Blog post
June 24, 2019

More changes to social media API’s, the latest from Instagram

It’s been a whirlwind year trying to keep up with the various changes made by social media platforms – especially for professional communicators, developers, agencies, and brands.

At the same time as understanding and usage of the term ‘API’ has accelerated across offices worldwide, social media platforms have begun to restrict access to their application programming interfaces (APIs). With implications ranging from global politics to individual user privacy, that trend is showing no signs of stopping.

API changes have been introduced in order to reduce risks around data privacy, security concerns for users and stamping out improper use of user data.

Most of the changes can be categorised as:

  1. How often and how much data can be requested (rate limit reductions); and
  2. Type of data available (restrictions on user-identifiable data)

Generally, these are positive changes for the whole ecosystem. Users can be reassured at an individual level that there are more controls in place and consideration given to matters of privacy and the prevention of misuse. Facebook’s ‘Here Together’ video, released in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, reflects some of this desired messaging and the drives for these changes.

The latest changes have come from Instagram and more are set to be introduced on 11 Dec 2018.

Here’s how the changes impact the three types of Instagram analysis:

  • Owned media (for your brands’ own Instagram accounts): Better data on your owned Instagram profiles, but they need to be Instagram business profiles and you have to authenticate to access this data.
  • Public accounts (for other brands or influencer’s channels): This use case no longer exists for Instagram – there is no longer any data available for public Instagram accounts you don’t own.
  • Listening: Public hashtag listening on Instagram is no longer supported. Brands will need to move to brand mentions, photo tags and related hashtags.


These may not be the last of the changes, but they are necessary growing pains to regain user trust and provide higher quality authentic engagements. For small businesses and influencers these changes are fairly straightforward – however for those looking to manage communications or marketing strategies they present new challenges in order to stay informed.

These changes apply across the board so all API users will need to jump the same hoops and prove that both privacy measures are met and use of data is acceptable. If you’re interested, you can learn more about the official changes from Instagram read on here.

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With more than 1 billion users on Facebook, and millions more active on sites such as YouTube and Twitter, it has become obvious that social media is an important platform for businesses.

Connecting with the huge variety of consumers already on these sites can open up significant opportunities for marketing and lead generation. Additionally, social media monitoring provides insight and understanding into how your industry, audience and competitors are reacting to market trends and products.

As well as giving businesses and consumers a platform to share their thoughts and participate in ongoing conversations, social media is also a channel through which many people access news stories and important information.

A recent study from Pew Research found that 64 per cent of adults are active on Facebook, and 30 per cent are using the site to receive news. This means that approximately half of the people using Facebook trust the site to deliver their news.

Similarly, 16 per cent of US adults are active on Twitter, with exactly half of those (8 per cent) accessing the news through tweets.

Not only are users reading news on social media, but they are also participating in the sharing and telling of stories. Half of all social network users have shared news stories on their own profiles and a further 46 per cent have discussed news on social media.

However, while social networking sites are a popular media through which to access news, Pew Research found that users on these sites spend significantly less time engaging with the news they read.

Readers who visit news stories directly through a provider's website spend an average of 4 minutes and 36 seconds on each page. In comparison, those who arrive through a link on Facebook spend just 1 minute 41 seconds reading the page.

This shows that while news is being shared and read on social media sites, engagement is significantly greater when consumers go out of their way to access the stories.

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Blog
Is Social Media A Good Source For News?

With more than 1 billion users on Facebook, and millions more active on sites such as YouTube and Twitter, it has become obvious that social media is an important platform for businesses.

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Developers rush to patch

In the wake of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, there have been a myriad of changes impacting users of Facebook and Instagram content recently. These changes were made without any notice and were effective immediately which has impacted third-party apps worldwide.

Albeit the speed in which the changes have been made is likely to have been partly driven by the pressure to tighten data practices and potentially align certain timing as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress next week to answer questions about the company’s privacy and data policies.From the perspective of everyday users accessing the content you know and love via the Facebook and Instagram apps will see little to no change. For developers like us on the other hand, the impacts are significant and are only a hint of what is yet to come.In case you missed it, the changes made have been many and impact all third-party apps, whether legitimate or not.

Given the changes have been quick, varied and came without prior notification, we’ve pulled together a quick summary of a few that left developers and other third-party content users of these content feeds frustrated:

Instagram have removed 17 ways of accessing content

This means something as simple as code to access recent posts of a public company, suddenly stopped working. Quick changes had to be made to use alternative methods.

Facebook & Instagram have removed access to many fields

Fields like how many followers a user has, or how many posts you have made, but many more have gone.

25x drop in Instagram content

The Instagram API restricted the flow of content by 25x, meaning that public posts previously being collected has been reduced significantly, requiring different approaches to be taken that are more efficient.

These are only a few of the changes that have happened with more expect in future. With CTO Mike Schroepfer commenting that they will lock down access, review previously allowed apps, and then hand out access to the apps that deserve it.

While this is promising from the perspective that Facebook is taking action to breath some confidence back into their data practices, it will still be interesting to see how they now start to crack down on third-party apps that are using and abusing content. With the advent of AI and machine learning, the content which appeared innocuous can now be exploited and abused in the wrong hands. That means Facebook is forcing all apps that have previously been approved for accessing Events, Groups and Pages, have to be reviewed again.

