Hatcha

Grid perfection is out. Staying on topic is in.

Instagram is shifting. Soon you’ll be able to edit your feed by adding and removing topics. With Reels driving discovery, it’s no longer about who you follow, but what you’re interested in.

Captions, keywords and alt text will decide whether your content is seen.

Social media often gets a bad press - sometimes for very good reasons. But we don't always talk about the positives which also come from time spent exploring the online world. Or how the old and the new sometimes join together in trends such as 'booktok'.

Traditional book publishers report sales are up 5% since 2020 with many attributing part of this increase to 'booktokkers'. As the parent of a teen I've been surprised (and a little bit thrilled) to watch my child settling down with a book inspired by a video on TikTok.

Now if I could just get my husband to stop singing 2021 TikTok sea shanty viral hit all would be well!

Have you come across any unusual trends on social media? I'd love to hear more in the comments.

Did you know? Last week Instagram rolled out 2 new ways to view content.

Your Home feed, which is chosen by algorithm remains unchanged. But click on the Instagram icon at the top of the page and you'll find new tabs:

✅ Following - showing you content from accounts you follow in chronological order

✅ Favourites - a feed where you can choose up to 50 account whose content you don't want to miss.

Have you tried the new feeds yet? It will be interesting to see if it changes posting habits. Will people post more to boost chances of appearing in the Following accounts. Will we suddenly start seeing calls to action to 'Favourite' accounts. Or does this just mark a stepping stone to a pumped up algorithmic feed - much more like TikTok where you are often show content from accounts you don't follow (but TikTok thinks you might enjoy!).

Let me know what you think in the comments.