Instagram's big changes could help small creators

Instagram's announced some big changes to its algorithm. These updates promise "a more equal chance of breaking through to new audiences".

Last week, Instagram's Creators page unveiled updates designed to help small creators fill up more of your feed. The app also wants to give more credit to original content and snuff out content aggregators.

It's a big shake-up for the app, but in short, here's what you need to know:

Traditionally, Instagram accounts with more followers have seen greater reach. Now, the app says it has created a new ranking system where reels get shown to a small audience.

Then, they show the top performing sets of reels to a bigger audience. And the most popular from that group are then shown to a larger group, and so on.

When Instagram identifies 2 or more pieces of "identical" content, only the original one will be recommended on feeds. This means users will see the original content rather than the reposted version.

On top of that, reposted content will come with a visible label linking to the original creator. For now, both the original creator and the account reposting it have the option to remove the label.

Content aggregator accounts who repost unoriginal content 10+ times in the last 30 days will not be recommended on feeds for a 30-day period from when they made their last post. According to Instagram, this won't impact "publishers we've identified who have licensing agreements and/or explicit permissions from content creators".

We think these changes will be inspiring for small content creators, especially those that could be feeling hopeless. Now they finally have a fighting chance at making it big.

Though it's a net-positive, we do wonder if there'll be aggregator accounts that play by the rules whose reach will be unfairly hurt by Instagram's changes.

Overall, this algorithm change definitely levels the playing field for newcomers. So if you're not building a brand on Insta yet, right now might be the fairest shot you've got!