Instagram Will Focus on Video to Draw Young Users Back in

As Instagram works to keep up with consumer trends, you may start to notice that your main feed is a display of image posts, Stories, Reels, and video content, all featured in a full-screen swipeable feed, similar to TikTok. This is a move to win back users who have migrated to the popular video app. While Instagram has not confirmed this strategy, media outlets like Social Media Today are speculating that this is the direction the app is moving in.

As mentioned, the popularity of TikTok is becoming more and more of a threat to Instagram, so its parent company, Meta, is scrambling to adapt to keep users on their platform. What will this fight for consumer attention look like?

While we do not know for sure, it is clear that the current structure of the feed will be phased out. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has previously mentioned a variety of changes. At the beginning of the year, Mosseri announced that Instagram was looking to merge its current video tools to reduce confusion in the app.

As explained by Mosseri:

“We’re looking about how we can – not just with IGTV, but across all of Instagram – simplify and consolidate ideas, because last year we placed a lot of new bets. I think this year we have to go back to our focus on simplicity and craft.”

Sure enough, in November, the platform announced the merger of its video feed posts into a single format, retiring the IGTV brand. Instagram has also introduced 60-second videos in stories, meaning that feed posts, Stories, and Reels all have the same video post length.

Now, you can post full Reels in Stories and share regular video posts as Reels. All of Instagram’s video features are now completely streamlined.

Recently, the platform rolled out longer videos in Stories, bringing all of its video formats into line. With these changes come major shifts in social media marketing strategy. If social media video has not been a priority for your business up to this point, it is now time to start making this a focus of your 2022 planning.

This is a big change for the app and it will not please everyone, but these updates should be expected. Mark Zuckerberg has explained in his reasoning for its shift:

“…this will involve tradeoffs in our products, and it will likely mean that the rest of our community will grow more slowly than it otherwise would have. But it should also mean that our services become stronger for young adults.”

Some older users won’t like it, but the company is ready and willing to take that risk to win over the younger crowd that has collectively shifted their attention to other apps.

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