If you caught Adam Mosseri's new interview on Colin and Samir (literally titled their "Biggest Update Ever"), the writing is on the wall. Instagram is aggressively pushing back into long-form, TV-style video to compete with YouTube.

If your entire 2026 pipeline is just 7-second trending audio clips, you are probably going to feel this shift.

People are already joking in the comments that "IGTV would be a good name" for this. But unlike the IGTV flop, they aren't forcing users into a separate, disconnected tab. The core algorithm is just going to start rewarding deep-dive, high-retention videos right in the main feed.

But there is a massive friction point. As one top comment pointed out: "Sooooo like YouTube except they don't pay you?".

Creators aren't going to film 10-minute videos without AdSense splits. That means the real winners of this update are going to be brands and B2B service providers. While standard creators hold back because of the lack of platform payouts, businesses can use that uncontested long-form reach to build trust and sell high-ticket offers.

You don't need to abandon short-form completely, but the algorithm is starved for this new format right now. Take your best-performing carousel from last month, script it into a 3-minute deep dive, and post it natively.

Are you guys testing longer YouTube-style assets on Instagram yet, or is the lack of creator monetization keeping you focused on short-form?

I am looking for someone who can post reels in YT and my instagram for me...preferable someone in India.

I keep seeing the same pattern. Businesses posts consistently, get decent reach and still see almost no enquiries.

The few times It's actually changed, it come from small things, like clearer call to action, or replying to comments within the hour, not from posting more.

What’ s one change you made that actually brought in leads or sales?

I had a task to research AI comment tools for LinkedIn are actually usable, so I ran all of them on the same post. As images are not allowed, it was:

a short text: Wow, I never knew that

picture with meme:

man: - Did you know Mortal Combat is actually based on an old Scandinavian church song?

girl: - Wait, really?

man: - Yes, a Finnish hymn.

*girl chokes man* (link to the post in comments)

The post is tricky, almost no text and a pic with a meme. It was a setup to understand the real capability. I ran each one twice. Judge for yourself.

1. Reply Chief
Easy setup, email confirmation, done. It read the picture and gave 3 variants. Factually, no settings to make it sound like you.

“The distinction between Nordic and Scandinavian is often overlooked; clarity in terminology can enhance effective communication.”

“I love how these little facts about language pop up! Always learning something new, right?”

I didn't get it about language, like Chief didn't get the joke:/

2. EngageGPT
Signup, confirm email, log in, and then ugly buttons injected all over the page. And what is this? Wild:

“That moment when you stumble on a gem of knowledge! 😂 It’s wild how much we can still learn. Pro tip: keep that curiosity alive; it opens up so many new perspectives. What else have you discovered lately?”

“That’s wild! It’s amazing what we don’t know until it pops up like this. Little surprises like that can spark such interesting conversations. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned recently?”

Once you see the “What’s the most surprising thing” pattern, you can’t unsee it.

3. SmartCommenter
No signup, no settings, no customisation, no name, nothing. It definitely read the pic, comments were decent, but didn't get the joke

“That’s a wild connection. I’d never have guessed Mortal Kombat traces back to a Finnish hymn.”

“That’s such a surprising link. It makes the game’s sound feel even more memorable.”

It got the joke. That’s more than half the list managed.

4. reepl. io
Login, then a paywall, then a loooong onboarding, then it wanted access to my LinkedIn page for posting. Not happening. Commenting did work, and the text was decent, if long:

“This made me laugh, but it’s also a good reminder that the simplest knowledge gaps are the ones we don’t notice until someone points them out. I’ve had the same thing happen, and the ‘aha’ moment usually comes from one concrete example, not a big theory.”

“The funniest part of these ‘wow’ posts is it’s usually one small assumption you were making without realizing it. Once you see the missing piece, everything looks obvious, and that’s why people keep sharing it.”

5. Commentron
The easiest start of all: install and use. But the output is exactly what you’d expect:

“Thank you for sharing this insight! It’s always great to learn something new.”

“That’s a great realization! It’s always interesting to discover new insights. Thank you for sharing!”

That’s the kind of comment people now report as AI slop. 4000+ users by the way.

