There’s been lots of drama lately about instagram. Changes the platform is making to incorporate more video into your feed.

People are complaining. They miss the old feed with more photos than video. At the time of writing this, 296,096 have signed a petition to “make instagram instagram again”.

It’s all noise.

Source: Public Enemy

Believe it or not, Mark Zuckerberg did not pay $1 Billion for instagram back in 2012 to run it as a charity. He acquired the company because most online users were on Mobile. A gap in Facebook’s footprint at the time. And Instagram’s users were (and still are) all Mobile. He, correctly, believed Facebook needed to become more Mobile. He believed it so much he payed $ 1 Billion for a 2 year old startup with 13 employees. A startup that had 30 million Mobile users.

He went where consumers were. And he’ll continue to go where consumers go.

Facebook is an attractive platform for Advertisers. There are 2,936 Billion users on the platform. That’s 2,936 Billion consumers. That’s 2,936 Billion reasons for Advertisers to spend money on the platform. And they do. Meta makes 97% of its $86 Billion revenue from Advertising.

Those consumers are more into Video these days. In 2021, TikTok shot passed Facebook’s time spent record, reaching 44 daily minutes per user that year. It surpassed Instagram & YouTube as well. So why wouldn’t Instagram adapt to the times?

These cries for the “old instagram” have a similar tone to those for dvd rentals, film photography and department stores. It’s noise. Because those industries are dead or dying. Because consumers have evolved. And are evolving. Today, they prefer to stream, shoot photos (increasingly, videos) on their smartphones & shop at branded stores (increasingly, online). Meta turning instagram into Tik Tok simply makes good business sense.

As a business owner yourself, you need to cut through the noise. The only question you need to ask is where your customers are today. And are you there as well. And are speaking to them in a way they want to be spoken to.

So, are you on Tik Tok? And if you’re on instagram, are you posting Reels?

Everything else is noise. In the words of one of the greatest rap groups of all time, Public Enemy, don’t believe the hype it’s a sequel.

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