My meeting with Instagram

After weekend of catching up with influencers, brands & technology companies it is safe to say Vidcon was a huge success, for me personally from a networking viewpoint but also for Diet Starts Tomorrow our fledgling sweets & treats gifting service!

A few of many meetings throughout the week included meeting with Adobe about their new Sensei technology which uses artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning to help creators make tedious processes fast & uncover opportunities for creative flare in the process.

I met with YouTube, Facebook, GoPro & various start-ups focusing on creators, influencers & their fans, with Diet Starts Tomorrow being one of them!

One of the highlights was meeting the team from Facebook & Instagram, here is a little bit about one area of discussion:

Account growth via the "explore page"

The most converted digital real estate on one of the worlds biggest visual networks on Instagram. The Explore page is different for each user on the network – focused on showcasing content that's relevant to them based on the accounts and hashtags they follow. The page is a mix of posts you've liked, and posts by people whose posts you've liked.

The key message is that there is no one formula to guarantee that you will appear in the explore page however, I did learn that IGTV updates (Instagram's new app built for videos that are longer than 60 seconds) are prioritised over normal posts & typically will occupy the top right of each user's screen & have a larger "tile" to preview the content.

Outside of IGTV I also learnt that the current algorithm favours heavily engaged video content over photographic content, making video a key part of your 2019 social media strategy, today we had our first meeting with a client regarding "vertical video" changing the way they conduct their content generation & how we plan to amplify it!

Further insights will be on the new CEEK website that launches later this month...

Charlie Terry

CEEK