📰 Instagram Introduces New Updates to Improve the User Experience - Is Follow For Follow Dead?!

[Johnny]

The newest updated wasn’t hyped or announced, but it could turn out to be very convenient for some people. If you’re tired of scrolling through the followers list to check out who followed you back - you will love it. Instagram has now made it possible to see if the follow is mutual in an instant. This information will be highlighted at the top of a user’s profile and easily view-able. The update was first released to Android, so it is only logical that iOS users get it sometime soon.

But, this is more than just a simple update. Along with the above mentioned change, a new “Follows You” button will appear under a user’s bio and username, but you will also be able to see mutual followers and your followers which follow the user who’s profile you’re exploring will also be displayed.

Instagram was never secretive about who’s following who, but this makes it a lot easier for the end user - you won’t have to scroll through thousands of people, pay close attention to notifications and whatnot. This makes it easy to see if another person already followed you or not. Businesses and social media influencers alike could really profit from this innovation … or not, depends on how they market on Instagram. It is a great time saver.

In the meantime, the follow/unfollow tactic might slowly die off. The reason why it worked is because Ig didn’t announce people someone unfollowed them, but now this will be easier to see so the reciprocity principle will be broken and you might end up loosing most of the followers you got through follow - unfollow tactics.

The cherry on top is the wider grid, which is not an official update (as only some users have reported on it), but it is being beta tested. The wider grid makes more sense, since smartphone screens are getting bigger and bigger as each year goes by. Bug fixes and performance improvements are a given with any update, so the newest one will definitely take care of some annoying Instagram glitches Instagrammers used to complain about. However, some might find the wider grid update a bit worrying, especially users who’s post create a pattern on their carefully-crafted profile.

Interestingly, this update came after Instagram decided to update the autoplay sound option on videos. No one likes accidentally playing the wrong video in a wrong (or otherwise quiet) environment, so the sound is only on when the user clicks on the speaker icon. In conclusion, Instagram’s recent updates are meant to improve the user experience, which is why they should be welcomed and applauded.

What do you guys think? Are the opportunities to market and grow big accounts on IG closing or is it just now getting interesting?

[ian]

Are the opportunities to market and grow big accounts on IG closing or is it just now getting interesting?

I think they’re doing everything that they can to discourage automation tactics. For better or worse, it’s going to be hard to grow an account by following and unfollowing. If they’ve already limited Like abilities, crippled the feed to show irrelevant and old content, and now they’re attempting to make it obvious to others who has unfollowed, they’re essentially limiting any form of user-driven reach.

Does this mean they’re hoping things will be more organic and less forced by users trying to game the system to build accounts? Yes, they hope so. However, I think they’re made a few fatal mistakes that are making their own business fail.

What they don’t seem to grasp is how much automation and growth due to that, or to users who utilize specific tactics like Follow/Unfollow, mean to the bottom line of their scale. Without accounts growing, they’re going to lose, people will move to the next popular platform when it emerges as better. Instagram is a platform of arrogance and image. If you can’t look the most popular or coolest, you move on to what let’s you feel that way. If you can’t grow your account to be huge, you’re not popular. Based on what they’ve done, they’re making the platform “less better” for anyone using it for gain.

And I think this is their goal, to turn it into FB pages. Forced paid reach to show up, shitty and old content you don’t care about if you don’t pay, and a lousy experience for everyone. Sure it’s under the guise of “better UE,” but that’s not the goal. The goal is for them to profit and for the user to pay for pleasure/purpose on the platform. Pay2Play has a new name, and it’s Instagram.

Much like Facebook, it’s going to become a sinking ship of garbage eventually. It’s not there yet, but they’re digging a grave and hopefully one day the executives realize they’re stupidly targeting the wrong things. Social media should be a place for liberation, sharing, fun. Not paid reach, advertisers, and camgirl spam.

But hey, at least now we don’t get earraped by a 6 month old video while scrolling through our feed at a funeral, right? I mean that’s gotta count for something.

[Grummel1]

I don’t think that it will affect follow/unfollow that much. I don’t think people are that obsessed with who follows them and who unfollowed them that they check it often.

I think it may make results a little worse but not that much.

Just my opinion

[HenryCooper]

It will definitely increase the entry barrier for account growing since you need better, not so well known tactics and you will have higher account costs . Growing will still be possible purely based on how the Instagram ranking algorithm works . Some might see this as a time of ejecting , but this is a time of investing . When markets turn volatile the best profits are about to be made by wise decisions . Chaos is always a moment of opportunity not a moment of fear , for the smart investor . And in the end of the day we are investing money and time into the Instagram market . Some more time then money , but the principle still applies .

