Instagram Introducing Favorites and Following feature

Chronological view:

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and the feeds’ algorithm sorting is all over the place? Showing old or random posts from people you do not follow?

Well, now you can control and choose the content you would like to see on your feed. Instagram is working to enhance your experience by showing the reels, videos, and images that will be of interest to you first. The update allows you to choose two ways to view your feed and catch up on posts only from accounts you follow – Favorites and Following.

The ‘Favorites’ feed contains content from accounts you do not want to miss out on. You will get to control which accounts appear on this feed; however, you can only choose up to 50 of your favorites’ accounts. The ‘Following’ feed shows posts only from pages you follow in a chronological order.

While there are these two new features, Instagram is keeping the “Home” feed as the default choice; it will show more content and recommendations from accounts you do not follow based on your interests. Giving users the option to curate or customize their feed will add a positive experience to using Instagram.

How to switch between Favorites and Following feed on Instagram:

1. Click on ‘Instagram’ on the top left corner of your home page.
2. You will see two options ‘Following’ and ‘Favorites’.
3. If you choose ‘Following’, you will automatically see all the recent posts from the accounts you follow.
4. If you choose ‘Favorites’, click on “add favorites” to select the profiles of people you would not want to miss out on their content.

Implications for businesses:

Now, the new update is a success for user experience as it allows the users to view their feed in the way they like. However, will the update be a good thing for brands and businesses?

• If most of the audiences choose to opt for the ‘Following’ feed and not the ‘Home’ feed, brands and businesses will have to choose the timing of posting carefully, making it difficult to achieve organic engagement.
• The content with good engagement most likely will not go viral since the posts will not depend on their performance, but rather on their timings. Knowing the right time to share content for the target audience will become more crucial; that is to ensure that they see it. If the targeted audience does not use Instagram often, the chances of them viewing posts will decrease. Similarly, if they follow many accounts.
• If followers of a particular brand only navigate Instagram through the ‘Favourites’ feed option and do not add that brand to their list of favorite accounts, they will not be able to see that brand’s content in that specific feed option. If a high percentage of followers adopt the same way of exploring Instagram, the brand’s content will lose out on overall engagement and reach.

Suggestions:

• The way to possibly fix that is by having the brand produce content that is engaging, entertaining, informative, and valuable enough for users to add the brand to their ‘Favorites” list.
• The brand can make use of the ‘Favorites” feed by forming a list of accounts that are relevant to them such as compatible influencers, related brands, publications, and competitors and consistently interacting with them to increase engagement. This approach can also help in community management.
• One way of guaranteeing the brand will reach the audience after the update, is by increasing visibility with ads. Boosting the visibility of relevant offers, new launches, and important announcements will lower the risk of users not adding the brand to their ‘Favorites’ list. Aggressive marketing and advertising for the target audience to include brands to their ‘Favorites’ will be needed.