Can you believe that Instagram is officially 10 years old? Gossip Genie celebrated it’s 10-year anniversary just a few months ago which means that there once was a time when our social media strategy did not involve the use of Instagram. It’s hard to remember what our planning meetings looked like in those early years, but we know they involved Excel Spreadsheets and grainy low-res photos with high-contrast filters. We’re grateful that clients like Vienna Beef and Kernel Seasons have stuck with us as we navigated the ever-changing social media landscape. We sure have come a long way together!
To honor this milestone in social media history, we’re taking a look back at the ways our Instagram marketing strategy has changed over the last decade. Take a walk down memory lane with us:
2010-2012:
Like the early-adopters that we are, the Genies were quick to the Instagram scene with artsy filtered photos and straight-forward captions. By 2011’s standards, I’d say we were a few followers away from being macro-influencers.
At this time, Instagram was mostly a photo app for personal use and it would be a few more years before we recommended Instagram for our brands.
In 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 Billion, and sure enough, an advertising platform followed shortly after. By the end of that year, brands were starting to pop up on Instagram and Gossip Genie launched their page in addition to client pages. Many brands were hesitant to jump on board since they had viewed the platform as a bit non-serious– plus, you could only link to your website through the Instagram bio. However, we encouraged our clients to create a profile so they could stay relevant among their younger audiences.
Admittedtly, weren’t quite as savvy with hashtags as we are now, but they were a relatively new development.
From 2014 to 2016, the Instagram feed looked much more similar to the way it does now. Since the acquisition from Facebook, Instagram slowly moved away from being a photo-sharing platform and developed into a heavily monetized lifestyle platform. Gone were the days of only using phone photography and posting on-the-fly; content creators, brands, and influencers became more savvy and creative and audiences grew to expect more from the pages they followed.
At Gossip Genie, we started planning brand photoshoots for Instagram and developed content strategies much further in advance. The “Instagram Aesthetic,” entered the chat and we became much more mindful of what our client’s Instagram feeds looked like.
Instagram Stories launched in late 2016 but the features were very limited. We used them sparingly since, at the time, they were mostly intended for behind-the-scenes content and many users viewed them as a knockoff of Snapchat. We had no idea that they would become such a large part of our strategy in the years to come.
2017 was a big year for Instagram. Carousel posts had launched in 2016, but they really grew in popularity in 2017, allowing us to share more photos and get a bit more creative with our in-feed posts.
Instagram also launched Story Highlights and added new features to Instagram Stories, meaning that we had to quickly pivot to make our Instagram Stories more branded and worth saving. While you still couldn’t upload a pre-designed graphic, you could get a bit more creative with GIF stickers and colorful fonts and backgrounds. By late 2017, many Millennial users were saying “Snapchat, who?”
The Instagram algorithm also changed drastically in 2017 when they introduced the new user feed. Posts were no longer seen in chronological order and influencers PANICKED. They begged users to subscribe to their page for updates in case they missed their posts altogether. Like most brand updates, it ended up not being as much of a detriment as we expected.
Lastly, Instagram launched the “archive” feature which allowed you to hide posts from your social media without permanently deleting them. This helped us clean up the Instagram feed aesthetic for many of our clients since we could remove old posts from the feed without the fear of permanently deleting the engagement and insights. It also allowed us to unearth this photo and caption from Genie Janelle’s Instagram. Thanks to the archive feature, this is her first Instagram post on her feed.
With 2018 came the ability to schedule Instagram posts in advance and it was a GAME-CHANGER for social media managers everywhere. Can you believe we had to manually publish all of the content we shared on Instagram in all of those years prior!? Scheduling posts in advance allowed us to spend more time and attention on Instagram Stories and Instagram ads, and also enabled us to be more strategic about when posts went live.
As you can see, our Instagram Story highlights improved dramatically from 2017 to 2018 as Instagram also now allowed you to upload pre-designed images. This made a world of difference as we did live social media coverage at events such as the National ProStart Invitational.
Instagram also rolled out product tags in 2018, making it easier for users to shop directly from Instagram. Lastly, they introduced IGTV so brands could post more long-form videos on their page.
From 2019 to present day, Instagram has added in the ability to Instagram Story Reels as a response to the increasing popularity of TikTok. Since the launch of Reels, Gossip Genie has started partnering up with influencers to create branded 15-second videos for our client’s pages.
We can’t even imagine the changes that will unfold in the next 10 years of Instagram marketing, but we know that we’ll be quick to adapt and help our brands take advantage of emerging trends! Bring it on, Instagram.
If you’d like to work together to bring your Instagram page to the next level, click here to get in touch.
