Instagram’s Vertical Makeover & MySpace Nostalgia 🎶

TODAY’S EDITION

• Instagram tests a vertical profile grid—a breakdown of why it makes sense.

• Instagram taps into 2000s MySpace nostalgia with Music on Profiles.

• As shareable content gains importance, Instagram adds new metrics for Shares in Insights.

• Threads adds Custom Feeds, allowing users to create feeds tailored to their interests.

• YouTube experiments with mixing long-form and short-form videos in a single feed for content discovery.

• YouTube partners with Shopify to expand shopping features, ramping up competition with TikTok Shop.

• LinkedIn rolls out ‘Videos for You,’ spotlighting its fastest-growing content format.

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DEEP DIVE

Instagram's Shift to Vertical: A Vertical Profile Grid and More Vertical-First Experiences

Instagram is testing a vertical profile grid format, displaying posts as rectangles instead of the traditional square format. This change was initially discovered by several creators, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri later confirmed the test during a recent Ask Me Anything session.

Reactions By Creators

As expected, some creators have expressed frustration, particularly those who have carefully curated their profile grids and Reels covers for the square format. Despite this short-term disruption, the change aligns with broader content trends on Instagram for a few reasons.

The Shift to Vertical Content

The majority of content today is vertical—photos in 4:3 and videos in 9:16. As Mosseri noted, the square format was initially used because it was the only option available when Instagram first launched. However, with the introduction of Stories and Reels, vertical formats have become more prevalent.

Additionally, most content is discovered and consumed outside of profiles, such as in feeds, recommendations, or direct messages. While a well-curated profile aesthetic can be important for a creator or brand’s presence, the visual impact of the grid is less critical in the broader context of content discovery and consumption.

More Vertical-First Experiences

Instagram is increasingly prioritizing vertical-first experiences across the platform. Beyond a vertical profile grid, the platform is optimizing the entire user experience to align with vertical-first content, such as:

• Full-Screen Mode: Spotted for Reels, this feature allows users to watch Reels in full-screen without any user interface elements like the account handle, caption, or engagement count—similar to TikTok’s Clear Mode.

  Recent Stories: A carousel of Stories from people users follow, appearing in the feed between posts.

  Story Highlights Tab: A dedicated tab for Story Highlights on profiles may be in development. 

What Could Come Next

All of this raises the question of whether Instagram will eventually attempt to relaunch the Full-Screen feed it tested in 2022, which was quickly rolled back after backlash. That feed was focused on video and suggested posts, which was one of the biggest issues users had with it. However, if Instagram can ensure that single photo posts and Carousels get love and that people still see posts from those they follow, it might be better received.

NEWS, TRENDS & INSIGHTS

Meta

Instagram Lets Users Add Music to Their Profiles

Instagram has launched Music on Profile, allowing users to add a 30-second song clip to the bio section of their profile via a new "Music" option in "Edit Profile." Profile visitors can play and pause the track, and users can save and set the song to their own profiles.

The feature launched in partnership with pop singer Sabrina Carpenter, who used it to share an exclusive teaser of her new song "Taste," which was available only on her profile until her full album dropped today (August 23rd).

Why It Matters: This feature brings a touch of 2000s MySpace nostalgia, allowing users to express themselves through music by showcasing their favorite songs on their profile.

Teaming up with Carpenter for her new release also highlights the benefits for artists. It provides a platform to promote their upcoming songs through Instagram and encourages fan-generated content. As an Instagram exclusive, it can drive user engagement as fans flock to the platform to hear songs before they hit streaming services or other platforms like TikTok.

TikTok has been a go-to social platform for music discovery and aims to maintain that position with several new initiatives launched in recent months. However, Instagram has been increasing its presence in the music space, launching Add Yours Music stickers and adding music in Notes and video Carousels, suggesting it might be looking to make a deeper impact.

Instagram Adds New Shares Metrics In Insights

Instagram appears to be in the process of updating Insights after announcing that Views would become a primary metric across content. While that major change hasn’t happened yet, there have been a few recent updates to Insights. One is the ability to sort content performance based on Shares. When viewing Accounts Reached or Accounts Engaged under By Top Content in the Professional Dashboard, users can now filter by Shares and sort by Highest, Lowest, and Most Recent.

Why It Matters: Adding more insights around Shares aligns with Instagram’s emphasis on shareable content. Providing creators and brands with a snapshot of content performance based on shares can help identify trends and guide the creation of more shareable content. This is important as Instagram is increasingly ranking content shared between friends and family via direct messages more heavily in its recommendations.