For the developers working on these changes behind the scenes, it's a difficult process but something we monitor constantly to ensure the client experience is supported, and uncompromised. While at times frustrating, it’s also fascinating to watch the complexities of today's interconnected environment play, shift and unfold.

Ian Young,
Isentia Technical Architect

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Blog
No warning to Facebook & Instagram changes

In the wake of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, there have been a myriad of changes impacting users of Facebook and Instagram content recently. These changes were made without any notice and were effective immediately which has impacted third-party apps worldwide.

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We are living in the era of the "Creator CXO."

The C-suite is now expected to be the face of the brand, the primary storyteller, and a digital thought leader. But despite the pressure to post more, engagement on executive content is plummeting.

Why? Because in a feed flooded with AI-generated thought leadership and corporate updates, audiences have developed a "BS detector." They are scrolling past and looking for something else.

In our recent "Future of Measurement" webinar, Prashant Saxena, VP of Revenue & Insights, SEA, pinpointed that it’s not about posting more, but about getting real. Being authentic is a daily ritual, it’s not just a buzzword. 

Where do C-Suite leaders go wrong?

Why do so many capable leaders struggle to build traction on LinkedIn?

1. The "corporate bot" syndrome

Many executives treat LinkedIn like a press release distribution channel. Their posts are perfectly grammatically correct, sanitized by three layers of PR approval, and utterly devoid of personality. If your post sounds like it could have been written by any CEO in any industry, it’s not doing its job.

2. Delegating too much

It is standard practice for executives to have ghostwriters. However, the mistake lies in delegating the perspective. When a leader completely hands off their LinkedIn presence to a team without providing personal voice notes, opinions, or raw thoughts, the content feels hollow. Audiences waste no time in picking up how artificial something reads or sounds. 

3. Broadcasting, not engaging

Many "Creator CXOs" view social media as a megaphone rather than a telephone. They drop a piece of "thought leadership" and leave. They don't reply to comments, they don't engage with other creators, and they don't show up in the messy, human conversations happening in the comments section.

The ritual of being authentic: A 3-step framework

During the webinar, Prashant broke down the solution into a "daily ritual of authenticity." It’s a practical framework to move from being a "corporate bot" to "trusted leader."

1. Signal the Right Values: Values mean more than titles

  • The Shift: Instead of sharing company wins ("We hit Q3 targets!"), share the why behind the decisions.
  • The Tactic: When you post about a new initiative, explain the difficult trade-offs you faced or the core value that drove the decision. What was the moral compass of the decision made?

2. Share the "Behind-the-Scenes": Perfection is intimidating; progress is inspiring.

  • The Shift: Move away from only posting the "highlight reel."
  • The Tactic: Share the messy middle. Did a product launch almost fail? Did you have to pivot your strategy? Posting about a challenge you are currently navigating (or recently overcame) invites empathy and engagement that a polished success story never will.

3. Leverage Third-Party Proof Points: Validation is stronger when it comes from others.

  • The Shift: Stop being the only one talking about how great your company is.
  • The Tactic: Elevate the voices of your employees, customers, and partners. Repost an employee’s win with your personal commentary on why you’re proud of them. It shows you are listening and that your leadership has a tangible impact on real people.

C-Suite leaders who “get it”

Who is actually doing this well? Here are a few leaders who have mastered the art of engagement by being human first and executives second.

1. Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)

  • Why he wins: Signaling values.
    Satya rarely posts generic corporate updates. His content is deeply philosophical and tied to his core mission of empathy and empowerment. Even when discussing AI or cloud computing, he frames it through the lens of human impact. He doesn't just sell Microsoft; he sells a worldview that people want to align with.

2. Melanie Perkins (CEO, Canva)

  • Why she wins: Behind-the-Scenes reality.
    Melanie is famous for sharing the rejection letters and the "no's" she received in the early days of Canva. By sharing the struggle, she makes her massive success feel earned and relatable. She frequently highlights the culture and the team (the "Canvanauts") rather than just her own accolades.

3. Ryan Holmes (Founder, Hootsuite)

  • Why he wins: Third-party proof & engagement.
    Ryan understands the platform mechanics. He uses polls, asks questions, and champions other entrepreneurs. He frequently shines a spotlight on industry trends that validate his company's mission without being overtly salesy. He acts as a curator of industry wisdom. 

The bottom line

As Prashant Saxena highlighted, reputation is a downstream outcome of an upstream habit.

If you want to fix your engagement, sounding like a "Creator CXO” does a lot of harm to one’s personal brand. Starting to sound like a person who happens to be a CXO would be so much better. 


Interested in viewing the whole recording? Watch our webinar here.

Alternatively, contact our team to learn more insights into meaningful measurement, KPIs and communicating using the right dataset.

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Why is CXO engagement dropping (and how to fix it)?

We explore how CXOs can move from a corporate bot to a trusted leader and improve their personal branding online.

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The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.

Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters. 

“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group

“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”

Setting a new standard for PR intelligence

Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.

Lumina enables communicators to:

  • Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
  • Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
  • Execute & Monitor: Rapidly deploy strategy firmly rooted in real-time, actionable insight.

Get a demo today: Stories & Perspectives module

We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.

In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.

Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:

  • Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
  • Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
  • Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.

"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."

The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms

The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.

The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:

  • Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
  • Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
  • Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
  • Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
  • Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
  • Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.


Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .

Complete the form below to register your interest.

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Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs

An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.

Ready to get started?

Get in touch or request a demo.