[ian]

When markets turn volatile the best profits are about to be made by wise decisions . Chaos is always a moment of opportunity not a moment of fear .

Get off my lawn.

[Verona]

According to my opinion - its big mistake, because:

1. Spam will alive. Follow/unfollow methods will work, cause the main idea to get notification to the end user and make him to check your account/click the link and etc.

2. Growing HQ accounts with follow/unfollow method will be almost impossible

[Johnny]

What they don’t seem to grasp is how much automation and growth due to that, or to users who utilize specific tactics like Follow/Unfollow, mean to the bottom line of their scale.

quite true :), they started to believe their own bullshit

I don’t think people are that obsessed with who follows them and who unfollowed them that they check it often.

This is for you then : Have you ever wondered how you're affecting the people you unfollow?

When markets turn volatile the best profits are about to be made by wise decisions .

Definitely, though most will lose hope and just give up …

[Grummel1]

This is for you then : Have you ever wondered how you're affecting the people you unfollow?

HenryCooper:

There are always some exceptions to every rule I still don’t think it will be a major issue

[Johnny]

I still don’t think it will be a major issue

It can go either way, true We’ll live and see how this one affects everyone… it’s good as a heads up though.

[Verona]

On the other hand - i do not think that all people are stupid, i will explain :

When some big account follows u - u understand that it follows u not because u r super duper famous person/influencer or something else.
It follows u only because the owner of that account wants u to follow back him.

And the main question: to follow or not to follow depends on you. If you like account/ content - u follow back. If not - u don’t

Yes, after update it would be more easy to check your unfollowers, but so what ?)

[Grummel1]

It can go either way, true We’ll live and see how this one affects everyone… it’s good as a heads up though.

For sure, thanks!

On the other hand - i do not think that all people are stupid, i will explain :

When some big account follows u - u understand that it follows u not because u r super duper famous person/influencer or something else.
It follows u only because the owner of that account wants u to follow back him.

And the main question: to follow or not to follow depends on you. If you like account/ content - u follow back. If not - u don’t

Yes, after update it would be more easy to check your unfollowers, but so what ?)

I agree 100%. Might affect it a little, but barely. At least that’s what we all hope

[wortime]

Just my two cents for Zuck:

[acgsport]

To be honest the only account that this slightly bothers me with is my own personal account.

The rest of the accounts i run are still providing value to my followers , just not in a reciprocal friendship kind of way.I think the only people to be a little bit cautious with are your natural following , the people who engage frequently. I try to send a few well spun comments and likes to people who engaged with some of my posts. At least this lets them think i still care

I also saw an interesting message in bio from an account yesterday it said.

“Please dont get mad at me for unfollowing , i am simply doing my job and alerting you about this account”

[ian]

“Please dont get mad at me for unfollowing , i am simply doing my job and alerting you about this account”

I’ve seen a similar message though to be fair it only works with certain types of accounts. I’ve also seen “Follows and unfollows = unfollowed and get blocked” or similar. Some people take it WAY too seriously, which is my concern with this new setting.

[petcobra]

[CosmeticSnob]

Has the following limit increased as well? As far as I know, we are only allowed to follow 7500 people on one instagram account. This means we can only keep so many people HAPPY by returning the follow. I know this is not an issue for established brands. Most of us here are growing accounts, hence we need to keep our followers happy by more than one way (good quality content, constant updates, engagement).
Thanks for the update

[CosmeticSnob]

I agree with your concern.

[petcobra]

well well well… i think the era of follow/unfollow coming to end
but i wont really give up because when old methods die, new methods born
just need to pump up the jam over here in few levels, and we good, sisters.

[Smylie]

You can already see if someone is following you or not following you on Twitter, and follow/unfollow on Twitter is nowhere near dead. Follow/unfollow will never die, don’t be ridiculous, it’s literally a basic function of the app itself.

[ian]

It’s not really ridiculous… Twitter and IG are very different platforms with a very different purpose, user base and demographic.

• People get news and opinions or discussion through Twitter.
• People view images and build self-importance and vanity through IG.

Just because you don’t believe it matters on Twitter, doesn’t mean it won’t matter on another platform. That’s not to say that it does either, but you can’t paint a generic brush.

Considering that so many third party tools were designed to “unfollow those who unfollowed me,” I think it’s far more important than you think, and that’s not something to do with automation or botting, but simply the vanity of people who don’t want to follow someone who doesn’t follow them back.

Up until now, nobody has really been made aware of unfollows by alerts/notifications, unless using these third party tools, so we’ll just have to wait and see how people react within the platform itself, now that the functionality is there. Never die? Maybe, but it may become a much slower method of finding people who want to stick with you and won’t unfollow much faster than before.