Instagram engagement continues its freefall

Instagram growth in recent years has been tremendous, and it is best that is combined with a very high ratio of interactions, higher than any other social network, which earned this the title of “Queen of engagement”. All brands want to be in Instagram: it was new, cool and above all, very effective.

However, it seems that the spell has begun to break down, and the figures are not like those of yesteryear. Although reaching maturity is, for any platform, slowing growth, there are many who suspect that behind the drop Instagram engagement there is something more, and that the figures will worsen this year.

The data provides a recent report of Quintly, for which analyzed a total of 10,000 profiles Instagram throughout 2015 so Unveil growth during the first months of the year, the number of users was 21%, but which it closed the year at a growth rate of 16%, much lower.

Although most surprising-and worryingly was that something very similar happened with the engagement, and if in early 2015 the average was 4.96 interactions per post, is now only 3.10. That is a decrease in the number of significant interactions, which, for Quintly, might have to do with the fact that the timelines are increasingly saturated, because they have increased both the number of users and the number of content up each user. Precisely to respond to this, Instagram announced this week that will include a similar Facebook algorithm to order the publications in the interest for each user.

In any case, from Quintly they warn not to put their hands to the head or think that we are at the death of Instagram. Yes, the growth rates and engagement will continue to decline, but this network will remain very important for brands. “For its visual feature requires manufacturers more creative and more interesting and more subtle publications This makes the use of Instagram very nice for users and, from the point of view of brands, it makes it likely that the ratio of interactions remain much higher than Facebook”.

Are there too many ads on the platform?

Although from Quintly indicate that it is normal as it increases activity in a social network, slow growth and engagement, many experts suggest that this is not the only reason for last year’s figures.

During 2015, many new facilities to give more advertisers, and more prominence to the ads were introduced. Thus, the loop was introduced in video ads, the greater length thereof, new advertising formats and ads spread to everyone. Because of this, the probability of seeing a video or photo while doing promoted scroll increased considerably.

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This income level was a success, and recently reached the 200,000 advertisers. However, not so much user level, and according to a survey October Venture Boat, 60% of users hated increased listings in the app.

It is also not liking the introduction of the algorithm to sort the timeline

And it seems that users are not satisfied with this new change, as we said, it changes the chronological order of the timeline by another of relevance, so that the most relevant content for each user are the first find, as it functions as the Facebook news feed. From Instagram they hope this will increase the time spent on the platform and the number of publications that look.

However, Instagram is already protesting the change, because users argue that want to take control of your profile and what they want or do not want to see. In fact, already they have risen nearly 4,500 publications with photos of logo on black background and label #RIPInstagram to protest. Until there is a complaint Change.org which already has more than 66,000 signatures.

In addition, brands that think of this change? Obviously, those most popular and most attractive publications will gain from the transformation, while selling a “boring” product or have less faithful followers will have more gigs to remain visible. In any case, as already happens in Facebook, brands will have to get used to the idea that combining organic range with a range of payment is already indispensable.