Instagram is focusing on photos (again!)

In a recent announcement from Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, users found out that the company was shifting its focus away from video (also known as Reels) and towards photos once more. 

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The change in strategy on Instagram’s part was announced on Jan. 20th when Mosseri said in a live video, “I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos.”

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This is an interesting departure from videos which have helped the Meta-owned company get on a more level playing ground with other top social media competitors like Snapchat and TikTok. 

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The shift away from photo-based video content and towards short-form video has led many people and their business to suffer. And for users, the experience is just not how it used to be. With the introduction of Reels, the platform lost the essence of what made it so great. 

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But it could get that back. 

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While Mosseri noted that short-form videos would still be a mainstay on the platform, he said that Instagram would also be pushing more photos than it has in the past in an effort to respond to user demand for the platform’s return to its origins. 

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That’s good for users who want to return to how Instagram was, but it could make things difficult for brands who relied on the explosive growth that Reels has helped bring about. 

What does this mean for you and your brand? 

The good news is that the uber-successful model of Reels is not going away permanently. The bad news is that a push for more photos might mean less engagement for your brand. 

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In 2022, user engagement in Reels was 35% higher than it was in other types of content on Instagram. The success of Reels has led to many businesses thriving, and many will be reluctant to give it away. 

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However, something to note is that just because Instagram is focusing on photos again does not mean that it isn’t focusing on Reels too. 

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The app is looking to provide more balance to its user experience, so Reels won’t be going away entirely. 

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With that said, it will still be important to prioritize photos on your Instagram page in order to keep up with this new change on the platform. Investing your time into making sure that your photos will continue to boost your engagement will help your brand not fall to the wayside with this change. 

How to still be successful on Instagram if it moves away from Reels 

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It’s no secret that Reels has helped thousands of brands make a name for themselves in the ever changing world of content creation. It might seem a bit jarring to hear that Instagram is focusing on pictures again, but there are still plenty of ways to optimize your Instagram usage even without an overreliance on short-form videos. 

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And before you worry too much, Reels aren’t going away forever. They’re not even going away at all. Just think of this as an opportunity to expand your branding skills. 

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When using photos for your marketing always make sure that: 

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• The photos are bright and easy to see 
• The photos are engaging 
• The photos say something about the product 
• The photos are high quality 

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Adding pictures to your Instagram can help you break up the endless stream of video, which can sometimes be overwhelming for users. When choosing photos for your brand, it’s important to think about quality, not quantity. Images won’t connect with an audience unless they are top-notch. 

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Photos, if done well, can also be a quick way to express information to a user that isn't planning on spending a lot of time on your content. On average, a user will spend no more than 15 seconds looking at a blog or website. That number is even less on Instagram. 

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That knowledge can be a bit disheartening, but try to take it in stride. 

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Users will want to stay on your content longer if you have good photos, and if you have good photos and videos to promote your brand, all the better. 

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The core of Instagram’s shift away from exclusively showing Reels is to give users more balance in the type of content they’re seeing. Look at it that way too, and you’ll be well on your way to making great changes to your social media presence. 

A change in the making 

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When Instagram launched in 2010, the company was all about its focus on images. Fuzzy photos from Disneyland, close-up selfies, and an endless number of food pictures were all the rage. 

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This was partly due to the app’s design. Created to be a type of scrapbook for users to keep a record of their life on the internet rather than in a physical photo book, Instagram certainly has humble roots. 

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However, it shot to popularity primarily due to the increasing shift towards smartphones and their cameras that were unlike anything the world had ever seen. 

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But more recently, Instagram moved away from its beginnings in amateur photography and instead leaned into trends adapted by other social media competitors in order to keep up with a rapidly changing market. 

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And, in typical tech fashion, the app ripped off one of its biggest competitors and used a million-dollar idea for itself: Instagram Stories. 

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Identical to Snapchat’s stories in nearly every way, this s update led millions of people to flock to the app. In 2018, two years after Instagram Stories launched, the app recorded over 400 million daily users. 

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Clearly, the adoption of the disappearing video and photo was a hit. 

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But it wasn’t the only thing that Instagram fundamentally changed about its user experience. In 2020, Instagram added Reels to its interface, letting users engage in short-from video content in a way that was comparable to a then-rising giant, TikTok. 

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Reels became a social media phenomenon almost overnight. Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, began to push reels to users over content featuring still images. And for many, this change altered what made Instagram so great: its photos. 

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With the new announcement about returning to photo-based social media platforms, Instagram could once again look like how it did way back in the early 2010s—complete with a dizzying array of food photography. So for all of you Instagram purists out there, this could be good news for you. Either way, the announcement represents a change in Instagram’s strategy which could spell a shift in the social media industry as a whole. 

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