Until recently Instagram had been a major force in food businesses’ social media strategies and a low-cost form of advertising, reports The New York Times. At the end of 2021 when Instagram’s parent company, Meta, changed the platform’s algorithm to prioritize videos, called Reels, many small businesses noted a significant drop in engagement on posts, according to the report.
Sana Javeri Kadri leaned heavily on Instagram for marketing when she started her spice company, Diaspora Company, in 2017. “I completely credit them for our growth — and then the algorithm changed and our sales dropped horrifyingly,” she said, in the article. “There was a point where I was having dreams that Instagram could go back to the way things were, and my nightmares were about all the reasons why that was impossible.”
Kadri noted that since joining Instagram, her company’s following grew to more than 100,000. “Up until three months ago, we never paid for ads on Instagram,” she said, though the company has used public relations agencies. “These aren’t hard numbers, but we used to see 2,000 to 3,000 likes on most posts for our 100,000-person audience,” she added. “Now it’s like 200 to 300.”
“With the way Instagram has shifted everything to video, it has really decreased the amount of traffic we get to our Instagram account, and that means to our website,” said Skyler Mapes, a founder of Exau Olive Oil. “You have to fight harder than ever to get out there and get seen.”
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said that the company is focused on growing Reels, which was introduced in August 2020 as a reaction to TikTok’s success.
Reels require video production experience, and the company suggests using text, filters, and camera effects set to music and trending sounds. This is no small feat for business owners and social editors who lack video-editing skills.
Abigail Knoff, the marketing director at the mushroom company Smallhold, notes that it’s a much bigger lift for her team. “The planning, editing and voice-over and music skills for more produced video content are very different from still iPhone photography,” she said. Full Story
Related: Social Media for Startups: 5 Things to Know; Capitalizing on Social Media Trends.