If something is trending, Instagram will find a way to bring it to the platform. We all know this game, so it was a matter of time to see how the most popular digital trend would say hello to Meta’s social channel.
Following last month’s announcement to change its ranking algorithm to benefit original content, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a new step in the valuing of content creators on Instagram. He said the platform is starting to test ways for users to share NFTs that they made or bought in their channels.
The tests already began with only a group of US users being able to display NFTs in their feed, stories and messages. We are going to analyze it in this article.
Decentralized power on a centralized platform
According to Mosseri: “It’s a limited number of people to start with, and there are many more functionalities that we’re going to need to build over time, but we wanted to start small and learn more from the community.”
But NFTs and Blockchain technologies are all about distributing trust and power. So, how can Instagram, a centralized platform that is part of a company that isn’t on good trust terms with its users, eliminate the tension between those fundamental aspects?
Mosseri said that one of the reasons why they’re starting with small tests is that they are working on that. In his words: “We want to make sure we work out how to embrace those tenets of distributed trust and distributed power, despite the fact that we are, yes, a centralized platform.”
At first, the supported blockchains for showcasing NFT on the platform are Ethereum and Polygon, and the third-party wallets compatible for use are Rainbow, MetaMask and Trust Wallet.
Although Instagram isn’t the first social platform to support NFTs (as Twitter added NFTs to the timeline as hexagon-shaped profile pictures), we know how powerful the brand itself is, so, bringing the technology to the biggest social media platform can do a lot for this niche of creators, which may be a game changer for the creator economy, and to transform NFTs into a popular type of content after growing more than 11,000% last year.
What kind of changes can we expect on the platform and on the big picture?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that soon the feature will be available on Facebook, and also that the company is working with augmented reality to bring life to 3D NFTs.
Apparently, content creation is reaching another level and generating great opportunities for creators. And, since we’re talking about user retention, we can expect similar features for the other main channels, such as TikTok and YouTube, as all of them seem to be competing for the same features and audience.
If your brand plans to enter the NFT universe, the results from this closed test can directly drive your strategy in the near future. If you want inspiration on how to get started, I recommend our article showing how brands are building their NFT strategies.
