doesn't matter because serious content is doing super, super well right now and I want to see you grow. Now listen, if you have not joined club 10, will you do that? Right? It is my membership where it's going to help you get your next 10,000 followers. It's going to make posting really easy. You're going to know what to post. I'm going to send you the hooks, the prompts, all of the things that you need so you don't have to stress out again. So I'm going to leave a link here or you can go to iamichellegiver.com Club 10, come join us and we'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Michelle Gifford podcast. Remember, we need you fully, wholly and unapologetically as you are right now. So, so let's get to work. We write it down.