Hey babes!

Welcome back to the blog. Instagram recently hosted a Creator week and I tried to take as many notes as possible to share with you are and also share some of my thoughts on everything as well! Enjoy :)

What I learned from Instagram during Creator Week: 

Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram) 

• Focus on young people & creators

Mark Zuckerberg Intro

• Monetization tools on IG

  • Partner with brands

  • Instream ads on IGTV / facebook

  • NEW WAYS to make money on IG / FB

    • Native affiliate tool: earn commission on purchases you drive on IG

  • Sell your own merch

    • Open a shop on your personal IG

  • Connect with shops to sell

  • Earn badges and cash when you hit milestones

• Create access to tools creators need 

Overall, it seems as if they are placing a large emphasis on creators (something they should have already been doing in my opinion, and something that tiktok started with).

IG ALGORITHM: 

THIS IS IT

What’s an algorithm? There is not one, it’s all the systems that work together to provide the best experience 

• Feed, stories, explore - all different algorithms

• Feed / stories - friends, family, fav creators

• Explore / reels - anyone can discover anything

In conclusion, there isn’t one algorithm, but multiple algorithms for the different parts of Instagram.

Shadowban: What’s the tea? 

• Complex monster, people feel silenced 

• People will come to their own conclusions as to why something is happening

• IG trying to understand root causes and feelings, not having the answers

• It’s not the same answer for everyone, different rules being broken etc. 

• Censorship: 

  • Equity team formed to listen to community and understand problems (@drhouston_ii)

• How do we make sure we’re not breaking the rules? 

  • Community guidelines

  • you can appeal decisions made (settings, help, support request, violations, report there)

• Algorithm hacks (how to beat it? Optimize content?)

  • Feed / stories: timely content, friends & family

  • Order of the content: What you want to see is at the top

  • No chronological - a lot of people were missing stuff 

  • Relevance to you 

  • Use all the surfaces to your advantage

  • Invest in relationships with audience 

    • Liking comments, responding back, etc

    • These are signals that you’re interested in those people

  • Use hashtags but don’t be spammy 

• Order of instagram story views?

  • Timeliness, relationship with the person posting, close friends

  • AI learning - based off interactions 

• Does the algorithm “ding” you for pods? 

  • Authenticity is big

  • Algorithm doesn’t know you’re trying to play it

  • It picks up signals 

  • Be yourself and engage with people who want to see you

  • Engage with your community

  • Be careful with anyone who promises you virality

  • IG will catch the scammy people 

ASK ADAM (head of instagram): Q&A @mosseri 

• How do you grow? Keep up engagement? Reach?

  • Cant be stable for everyone

  • Rank and show everyone what they are most interested in 

  • Creates more overall value

  • “We don't’ always get it right” always trying to learn

  • No one answer with how to grow: 

    • Experiment - what resonates with your audience

    • Video - catch attention in 2 sec

    • Hashtags 

    • Couple posts a week, stories a day 

• When is reels rolling out internationally? 

  • Challenge is music rights 

• Monetization

  • Looking into reels

  • Creator affiliates

  • Creator shops - direct relationship with fans

  • Rev share - video, long form / short form video

• Fake followers a problem on IG? 

  • Getting better at addressing issue

  • Don’t do it

    • Sign up for a sketchy service 

    • Give them your log in

    • Don’t give your password out

    • Turn on 2 factor authentication

  • Ton of activity from same device? Remove followers who aren’t real

    • Human cant comment every minute all day long

• What does tiktok do better than instagram? Instagram better than tiktok

  • Tiktok is better at

    • Much better at breaking out new talent

    • entertainment

  • IG better at

    • Supporting already established creators

    • Reels is growing 

    • More to offer 

      • Unique combo 

      • Global reach

      • Product with creator / individual in mind

    • Working to be the best and get loyalty

    • Cautiously optimistic to help creators make a living

• Racial Bias / discrimination

  • Algorithmic bias is an issue 

  • Creating tools to fight harassment 

    • Restrict designed for bullying of teens

    • Hidden words: Can block certain words in your comments

  • Verification

    • 3rd party publications decide who is notable (might have bias) so they broaden publications 

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Ok, so those are my overall notes. It’s a lot of information. Some of it I did find very helpful, other parts of it were just ehh. When they brought up creators to talk it was people more on a “celebrity” level and didn’t feel too relatable. Like yes these creators with MILLIONS of followers and a celeb status are going to be doing well for themselves. That’s where I think tik tok is superior. They really focus on creators of all levels.

I appreciate the effort on behalf on Instagram for hosting these sessions. I can’t wait to see what more they do for the creators on their platform. Let me know your thoughts below!

Xx, Allysa