Instagram Looking at a Full Screen Home Feed: Why Short-Form Video Matters in Social Media Marketing

Credit: Adam Mosseri

Instagram moves another step closer to replicating the unique selling propositions of its closest competitor, TikTok, as it tests a full-screen home feed. According to a Tweet by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, the platform is “moving to a place where video is a bigger part of the home experience.” And in doing so, videos and photos will be taking up the entire screen, similar to TikTok’s interface. Instagram has rolled the test to select users, aiming to learn if these changes are feasible for the platform.

An image shared by Instagram shows a full-screen vertical video with actionable functions like “hearting” posts and posting comments placed at the bottom. What’s missing is the bar with which users can view their friends’ “Stories.” According to a Meta spokesperson, the classic home screen, along with the Stories bar at the top, will appear once users begin scrolling. While functionalities like new posts, messages, and notifications remain on the top portion of the home screen, Reels, Stories, Shopping, and the user profile will be moved to the bottom.

These developments were clearly made in response to the continuing popularity of TikTok. The short-form video sharing application was the most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2022, and Instagram wants a large share of that pie. After all, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg has admitted that Reels—Meta’s TikTok clone—has become the company’s “fastest-growing content format, by far.” TikTok is also seen as one of the reasons for Meta’s slow-growing ad revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Besides attempting to trump TikTok, the Instagram full-screen home feed favors a particular content format that today’s consumers prefer—short-form video.

A Magnet of Engagements

On Facebook, users spend 50% of their time on the platform watching videos. And on Instagram, viewing Reels already account for over 20% of the time spent on the platform by users. Likewise, YouTube Shorts garners 30 billion collective views daily. These social media usage statistics point to a potential shift in the preferences of social media users, a trend that digital marketers should take note of.

Perhaps the most glaring fact about the popular content format is its average engagement rate. Videos under a minute in length carry an impressive engagement rate of 50%, higher than other video durations. Furthermore, TikTok’s average engagement rate (5.96%) dwarfs that of Instagram (0.83), Facebook (0.13%), and Twitter (0.05%). As such, TikTok has become the second most popular social platform for influencer marketing, behind only Instagram.

This possibly explains why TikTok has been eating into Meta’s ad revenues. After all, increasing engagements is one of the chief targets of brands and marketers. With a 91% share, Facebook continues to be the most used platform by marketers, followed by Instagram (78%). However, TikTok is expected to creep up behind the two. For 2022, it has the largest increase in planned new brand platform investment (84%), higher than that of YouTube (66%) and Instagram (64%).

TikTok’s sustained domination and Meta hopping on the short-form video bandwagon come are telltale signs that the widely-used content format will be a force in social media marketing. It would be wise for digital marketers to make ample room for short videos in their playbooks.