Image courtesy of samsung.com
How many of us six years ago had no idea about selfies or “throwback Thursdays,” or how to gain a behind-the-scenes peek of the fashion world? These days things are a different and most of those changes are largely due to the success of the photo-sharing app Instagram. In the mere six years of its existence, the network has grown into users’ everyday routines, even managing to become the fashion industry’s chief social media platform, with thousands of brands now integrating an online presence into their strategies.
Founded in 2010, Instagram has continued to stay true to its initial principles for the most part. That is at least, until recently. Recently the social network declared it would begin testing a soon-to-be implemented algorithmic policy regarding how images are shown to its users. Meaning, in the future the photo-sharing app will select potentially interesting images, and only these will eventually find their way into our newsfeed. And what about the rest? The algorithm will drown posts deemed hopelessly unpopular towards the bottom depths of users’ feeds.
The parameters registered by the program are quite basic ones. It judges by the colours, giving preference to warm tones over cold and dismissing pictures containing images that are likely to “cause negative associations.”
Officially, Instagram promises to provide us all with the better content. The disappointing part, however, is that we will no longer have the chance to decide what content is better for us personally. However, the main losers of the new policy will be artists, influencers and brands – many of whom are now desperately calling out to users asking to turn on notifications for their posts.
This anxiety is hardly surprising, since the number of followers on Instagram has long since turned into a kind of symbolic capital with the potential to turn into real profits. Until very recently Instagram gave a wonderful opportunity to run marketing strategies with a broad outreach on minimal costs. The implementation of the algorithmic policy will significantly change the state of things. Similar alterations happened about two years ago with Facebook when the social network started using their own algorithm, forcing brands and public pages to promote (ie pay for) their posts to ensure they will be shown to users. And the same is about to happen with Instagram.
“The story is only good as its reach”, believes Courtney Colavita, the Head of Digital Marketing for Gucci, who uses this mantra to sum up the main rule of fashion brands’ digital strategies. Fashion companies have embraced Instagram so much in the last years that it has been dubbed a fashion network. The service has become not only a sharing platform, but a stage for exclusive presentations of products and advertising campaigns as Oscar de la Renta has done for years. Now, even the famous anti-social media activist Marc Jacobs has warmed to the app, using it to introduce his SS16 ad campaign two months ago. The sheer fact that Brooklyn Beckham (who’s 16 and has 6.5 m followers on Instagram) was chosen to shoot a campaign for Burberry (which has an annual profit of £2,5 m) illustrates the importance of the social network.
First shot done @benmfrees @BrooklynBeckham for #THISISBRIT
A photo posted by Burberry (@burberry) on
The new algorithm might be not entirely bad, believes PR-expert Aliza Licht: “This might be a blessing. The algorithm changes mean less content creation and less posting frequency. So brands will be able to create and boost posts in a more strategic and efficient way.” However, brands will also have to reconsider their advertising budgets, which might be problematic for smaller brands who look towards Instagram as the main channel for connecting with their audience.
“I do not have a massive marketing team or large PR budgets but with social media I can still generate noise,” – says British designer Nicholas Daley. “Instagram is a very powerful tool. My primary market is in Japan so the fact that I can post an image and someone over in Tokyo can respond to it instantly is a great thing.” But what is really troubling now is whether the algorithm will turn out compatible with creativity. Will the younger designers be able to keep their voices heard and their images seen on Instagram? We’ll find out very soon.
SS16 – FIRST BEAT Editorial 02 Styled by Stephen Mann and Shot by Iain Anderson Modelled by Edwin Louis. SS16 collection is now available at selected retailers. For further enquires contact studio@nicholasdaley.net or visit nicholasdaley.net. #nicholasdaley #SS16 #firstbeat #instoresnow @thenonplace @mriainanderson @edwinlouisfilm @international_gallery_beams @beams_official @hostemppl @wallaceandmurron
A photo posted by Nicholas Daley (@nicholas_daley) on