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Rage Against the Machine
The Sun is Setting on Instagram’s Reign
Many moons ago, I struck out on a legendary quest to see if I could use my budding digital marketing skill set to become a reputable content creator. Back then in 2016, Instagram was still quickly rising in prominence and organic reach on the platform was at an all time high. Alas, as with all social media eventually, this now is quickly becoming less and less the case. Moreover, in an attempt to compete with the meteoric rise of TikTok, everyone’s favorite photo sharing app has made a hard pivot towards vertical video. These days, it’s meme your way to viral success with Reels or slowly fade into irrelevance.
The recent changes put photographers like myself in a real pickle. We originally came to the Gram to share captivating imagery, not post silly memes just to garner more views. Sadly though, Reels are all that gets pushed out by Instagram’s algorithm these days. As a result, everyone who isn’t pumping out trending videos is seeing a terrifying drop in their engagement. What’s more, unlike with the longer form content that you see on YouTube, short form does not leave much room for nuance or context. As a result, it’s all but impossible to introduce anything in-depth with any degree of detail.
