ICYMI: Ranking Instagram's 9 New Updates
ICYMI biz: Last month, I launched a new series for paid subscribers written by some of the most trusted voices in the industry around their area of expertise. Kendall Dickieson kicked things off with How to Run a Social Media Audit. On Monday, fandom expert Dr. Georgia Carroll will explain the difference between fandoms and brandoms and share tips and case studies (hello, Taylor Nation!) for building successful brand-led communities. Look out for that Monday morning! Feedback needed: People really seemed to appreciate the ICYMI community “Voices” in Monday’s newsletter. If you have thoughts on how that should be incorporated as a regular feature, how often you’d want to see what your peers think, or to contribute next time, I’d love to hear from you 🙏🏻 ⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
💻 ROADMAP📲 Ranking Instagram’s Latest UpdatesInstagram staffers have been logging overtime this year, releasing new updates and insights 24/7. In case you missed any of them, I collected the most important announcements and ranked them based on perceived value to brands, creators and app users. 1) Edits App: Instagram is launching a new video creation app that includes editing, insights, project management capabilities, a better quality camera and the ability to share drafts with friends. There’s been some skepticism expressed around an Instagram video editing tool because of the limitations of its current Reels editing features. But innocent until proven faulty. I’m looking forward to the March release of this one — the more tools we all have access to, the better. 2) Trial Reels: This lets creators share Reels with people who don’t follow them first to see how new content performs without worrying about how their followers will react. Technically this was a December release but I still think this has the potential to be an incredibly powerful tool for creators and brands to test new styles of content. It respects the expectations of current followers, while increasing the possibility of reaching new audiences. 3) 2025 Algorithm Priorities: Adam Mosseri’s been posting a LOT recently but it was this content ranking explainer that seemed most useful: Instagram’s ranking system currently considers three key content signals: Watch Time, Likes and Sends. These are weighted differently depending on whether the people consuming your content follow you or not:
4) More Reels Recommendations: Instagram says Reels recommendations will become more prominent across the platform, eg. higher in people’s feeds and search results and will help new creators break through. Helping brands and creators reach new audiences through Reels is a good thing and indicates a renewed commitment to video in 2025. But given the recent success of Carousels, it’s worth testing different content formats. 5) 3-Minute Reels: US-based Instagram creators can now publish Reels up to 3 minutes long and these longer Reels will be eligible for recommendations. I’m on the fence here. Meta tried longer videos with IGTV, then yanked the feature, which indicates audiences weren’t interested. Plus Mosseri has said short-form content performs better for shares (sends). I’m not sure who this update benefits other than Meta in their optics battle with TikTok and YouTube. 6) Highlights Tab: Highlights as we know them could soon disappear. Instagram is looking to move Highlights into the grid and add them as a tab. This could help clean up profile pages and bump up grid content, but it seems inconsequential in the scheme of things and removes a key branding opportunity for creators and brands that previously curated this part of their profile page. 7) A Vertical Grid: Posts on your grid are now vertical instead of square, and Instagram’s added an editing tool so people can adjust their thumbnails to the new grid size. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this shift — and audiences are unlikely to even notice — but the sudden rollout has disrupted a lot of carefully curated grids. 8) Affiliate links on Facebook: Affiliate links are now more prominently displayed on Reels, videos, photos, and text posts on Facebook to help encourage followers to purchase products through creator links. This is a good thing for Facebook affiliate creators but who wouldn’t love to see this extended through to Instagram? 9) Breakthrough Bonuses: Meta launched a new bonus program called Breakthrough Bonuses that lets TikTok creators earn up to $5,000 in bonuses over three months for coming over and posting Reels to Facebook and Instagram. This is unlikely to have a major impact since most of your favorite creators are already cross posting. What’s more interesting is The Information’s report that select creators are getting bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per month to make Reels and pledge their loyalty to Meta. 10) Reels With Friends: Five years ago, Instagram had something similar called the Following Activity tab — an area where you could see what your friends were watching and liking. The idea of connecting with friends over content you enjoy is not inherently a bad feature. But given the current administration and surveillance-like state of the U.S., sharing your content preferences seems unwise for people in marginalized or at-risk groups (LGBTQ, Black people, immigrants, women seeking information on reproductive health, etc). As soon as you’re able, I’d recommend creators, brands and even casual users opt out of this. The tl;dr - Ranking Instagram’s New Features
Got thoughts on this ranking, let me know what you’d prioritize? 📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok AlternativesInstagram, YouTube and Snapchat may be the obvious alternatives but brands and creators are also looking at:
CapCut AlternativesCreators and marketers have been swapping lists of alternative video editing apps. These are some of the most common recommendations I’ve seen online:
📲 Tumblr Updates
📲 X Updates
📲 Snapchat Updates
📲 Substack Updates
📲 Threads Updates
📲 LinkedIn Updates
📲 Pinterest Updates
📊 DATA DROP
-LTK’s 2025 Creator Marketing Trends Report reflecting how attitudes have shifted as social media platforms prioritize interest-based feeds. 🗓️ Upcoming Events
Reminder: Everyone has access to the ICYMI Events Calendar (it’s not just for paid subscribers). 👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
💘 Women Succeeding
If you enjoyed this latest update, please share ICYMI with a friend or coworker! You're currently a free subscriber to ICYMI by Lia Haberman. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
|
