Taking a page out of Facebook’s “book”, Instagram has updated its news feed algorithm. Earlier this week, they announced that posts will no longer be in chronological order. Instead, they will be based on the user’s interest in the content, relationship to the person posting and the timeliness of the post.
INSTAGRAM ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS
According to Instagram, the move is just a way in order to improve a user’s feed. Although it’s really just a way for Instagram to control ad content. Facebook has done the same thing with great success, but that announcement wouldn’t necessarily go over well with the media. CEO of Instagram said that 70% of posts are missed on the news feed. They are apparently set on making the 30% you do see, the best possible content possible. While that may be true, monetization is certainly a large contributing factor.
FACEBOOK IS GETTING TOO BIG
Facebook, has been consistently growing at a rate over 40%. Like anything that starts to become too big, maintenance becomes an issue. In order to feed the monster, Facebook needs to produce another $2 Billion in growth next quarter and then another $3 billion in this quarter next year. In layman’s terms, they need to step up their game. That game will heavily involve some of the companies they own, such as Instagram. By monetizing those companies, they will see a great deal of revenue come in. While money is certainly good for the companies, will it affect the quality of social media?
MONEY WILL BE THE END OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Like all good things, social media will come to an end. In many ways it already has. Facebook is far from its original incarnation. While still a social media site in technical terms, it’s the main direction has gone from users to money. Lately, thousands of brands have infiltrated social media as a way to monetize. As a result, profits have gone up, but the quality of content has gone down. This trend is nothing new. The battle between creativity and business has been a long one and it’s rare the two ever exist in harmony.
