Views are the new likes! A new vision for Instagram

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has been trying for some time to convince creators to focus on reach, not on the number of followers or likes. According to him, reach is what every creator wants. Why?

Instagram has changed its algorithm and prioritises content with which users interact. High-impact posts have the potential to quickly spread beyond your regular audience and increase your visibility. Also, followers and likes can easily be bought, so reach is a more authentic metric.

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Instagram is changing its analytics and as the primary metric you will see "Views", for all types of content - Reels, live, photos, carousels and stories. These views will show how many times your Reels have been triggered or repeated played. For other formats, the number of times your content was displayed on the user's screen. 

Metrics like Number of Accounts Reached, Number of Accounts Engaged, Interactions, and Watch Time will still be available in Insights, but their location will change. Here, too, you will see Views as the primary metric. 



Instagram says these changes will ensure creators have the same metrics across Instagram to better understand how their content is performing. 

Again...Why?

Once upon a time, people primarily viewed content from people they followed. Today, people have a feed filled with content that Instagram recommends for them, or they spend time on the For you page. Meta's recommendations are getting better and better, so users don't need to follow only selected profiles, but rather see what the algorithm recommends. 

Another change in user behavior is that instead of clicking like, we send the post to friends. Therefore, such interaction increases reach much more than a like. 



And what about people? 

Comments under a post by @creators or by Adam Mosseri's are not the most positive. People complain in particular that the most sent content between friends is memes, and they fear that this will destroy creators who create something meaningful. 

Other complaints are that creators' followers can't see their content, due to pushing high-impact content, or content that is just fun or commercially focused.

What do you say about these changes?