What 'High Fidelity' and the new Instagram algorithm have in common...
Three years ago, I packed my family up and moved us from San Francisco to London for no other reason than a job and a new adventure. In three days, I'm taking what I consider an even scarier step... moving us all back to Southern California, where I haven't lived for nearly a decade. In prepping for the close of a mega-slice of my life, I've been building a playlist of all the songs I hear, and like, along my travels over this last few weeks to reminisce and wallow once I'm far away.
An autobiographical audible collection of nearly a month of journeying across the UK, from York to the Scottish Highlands, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London and even the beaches of Essex.
Inventive, sure, but not as unique a concept as one would hope. One of my favourite fictional characters, Rob Gordon, protagonist of the book/film, High Fidelity, had in fact attempted a similar quest already, through vinyl. Here's a clip of the famous scene on YouTube. I've also transcribed below, for those who don't have the bandwidth:
Dick: I guess it looks as if you’re reorganizing your records. What is this though? Chronological?
Rob: No…
Dick: Not alphabetical…
Rob: Nope…
Dick: What?
Rob: Autobiographical.
Dick: No f***ing way.
About this time, I'm guessing you're thinking, 'Kelly, although I love your choice of film reference, and long to hear more about the ditties, anthems and dirges added to your own 'autobiographical' soundtrack, what on earth does this have to do with the titularly-mentioned social media channel (Instagram - sorry for the loss off dramatic effect, but hey I've got SEO to think about)?'
Well, glad you asked ;) Just a few days ago I was reading another thought leadership piece (more so a thinly-veiled product push preambled by quirky/cute industry observations and subsequent tips peppered on top, but you get the point) speculating how the new Instagram Algorithm works. Discussed were thoughts on the algorithm's approach in determining the following in order to serve you, and your followers, posts in-feed:
- how much you care about a post
- your relationship with your followers
- the timeliness of your post
- how often you yourself are on the app
- how many people you also follow
At this time, I started to think about Rob and how through his own autobiographical 'selectionism' he got from Deep Purple to Howlin' Wolf in just 25 moves, or if he wanted to find the song Lancelot by Fleetwood Mac, he has to remember that he bought it for someone in the fall of 1983 pile, but didn't give it to them for personal reasons.
The approach must be comforting, and sentimental in its making, but I could almost guarantee you that three weeks later, when he was scrambling to look for that Fleetwood Mac album under it's first letter, or the year of production, he would have found himself cursing the strategy being of little use to him on a day-to-day basis or in the discovery of anything but his own banal self-worshiping, expectant assumption that he's the center of his own feed... I hope you see where I'm going with this.
Because, me, I've been finding my own insta-feed so grossly unrepresentative of everything that drew me to social media exploration in the first place that it's really become a turnoff from investing time or effort, pouring my heart and soul into content that most people probably won't even see, and myself discovering nothing new.
It's not timely, it's not new, but rather redundant and predictable. Instead I find myself inundated repeatedly with mundane, self-satisfying on-the-minute updates from people with too much time on their hands and a lack of experience or any creativity, or some scam account who joined the channel yesterday and are now asking money for a mysterious and shady pet illness, or 'blah-blah' influencers who pimp their XX million followers off to brands (or ransom them) for a post and props... Don't even get me started on the flocks of sheep teaming toward the platform that are destroying world travel for the rest of us, and in some cases literally killing themselves 'FOR THE GRAM.' (BTW, I had a plethora of articles to choose from for these last two.)
These days, for every unattainable Instagram post, there is a decidedly unaspirational opposite. - Wired
Some of this has become such a problem the in the United States that the SEC (Security Exchange Commission) has chosen to step in and regulate the product endorsements by social media influencers.
While, over here on the flip-side, I find I am often completely missing important milestones in any number of friends' lives, or loved brands, because they don't happen to 'post consistent content' or jump in on some 'trending' topic. If I hear these buzz phrases thrown out one more time by an agency spokesperson I shall puke. I'm a firm believer of not saying something if you can't add anything new to the conversation. Check out my blog flow if you don't believe me.
Adding to the pile, you may be among the hordes who've noticed that many posts are in no way timely of late - such as the great Christmas-wishes-showing-up-post-New-Years fiasco, or that although using Instagram consistently for years, you've experienced a dramatic drop in engagement across all of your content, with unpredictable (or sadly too predictable) spikes here and there. I have tested the latter personally on the account I run for my most awesome pup (@gambitthefrenchie). I did a test post around #pride, adding a number of positive, but emotionally-charged nouns and verbs, as well as tags that (based on the algorithm focuses) I thought might trigger more visibility... and it worked by bounds.
A concerning stone to add to this pile is the strong correlation I also noticed between massive drops in engagement directly following the completion of an experimental paid post promotion. Makes sense, you see a huge spike and you get hooked, and then you see your organic content tank. I do not have hard proof, but as mentioned, I saw some pretty strong indicators that this could be the case. And I mean it's all about paid these days with social anyway, isn't it??? The mists of memory are all that remains of the days when inventive, creative content and some gutsy guerrilla tactics nabbed eyeballs online. Those that say it's not so, and they don't [make it rain] for followers/likes/comments/swag, are either working off some other form of currency - like good connections in high places at one of the digital monoliths of our time, celebrity boosting by association – or come from the Numenor/Olympic races of Hemsworthian giants brandishing nothing more than top knots, piercing eyes, perfect smiles and washboard abs combined with an inexhaustible penchant for selfies at the gym and motivational sweet nothings.
'Ok Kelly,' you think, 'But you're rambling and what's the point anyway? Are you proposing I should leave my grams by the wayside? Is there another platform/media you'd like to recommend? I have a top knot, should I apologize?' Certainly not.
I'm simply asserting the hypothesis that in today's social media ecosystem you need to 'feed your own mind' and question everything - particularly where it came from and by what means it got there - is it featured, sponsored, celebrity, etc.
Your input is no longer chronological. Someone is right now laying out your autobiographical playlist using software-driven maths based on guesswork and your ability to assimilate through tech. Here, likes perpetuate likes, popularity gets preferential visibility, consistent content may maintain short-term engagement standards but could hurt your long-term goals, and you're possibly being hindered from stumbling upon that which may unexpectedly delight.
My advice for moving forward: make your own playlist, engage with those you adore, search out those you might, post less frequently and set aside time to focus on the foundational element of social media - the relationships. Otherwise, it's just more noise.
"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit." - e.e. cummings