Instagram boss Adam Mosseri offers key insights into his platform

Sahail Ashraf posted on 23 June 2021

Adam Mosseri, Chief at Instagram, recently offered some useful insights into how marketers might get the most out of the platform.

In the last few days, Instagram held a special Creator Week panel series, which was a great way to bring together Influencers and experts around the platform and it’s marketing uses. The panels have been successful, and have focused on key issues such as making best use of the platform, the algorithms and how they work (especially important to marketers) and plenty of other useful topics.

On June 10th though, Adam Mosseri was talking. The top guy at Instagram had some amazingly useful nuggets of information to share with the audience. We thought we would summarise just a few of the takeaways here.

No guarantees on stable reach

Mosseri was quite blunt. He said that Instagram simply cannot guarantee stable levels of reach. The reason he put forward was pretty simple. Algorithms are constantly changing, he said, and reach would therefore also be constantly changing too. 

What this means for creators (which the panel was basically about) is that they cannot rely on stats staying the same. A wise creator will simply accept this and expect to see fluctuations on a regular basis.

Video still reigns

Mosseri spoke about how video is very much still a great medium to use on Instagram. The first two seconds are the most important, because they hook viewers and then keep them (if they are a good two seconds of course). He also spoke about hashtags, and how they still have a very valid place on Instagram for marketers. 

Postage rates came up, and Mosseri said that two feed posts per week and two stories per day was a good rhythm to keep. 

Reels

Of some controversy is the current delay in the rollout of Reels. Mosseri shed light on the matter by stating that music licensing issues were at the root of this problem. We can expect this to be improving shortly.

Monetisation

He touched on monetisation. Firstly, he spoke about direct payments for creators with gated content, subscriptions, badges and tips, and how he wanted to explore this avenue a  little more so that creators can monetise, as well as foster good relationships with fans.

Reels looks like it could be next on the monetisation list as well. Any models will most likely be centered around revenue share, but we will have to wait and see what Instagram comes up with there.

Followers

Mosseri made it clear that you shouldn’t buy fake followers. Several factors are influencing Instagram’s detection systems, and buying followers puts your account at risk. According to Masseri, Instagram’s detection systems are getting more sophisticated.

In addition, Mosseri describes what, in his opinion, TikTok does better than Instagram. Mosseri says TikTok is a more reliable platform than Instagram for discovering new talent, as well as providing reliable entertainment, for now:

“You know that you can tap on TikTok and you’re going to immediately smile and be entertained.”

A final point we thought was useful was centered around verification. This prized social media asset was briefly discussed by Mosseri. He said that verification was primarily based upon press mentions, so from a marketing point of view, that’s something to think about.

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