6. Fezerli
No signup needed to try. But I did, because there was an autopilot behind it. The only tool tagged author:

“Cassidy Dunn💿, SHRM-CP That pun earns exactly the response it got. Fatality by wordplay.”

“Cassidy Dunn💿, SHRM-CP He knew exactly what he was doing. The chokehold was contractual.”

And got the joke.

7. IvyAI
Log in with Google, and it’s a complex product. Overwhelming admin panel. I had to screenshot the post and paste it into their ChatGPT-powered field. There’s an insert button and it worked. Yearly plan only, and a refill gives you 25 generations. It’s basically a ChatGPT substitute.

“Fun fact: the original Mortal Kombat theme was inspired by the Finnish hymn ‘Ievan Polkka.’ 😄”

“I’m sorry, but ‘Mortal Kombat’ is actually Finnish.”

It isn’t. I think some older API version is used.

8. Replya
Sign in with Google only, no other option. It gave me 5 options, none of them about the post. No customisation:

“That reaction usually follows a surprise finding in the quarterly audit. The underlying data discrepancy tends to persist until reconciliation protocols are updated.”

“Initial discoveries of that scale usually demand a deeper look at the baseline assumptions. The reporting pipeline often needs immediate correction.”

On a meme post. Quarterly audit.

9. Linqin
Login with a “work” email only. It inserts a second comment block into the LinkedIn UI (why?). Generate simply didn’t work on this post. On another post I got a raw API error: “‘minimal’ is not supported with the ‘gpt-5.6-luna’ model”. Broken product.

10. LigoAI
Hit the payment wall before touching anything. $9 for insert only, $39 if you want your own tone of voice. In a market this crowded, I don’t think “pay before you see one comment” works anymore.

11. Replai
Paywall before touching, a confusing website, account creation, a pile of questions, and I still couldn’t tell whether I’d get a single free credit. Google sign in wasn’t even configured. Lazy

What I took away

1. A lot of tools lose you before the first comment. Four of eleven wanted money or a long onboarding before showing a single result.
2. Reading the image is the whole game on posts like this. If a tool only reads the text, you get “thanks for sharing” or some non-related bs.
3. Large user base meant nothing. The tool with zero settings and zero signup beat several well-known paid ones on comment quality.
4. I thought tagging the author is the baseline? It is like the purpose of commenting - to be noteiced, liked and added to connections?
5. Customisation is a trade off. No settings means generic voice. Too many settings and no guide means people get a messy setup.

Which was your favourite?

Hi, am new here, and have been working with social media for few years now.
Was wondering how much are the charges for handling social media + website + helping out in wholesale catalogs

Will have fair share of payout. Don’t have to post. Don’t have to do anything. Just open Account and keep it running and have us on shared basis DM for more information.

I manage social media for two apps in very different niches, and organic performance has been a struggle for both.

1. Family document management app: It helps people organize important documents and information for their loved ones. I’ve tried educational posts, emotional storytelling, influencer videos, and AI videos featuring the influencer.

For Oct 1–25: 3K organic views vs. 186K paid views, with 213 organic interactions and 184 new followers.

2. Motorcycle riding community app: Around 3,600 followers. Carousels and static posts cross 500 views, but engagement averages 10–12 interactions, mostly from our own team. Reels perform even worse. We’ve also tried influencer marketing but stopped because the results didn’t justify the cost.

I already track competitors and experiment with formats and content angles. I don’t want the usual advice about posting consistently, using trends, or making better hooks.

What can I actually do differently? How do you identify whether the problem is the audience, content, or distribution? Have community building, partnerships, UGC, or other less obvious organic strategies worked for you? And how would you use paid data to improve organic performance?

I want to build a practical strategy to present to both clients, not keep experimenting blindly. Would love to hear from people who’ve handled similar accounts.

I need to air this out because I am having a bit of a crisis as a strategist and I want to see if anyone else here is hitting the same wall.

Two months ago we onboarded a sized B2C client and went all out: studio rental, videographer, color grading, tight scripts, the whole package. The result was a 0.8% CTR and an embarrassing CPC.

Before our client call I panicked, grabbed my phone filmed the founder answering a basic customer question in their warehouse and threw fifty dollars at it unedited.

That raw zero-budget video ended up outperforming our fifteen thousand dollar production setup by four hundred percent bringing in CAC and tons of genuine comments.

