“Sociable” is the most recent commentary on essential social media developments and trends from industry expert Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today.
This is a pedantic point, or possibly a petty one, though either way, it’s still a relevant note for social media marketers.
Last May, Instagram ran a creator even in New York, through which it shared a variety of recommendations on how to maximize content performance, and improve the reach of your clips.
Presented by IG at that event was this slide, which summarizes a lot of the topline notes.
As you may see, lower than a 12 months ago, Instagram noted that 90 second+ Reels must be avoided, because, according to IG on the time, it had found that users were less fascinated with longer Reels, and it due to this fact didn’t recommend them as widely.
Which is smart, except then, in January this 12 months, as IG was in search of ways to counter TikTok, and potentially offer a landing spot for TikTok creators in case TikTok did find yourself being banned within the U.S., Instagram expanded the length of native Reels to 3 minutes
As explained by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on the time:
“Starting today, you may upload Reels to Instagram up to three minutes long. Now, historically, it’s only been 90 seconds, and that’s because we’ve wanted to focus Instagram on short-form video, not on long-form video. But we’ve heard numerous feedback from numerous you creators on the market that 90 seconds is just too short, so we’re hoping that upping that limit up to three minutes will enable you to tell the stories that you simply really need to tell.”
So now, users are okay with longer Reels? Okay then.
And today, at its latest creator even in NYC, IG shared the next notes:
This is the very same list that it shared last 12 months, with one change: Now, you shouldn’t post Reels longer than 3 minutes as a substitute.
Technically, this relates to Instagram’s algorithmic recommendations, in that IG wasn’t recommending Reels longer than 90 seconds last 12 months, but now it’s. In that sense, the recommendation is smart, but I do find it humorous that Instagram had tried to frame this as a user preference issue, as opposed to it really being driven by what IG itself wants.
Instagram now wants you to post longer content, so it will probably higher compete with other apps. So now, longer clips are okay, however it’s got absolutely nothing to do with audience demand, or preference, or the rest.
It’s one other reminder that the apps themselves dictate trends and shifts, through what they select to amplify, which frequently has as much impact as the general content itself.
Best to align with their latest whims.
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