Everything you need to know about Instagram’s news feed changes

If you follow me on the ‘gram, you’ll have already seen the announcement I made a few days ago about the changes to time feeds on the platform.

Instagram has recently introduced two hotly anticipated news feed features, which are designed to give you tonnes more control over who and what you see when you log in for a scroll.

There are now three options in total:

1. Home

This is the default option – the one you’ve been using recently, up until now. It displays content based on your habits within the app, so the more you browse and engage with what you see, the more recommendations you’ll get from the algorithm. Basically, Instagram’s AI will build what it considers to be your best possible feed.

2. Favorites

Favorites shows you the latest content from the accounts that you want to see more from, like your family members, best friends, and your go-to influencers. Posts from the accounts in your Favorites list will also show up higher in your Home feed.

You can only add 50 accounts to your Favorites list, so get shortlisting! (But don’t panic if you want to make changes – you can add or remove accounts as often as you like, and the account holders won’t be notified about what you’re doing.)

3. Following

This feature quite simply shows you posts from the people you follow, in chronological order.

This is how Instagram was, back in the day – it always used to present you with the content from the accounts you are following as and when those posts were released. It’s probably the most straightforward way to stay up to date with everything that’s happening in your virtual world! 

How do you access these news feeds?

To keep your experience fresh, you can toggle between these feeds whenever you like.

Just tap on the Instagram logo in the left-hand corner of your app and select the feed you want to try. 

Why has Instagram released these features?

These features have been in the works for a while. We knew at the start of the year that Instagram was planning to bring back its chronological feed, but with a few tweaks. In an official newsroom post, the company says that it’s “always working on ways to improve [the] Instagram experience”, and it wants to “help make the time you spend on the app feel more intentional”.

How will Instagram’s news feed features affect your marketing strategy with this platform?

When people log in to their Instagram account, they will still be shown the Home feed as standard. Unless they manually update their feed view, nothing is going to change for them.

So, I don’t think you will need to dramatically adjust the way you market yourself just to continue reaching the same audience.

And the thing is, even if your followers do choose to change their feed, there’s absolutely zero you can do about it – it’s up to them.

You might want to encourage your followers to add you and/or your business to their Favorites list. But as I mentioned above, users only have 50 Favorites to play with. I don’t know about you, but I can think of more than 50 friends and family I’d like to add to this feature before business accounts!

As long as you’re creating consistently good content that captures your readers’ attention long enough to stop their scroll, you’ll be winning regardless of the feed you’re appearing on.

My biggest piece of advice would be to look at your insights to see when your followers are online, so you can try to hit their chronological timeline while they’re likely to be active.

Which feed will I be using?

Great question! And the answer might surprise you.

For now, I’m going to stick with the Home feed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? It gives me everything I need, and it’s comfortable and familiar. But that’s not to say I won’t check out the other options from time to time, because I’m interested to see how they might change my experience of Instagram.

Which feature are you keen to try? Which feed feels more interesting or useful to you? Let me know on Instagram or drop me a message – I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

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