Reorder Your Instagram Grid
Instagram is letting us rearrange our profile grids to any configuration we want.

Overall, it’s a simple process but should you rearrange the grid? What are the benefits? Could there be negative impacts?

Some people are beyond excited for this new update and others are completely disinterested in it. But I want to break down what this does for you as a brand and a business in terms of your overall Instagram strategy.

What You Need to Know

The new feature allows users to easily reorder their posts on their profile. If you have access, you’ll see the option to reorder your grid when you long press on any thumbnail in your profile grid. If you don’t see the option, you don’t have it yet. Be patient!

To reorder your grid:

1) Long press on any post and choose “Reorder grid” from the pop up menu.

4. Repeat until all the posts you want moved are complete.

Things to note

Instagram has rolled this feature out primarily to serve creators. This is for those accounts who want to keep content batched together or move less relevant or lower performing posts out of the “top posts” on the grid - or conversely, keep moving higher performing content to the top of the grid.

But this also takes away the chronological aspect of Instagram. Aside from pinned posts, you knew that going to someone’s profile would show you their most recent content at the top of the profile. That chronological journey was a story in itself, watching a brand’s content evolve over time and with trends and features.

Now, there is no expectation of chronology. Profiles can be curated to tell visitors the story we want them to see - the content we prefer, the messaging we want them to see, the high performing posts and vanity metrics that make us look “better”.

From an authenticity standpoint, I don’t like this option. I don’t like that we can dilute our brand story to only the highlights and performative content we think makes us look good. I don’t like that we can take new visitors to a cultivated path of content that is somewhat misleading and lacks the varied stories that really share who we are.

Ultimately, this is what we do on our websites. This is what we do in our marketing - we show the best content and the messaging we hope will convert the most customers. So, it’s taking the social story telling out of our Instagram and further positioning it as a full marketing tool.

IF…

you choose to use it as such.
Many brands and creators will. They will rearrange and configure the messaging to meet their goals and tactics.

Others won’t. They’ll leave the story, the low performing posts, and the evolution of content for their audience to enjoy as it was originally created. Honest, real, and flawed even.

The great thing is that now you have the CHOICE.

Let’s look at some reasons why and scenarios where the ability to reorganize your content may help you.

If you create multi-part content (Reels in 3 parts, for example) but this content gets spaced out with other posts in between, you could easily rearrange the content to put Parts 1, 2, and 3 all together, making it more visually appealing and more accessible to your viewers.

If you work in real estate, you might want to move your current listings to the top of your profile to give them better visibility. As a caution though, you might want to move them back down the grid after they sell, and you don’t want to put too many listings at the top or new visitors won’t see all the other content you have to offer that is actually of value to them.

If you’re an entrepreneur or consultant and have an active campaign for a new resource or service offering, you could batch all those pieces of content together with the first one at the top of the feed and the last one lower in the feed (reverse chronological) so that new visitors see them in the order they were meant to be consumed, not the last one first.

If you rely on a lot of UGC (content from others) that doesn’t always look consistent, you could use this ability to rearrange content in a way that aesthetically makes your profile look better. Some creators may have dark or heavy imagery versus others being light and airy. They may look awkward next to each other and a little shift here or there could make your grid look a little more cohesive.

If you’re someone who creates educational content, you might want to batch your content into topics. For example, if you’re a fitness coach, you might have a group of upper body workouts together and a group of lower body workouts grouped together rather than having them intermittently throughout your profile. This would make it easier for someone looking for a certain type of workout to easily access multiple pieces of your content.

How This Applies to Your Organization

If your organization is considering leveraging this feature, you'll want to think through:

Of course, if you want to play with the new feature and go rearrange some content, have at it! Especially on your personal accounts. Be a little more cautious and planned when it comes to your brand accounts!