Social & Digital Update: Adam Mosseri & Everything You Need To Know About The Head Of Instagram
Who?
Adam Mosseri, 37, has been Head of Instagram for 3 years this October. Mosseri got his start in social media working as a product designer for Facebook, and moved up the ranks quickly, acting as the VP of News Feed before his move to Instagram. In his time at facebook he collected a Business Insider “Power Player” award for his impact on the company. In his time as CEO to date he has spearheaded some of Instagram’s biggest changes, notably he was involved with its new algorithm, and the option to remove “likes” from your profile, and he has self professed that as CEO, he doesn’t mind making changes to the platform that may lose users, if it helps shift the conversation on how social media affects our mental health.
The Inside of Instagram
Mosseri has been on a mission in the past 3 years to demystify Instagram as a platform. As it has made changes to progress past its beginning as a photo sharing platform, Mosseri has been along with it, making weekly videos on his personal account to explain why and how they’re implementing change on the app. By humanising the process, the CEO has been able to create a more user-friendly experience, and for those involved in Social Media professionally, the information has become invaluable.
Along with weekly updates on Instagram’s inner workings, Mosseri hosts regularly live-streamed Q&As on his profile, whereby he’s answered questions surrounding everything from racism to newsfeeds on the app. It’s pretty reasonable to assume the need for this open conversation stems from Mosseri’s involvement in the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, which played a massive role in his push towards the spotlight. Mosseri became very vocal around this time around Facebook’s stance on “fake news”.
Blending Professional and Personal
Mosseri’s take on his own Instagram is interesting, with almost 881k followers as of August 2021, his feed still shows family and friends, mixed in with infographics about Instagram updates and Q&A updates specifically regarding the platform. By mixing the two, his audience seems to be getting a transparent look into his day to day life, though we’re sure more goes on behind the scenes at Instagram than is shown.
Why should we follow?
What’s so interesting about Mosseri’s approach to his role, is when changes are made, the use of his personal instagram account and beliefs suggest the changes are always for the better of the consumer. For example, on July 27th a post was put up regarding children under 16 on the app, and the changes to their set up and settings. To open this update, Mosseri begins with “As a dad of three, I know it’s important to create an Instagram experience for young people that’s safe and private but also fun”. There’s an element of personal involvement we typically don’t see from those in charge. It makes the updates stand out, and for various reasons can make them incredibly interesting. Not to mention, Mosseri almost always uses very plain language to describe algorithmic changes or updates, therefore opening the door wider for social media understanding within the public, these updates are for the general public and not specifically for professionals in the field to use. However, with this presentation it does give incredibly useful information on how the public react to changes in Instagram, and which would be useful to implement in campaign strategies for those who work with, or in, the field.
As Instagram ushers in a new wave of changes post Reels, and moves towards becoming a bigger competitor for apps such as Tiktok or Byte, it will be interesting to see how this CEO manages to keep his updates grounded on his profile, or what moves he may take next to humanise the global force of Facebook and Instagram.