While it’s not the Shares Per Reach metric that Mosseri has emphasized, it’s likely that will be added eventually, offering users even more granular data to refine their content strategies.

Threads Rolls Out Custom Feeds for a More Personalized Content Experience

Threads has rolled out Custom Feeds for both desktop and mobile. Users can choose from hashtags, keywords, and profiles to create feeds, which they can also name. Once saved, the feed will appear in the Your Feeds section, alongside other feeds like Following, Liked, and Saved.

Why It Matters: Custom Feeds allow users to create feeds that are uniquely tailored to their interests and passions. This helps them stay up-to-date with the people and content they want to see, rather than sifting through algorithmic feeds or going directly to people’s profiles. This feature can benefit those who want to use Threads for news and timely content.

Custom Feeds bring another X-like experience and continue to improve Threads as a product. Other recent notable updates for Threads include content planning and insights tools and a new Media tab on profiles.

YouTube

YouTube Experiments With Displaying Long-Form Videos In the Shorts Feed

YouTube is experimenting with new content discovery experiences on the Watch Page and in Shorts. Viewers in this test may encounter various video formats in different experiences, such as long-form videos appearing in the Shorts feed or new feeds dedicated to long-form content.

Why It Matters: This aims to expose viewers to a wider range of creators, formats, and video lengths. By integrating long-form videos into the Shorts feed—which garners over 70 billion views daily—YouTube can introduce viewers to content they might not typically engage with, like long-form videos. With videos still eligible for recommendations across the platform, creators have new opportunities to reach more viewers.

This move comes after YouTube added live streams to the Shorts feed, reflecting a growing trend of mixing content formats across traditionally single-format feeds, similar to Instagram's integration of Carousels in the Reels tab.

YouTube Expands Its Shopping Affiliate Program to Shopify Merchants 

YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify, allowing eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the US to join YouTube Shopping’s affiliate program. Merchants can sign up through the Google and YouTube app on Shopify and manage their programs via Google Merchant Center.

Why It Matters: Shopify merchants can now collaborate with verified creators to showcase their products and reach new audiences, paying only commissions when sales are generated. Creators gain access to a vast array of new products from various brands, which they can feature in their videos and live streams, with the potential to earn commission-based revenue.

With over 30 billion hours of shopping-related videos watched in 2023, YouTube’s recent enhancements to its Shopping program, such as easier product tagging and a Chrome extension, are likely to drive more shopping content on the platform. While it’s still evolving, YouTube is positioning itself to better compete with TikTok, which has been focused on strengthening TikTok Shop.

YouTube Introduces AI-Powered Support Assistant to Help Creators Recover from Hacks

YouTube has launched a new troubleshooting tool designed to assist creators in recovering their accounts if they are hacked. Available in the Help Center, this AI-powered support assistant guides creators through a series of questions to secure their Google login and reverse any changes made by hackers.

Currently, the tool is available only in English and has some features limited to specific creators, but YouTube plans to expand it to all creators soon.

Why It Matters: For many creators, their YouTube channel is their entire business, and a compromised channel can lead to severe financial and professional repercussions. This assistant is a crucial resource for account recovery, helping to mitigate the impact of hacking incidents.

It complements other recent YouTube initiatives aimed at enhancing creator protection, including improvements to the warning system for violations and updates to the appeal process for the Partner Program.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Rolls Out Videos For You—Recommended Videos in Feed

LinkedIn has rolled out Videos For You, a carousel of six recommended vertical videos that appear in the feed, similar to Instagram’s Suggested Reels feature on mobile. It typically appears after a handful of posts

in the feed. Users can scroll horizontally through the carousel, where videos auto-play with the sound off. Tapping a video opens it in LinkedIn’s immersive video experience, allowing users to watch in full screen, swipe vertically to explore more, or return to the feed.

Why It Matters: Videos For You highlights LinkedIn’s big push for video content, which follows the launch of a dedicated Video tab and the Wire Program for in-stream video ads on publisher content. According to Microsoft’s recent earnings call, video is LinkedIn’s fastest-growing format, with a 34% increase in uploads and 1.4x more engagement than other content types.

This current success with video, combined with the prominent space that occupies in the feed and the additional touchpoint it provides for video discovery and consumption, should encourage creators and brands to push out more videos on LinkedIn.

THANK YOU

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