Chasing TikTok
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:22 am
The rise in engagement on Instagram is good news for KOL marketers, as it indicates that the platform remains relevant despite both TikTok ’s meteoric rise and the missteps it has made in its attempt to compete.
Meta is convinced that changes to Instagram and Facebook’s algorithms to support reels and offer more recommended content in feeds will pay off in the long run, with the diversity of content types – such as photos, text, links, communities, etc. – providing a key differentiator.
" There's this whole larger corpus where we can use AI to effectively understand what content means and understand individually what might interest you, just having access to a much larger corpus of content to put into your feeds and increase engagement ," Zuckerberg said.
« And we're seeing that start to work already and be incremental in terms of more people using the services, spending more time […and] just engaging more with the feeds in general. So that part of things we think is going well .»
Why is it important?
If Meta is right and engagement on its platforms is indeed increasing, influencer marketers debating whether to shift activities from Instagram to TikTok can take heart.
Meta’s platforms are far from irrelevant – despite the company’s obvious issues – and if the transition to Reels and recommended content goes as hoped, there will be plenty of opportunities to reach customers with influencer content in a variety of formats.
While TikTok is certainly on the rise – and can generate huge reach and awareness when influencer campaigns are done right – quality influencer content and campaigns on the platform are becoming more expensive. It’s also harder to predict the success of a video on TikTok or get the level of data on campaign performance as it is on Instagram.
The variety of content formats on Instagram, combined with its deep social elements and suite of advertising and commerce tools , continues to offer marketers numerous opportunities at a variety of price points to reach consumers.
Messaging, the new frontier?
For some time, Meta has been communicating about the shift in content sharing from feeds to private messages , whether on Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
On Wednesday's call, Meta said its Click-to-Messaging ads product, which lets bu r&d directors email database sinesses run ads on Facebook and Instagram that start a conversation thread on Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram Direct, had so far raised $9 billion in ARR.
For Meta, a key question to be answered is: if content is increasingly shared in messages, what is the purpose of the Instagram or Facebook feed? Speaking at a creators’ roundtable organised by French independent outlet Brut in October, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stressed that the company must adapt to changing user behaviour and interests.
“ Recommendations allow us to drive more reach for creators. What you’re going to see [on Instagram] in the next year is some 9:16 videos in the feed, we’re certainly getting better at recommendations, mostly for the benefit of creators, while also trying to preserve photos ,” Mosseri said.
« Things have changed a lot at Instagram over the last year or two, but things will start to get easier next year because we've learned a lot .»
It's clear that Instagram (and, indeed, Facebook) still has a lot of cards to play. 2023 is set to be something of a make-or-break year for the platform.
Meta is convinced that changes to Instagram and Facebook’s algorithms to support reels and offer more recommended content in feeds will pay off in the long run, with the diversity of content types – such as photos, text, links, communities, etc. – providing a key differentiator.
" There's this whole larger corpus where we can use AI to effectively understand what content means and understand individually what might interest you, just having access to a much larger corpus of content to put into your feeds and increase engagement ," Zuckerberg said.
« And we're seeing that start to work already and be incremental in terms of more people using the services, spending more time […and] just engaging more with the feeds in general. So that part of things we think is going well .»
Why is it important?
If Meta is right and engagement on its platforms is indeed increasing, influencer marketers debating whether to shift activities from Instagram to TikTok can take heart.
Meta’s platforms are far from irrelevant – despite the company’s obvious issues – and if the transition to Reels and recommended content goes as hoped, there will be plenty of opportunities to reach customers with influencer content in a variety of formats.
While TikTok is certainly on the rise – and can generate huge reach and awareness when influencer campaigns are done right – quality influencer content and campaigns on the platform are becoming more expensive. It’s also harder to predict the success of a video on TikTok or get the level of data on campaign performance as it is on Instagram.
The variety of content formats on Instagram, combined with its deep social elements and suite of advertising and commerce tools , continues to offer marketers numerous opportunities at a variety of price points to reach consumers.
Messaging, the new frontier?
For some time, Meta has been communicating about the shift in content sharing from feeds to private messages , whether on Instagram Direct, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
On Wednesday's call, Meta said its Click-to-Messaging ads product, which lets bu r&d directors email database sinesses run ads on Facebook and Instagram that start a conversation thread on Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram Direct, had so far raised $9 billion in ARR.
For Meta, a key question to be answered is: if content is increasingly shared in messages, what is the purpose of the Instagram or Facebook feed? Speaking at a creators’ roundtable organised by French independent outlet Brut in October, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stressed that the company must adapt to changing user behaviour and interests.
“ Recommendations allow us to drive more reach for creators. What you’re going to see [on Instagram] in the next year is some 9:16 videos in the feed, we’re certainly getting better at recommendations, mostly for the benefit of creators, while also trying to preserve photos ,” Mosseri said.
« Things have changed a lot at Instagram over the last year or two, but things will start to get easier next year because we've learned a lot .»
It's clear that Instagram (and, indeed, Facebook) still has a lot of cards to play. 2023 is set to be something of a make-or-break year for the platform.