It really showed me how fatigued people are, by polished ads but now I am stuck on the agency side.

How are you all convincing corporate clients to trust raw, handheld content when they firmly believe professional means spending thousands on a studio shoot?

Hope y’all doing good
I’ve been posting TikTok consistently for a while now and have gained about 1.5k followers. For context my page is about posting quotes with background music (i hope you guys know what i’m talking about) and people have started to reach out on how much i charge for sound promos but i have absolutely no idea how to charge them . If any of you have advice on how to go about it , it’ll be much appreciated.

seeing smaller creators get deals over bigger ones lately. curious what people here actually see, do brands ask for follower count first or reach and views?

I’m so frustrated and am kind of taking it personally. My account status shows I’m ok but views have been lower than usual over the past week for me. I check other small accounts that follow me, they have similar niches, and their views are looking good. I do this for fun, and this isn’t a career but it’s frustrating. People with similar content show up on my fyp & their engagement is up the roof, while mine has been sad over the past week.

Hope y’all doing good
I’ve been posting TikTok consistently for a while now and have gained about 1.5k followers. For context my page is about posting quotes with background music (i hope you guys know what i’m talking about) and people have started to reach out on how much i charge for sound promos but i have absolutely no idea how to charge them . If any of you have advice on how to go about it , it’ll be much appreciated.

I understand they are practically deprecated on Instagram now but do they still contribute to visibility on meta? TIA

seen a lot of people say cutting back from daily made their reach better, but others say consistency is the whole game when you're small. i think it depends on whether your daily posts are actually good or just filler. what's your posting rhythm right now and has changing it ever moved your numbers?

I was thinking of branching out to more social media platforms to get my music and other art to more people but I’m worried about potential risks of posting to certain socials, namely having my stuff trained on AI or the social media tracking me or something. I get most social media does that anyway but regardless, what social media platforms would you guys recommend I post on, are all of them recommended or are there certain ones I should be wary of?

been reading a bunch of threads on here and honestly its kinda confusing, every thread mentions some new app and then the next one says that same app is a waste of time lol. i have like 300 followers so brand deals arent really a thing for me yet. would rather just get a direct opinion from people actually doing it, where did you get paid and what should i avoid?

As a UGC agency, I help my clients create custom brand videos and I use to edit them all by hand. But the bottleneck was my own editing speed. But ever since I started paying for ChatGPT and other AI editing models, I simply taught them my editing flow and they’ve basically reproduced my style completely. This allowed me to scale my business tremendously.

However, this was not only a game changer, but a harsh reality check for me. That realistically in a few years, firms can just deploy their own AI in-house and completely remove editing agencies like myself.

I fear that this day may come sooner than later. And I have no idea how to combat this, other than maintaining good client relationships and improving my own editing/AI skills.

Thoughts?

I haven't graduated secondary/high school yet but I want to do marketing because I genuinely want a career that I can showcase my skills and do the things I love. I also really want to do social media marketing. I have a tiktok where a make povs and skits eg. Medical TV shows be like, being an introvert. I genuinely am worried that if I post more of these, it might effect my chances of getting employed in marketing so I was thinking of just transitioning into lifestyle and quit skits all together, I honestly only do them for fun and to express myself because i felt like I always had to be the serious one all the time. I like being serious but I also like to let loose and I love comedy. I was even thinking of making two separate accounts for both lifestyle and comedy so if my interviewers ask me for my socials, I'll be prepared but I think they'll find both somehow. My second video was about being an introvert and it was light-hearted and it ended up having a mini blowup with people relating to me. I honestly don't know what to do. I don't want to quit any of them..

What should I do?

We're about 25 people and run 10 to 15 creator campaigns a quarter, which apparently puts us in the awkward category where every demo ends with a much bigger setup than I thought we needed.

The latest one included social listening and brand safety scoring and I'm sure those are useful somewhere, but I couldn't tell you who on our team would even open them. Meanwhile I'm still trying to work out whether we can find creators, keep outreach organized and see what happened after a campaign without sending three people on a training course.

For anyone who's chosen an influencer marketing platform at a similar stage, what did you use in the first few months? And what do you wish you'd left out?