The Insta-Shuffle

Figured I’d throw this in the off topic as much as a lot of use Instagram to share our yoyo tricks, throw of the day, mail days, etc. Back in March it was announced Instagram (IG) would be changing up its format which created an uproar. It was tested out on a small handful of users. This change is what is known as the Instagram algorithm. It was noted that Instagram would be taking cues from its older cousin, Facebook, where “Top Stories” are up at the top and the feed is sorted out to what they think you care to see the most rather than in chronological order.

Today, I became one of the IG victims as my feed was all chronological. I had switched accounts to upload a photo and when I switched back, I saw an older post at the top of the feed, and a few other posts before I saw my newly posted photo.

With this said, since IG is taking on the role of a “popularity contest” where 1-day-old posts sit at the top of your feed and less popular posts get lost in the abyss, I want to see what you guys think.

Anyone else one of the lucky people who had this change rolled out on them over the past few months?

Has it affected your traffic and how?

Curious how this will affect growing players. I average about 30 hits on my posts recently (could be better but could be worse), despite the amount of followers I have. Curious to see if newer players are going to have a harder time to become visible as the less popular posts are further down the feed or are just flat out not seen.

I used to post on Facebook (general posts) but over the past several months as people are defaulted to “top stories” much of my posts have become invisible. Facebook gives users the option to switch to the “most recent” mode but is bent on defaulting to top stories much to most of the population’s dismay.

If Instagram is going to force this down our throats, then at least make it optional. I get about 6-7 likes on my posts, simply because I don’t want hundreds of people I don’t know following me.