{"id":102276,"date":"2016-03-18T18:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/small-businesses-fight-to-keep-instagram-chronological\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:40:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:40:36","slug":"small-businesses-fight-to-keep-instagram-chronological","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/small-businesses-fight-to-keep-instagram-chronological\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses fight to keep Instagram chronological"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small business owners and independent traders are up in arms over Instagram\u2019s decision to \u2018do a Facebook\u2019 and move towards an algorithm-based news feed. In the past 48 hours well over 144,000 individuals have signed a Change.org petition<\/a>, campaigning to keep the popular photo-sharing network chronological. More than 70,000 signatures were collected within the first 24 hours of the petition going live, from Instagram\u2019s impassioned community, and the number is continuing to rise at a pretty fast rate. A boycott of silence is also running today. The petition letter reads in part… \u201cWe believe an algorithm-based feed will be detrimental to small business owners and artists who use this platform to communicate their products and services. Not to mention the communities that have been built within Instagram.\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s feared small businesses, who receive relatively small (but critical) levels of engagement, will get buried by the \u2018power users\u2019 who can amass 1,000 likes within seconds, just for a selfie. Instagram has become an important platform for sole traders particularly, giving them a place to showcase their work and build a loyal following of customers. For many, it helps to drive revenue. The algorithm change could have a massive impact on the number of people who see their posts, and therefore their business, moving forward.<\/p>\n

So why the change?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Instagram is owned by Facebook, so it makes sense that it would eventually follow a similar trajectory with its news feed. Instagram explains within its official statement: \u201cThe order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you\u2019ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post. As we begin, we\u2019re focusing on optimising the order \u2014 all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.\u201d<\/em> According to Instagram, people miss on average 70% of their feeds, and so the move, it claims, is in the user\u2019s favour. So in one respect, it will mean that users only see posts from brands and businesses they care about, creating more of a level playing field between the big guys and the independents. In recent months, Instagram has become increasingly commercial with the number of brand sponsored posts with news feeds rising, so potentially the move towards an algorithm will offset that trend. But really, it seems pretty obvious that Instagram is following in Facebook\u2019s footsteps, limiting organic brand reach across its platform, so that only the paying brands will be seen. At its heart, it\u2019s a money-making initiative, in which small businesses may be the hardest hit.<\/p>\n

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