Instagram's 'best practices' tell you EXACTLY how to be good at--itself?

Looking to grow your following on socials? We sure hope so. I mean, you subscribed to this newsletter, after all!

This deep desire held by millions is why Instagram recently released 'Best Practices.'

This feature gives business and creator account-holders specific advice on how to grow their following on, well, Instagram.

Make no mistake, there's good reason to be taking tips from Instagram itself if you're looking for success on the app! But when it comes to garnering followers by making content more on your terms, there's a lingering question mark.

Hold on, doesn't Insta already tell me what I should or shouldn't be posting?

Yes, but we're not just talking about reminders on Insta's content guidelines. We're talking about Insta giving specific, even personalised tips on how to best take advantage of the app and its users.

To understand exactly how it works, I asked our scriptwriter and part-time content creator Buskey Sharma (@whoisbuskey) what kinds of tips he was receiving. Turns out, Insta thinks he needs to 'focus on deeper engagement' and make creating Reels 'part of [his] routine'! Interesting......

In a broader sense, Insta's pushing creators to post more shortform videos, to keep them under 90 seconds, and to post them often.

While quick-fire vertical videos have been the thing for a few years, the platform isn't just pushing Reels to help creators be 'with it.' In CEO Adam Mosseri's own words, Reels help keep the business going (and able to compete with TikTok).

But is a platform telling creators how to make content a good thing?

We see this is a bit of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, nobody knows Insta better than Insta itself. For it to be directly telling users how to take advantage of its algorithm is pretty major.

However, by placing guardrails around the path to success, there's a chance Insta's head honchos could be stifling creativity, originality and innovation.

We asked our own head honcho, Stanley Henry, what he thinks. He reckons Best Practices will be a good thing -- so long as one big asterisk is addressed.

'Instagram's listening to data and using it to teach users, and they're not dumb. They know what they're saying is right because the data says so,' he says.

'But Insta and other Meta platforms are notorious for how tightly they manage data. If they shared more data and analytics with creators, there'd be better understanding of WHY they encourage some practices.

'You look at YouTube for example, they monetise themselves best. They've always shared their data with creators and they've always explained to them why their videos did well, down to what gets shown in the first few seconds of a 10-minute video.

'The thing with Meta platforms - Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - is that they've never thought about themselves as creative businesses. Instead, they see themselves as connection businesses. That made sense maybe 10 years ago, but now users want to watch more content, not just follow people and celebrities.

Meta's losing out on the time and attention economy to platforms like TikTok. So they need to help their creators be better so that users stay longer, and ultimately the business does better.'

Yep, makes perfect sense to me!

-Devin, Copywriter