How Instagram Is Helping Women Succeed on Social Media and in Silicon Valley
Instagram COO Marne Levine is a problem solver-by nature and by profession. It is her job to analyze internal operations and decide how to run them better, faster, smarter. It's her job to make sure Instagram works as well for users as it does for advertisers. And even when she's off the clock, she thinks: How could the app do even more to foster active communities? What would it take for people-and especially women-to feel able share their most personal stories, their deepest truths? What does it mean to create a supportive environment on social media?
If you've read the statistics about the kind of harassment that women experience online or witnessed the abuse that Leslie Jones endured over the summer, you already understand that these preoccupations make Instagram unique. Levine is too politic to name names, but she does stress that "these issues are not only so important to me as COO of Instagram, as a mom, but they're really important to our CEO, Kevin Systrom, and to his co-founder, Mike Krieger."
"We've had lots and lots of conversations about this," she explains. And all that discussion-it's not empty chatter. Last month, Instagram rolled out a comment-moderation tool that allows users to either hide what the app deems "inappropriate comments" or enter specific words and keywords that they don't want to see. Announcing the service, Systrom emphasized that the tool wasn't a perfect solution, but he hoped that it would inspire people to work together to keep Instagram "a safe place" to exploration and personal expression: "To empower each individual, we need to promote a culture where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment. It's not only my personal wish to do this, I believe it's also our responsibility as a company."
The initiative amplifies voices who have used Instagram to inspire confidence in themselves and their peers.
This week, Instagram pushes that mandate even further. Created with the guidance of mental health organizations, the new tools provide "support services" to people in moments of crisis. "They're meant to help connect people to services and resources in a time of need," Levine says, explaining that they depend on Instagram's active community to intervene when someone is in trouble. "If someone on Instagram sees that a friend is in a harmful situation, they can report it," Levine says.
To filter the reports, Instagram has created teams around the world to review the alerts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When they find evidence of a real threat, they trigger a series of prompts that point that person in the direction of help and resources the next time he or she logs into the app. "They can be referred to a friend or resources or a professional who might be able to give them that help," Levine says. "And if you're a person who knows you have some issue that you're trying to address, but maybe you feel embarrassed or you don't know where to go, the tools will be available to you to so that you can access those resources and get help on your own."
Levine, who came to Facebook from the White House National Economic Council, has a masterful command of facts and statistics-the number of people who use Instagram, the countries in which its most active, the policies that work, the metrics that demonstrate their success. But the case for the tools, she says, is simple: "The platform is meant to be a place where people tell their visual stories, where they have control over what they present, where they feel safe and comfortable. And the reason that's so essential is because when people are able to be open and honest, they can find communities of support." And while Levine doesn't spell it out, the implication is clear: The more embedded users are in their networks, they more they want to share. The services aren't just benevolent. They're good business.
"People want to connect over shared passions and interests," she says. "They're seeking inspiration. We see this over and over-in communities of people who are grappling with body issues, in the LGBT community. We want to foster that."
To promote the new tools and to celebrate the people who participate in "a culture of positivity" on the platform, Instagram joined forces with Seventeen and Hearst Digital to launch #PerfectlyMe. The initiative amplifies voices who have used Instagram to inspire confidence in themselves and their peers. Levine tells me about Ashleigh Ponder, who developed an anorexia when she was 13. She now runs @BalancedNotClean, an account that documents her evolving relationship with food. "It's amazing," Levine enthuses. "She shows pictures of food, she shows what she's doing. It's her way of putting herself out there." Levine asserts that Ponder "has said herself that Instagram saved her life" because it connected her to so many women who can relate to her experience. Levine is particularly smitten with @scolerina9247. The woman behind it is 18 and, notably, a dancer with scoliosis.
Levine could "go on and on," but she pauses. Policies and operations are Levine's expertise. But her role at Instagram, she offers, has "taught me so much about the power of storytelling. And I've learned that lesson from teens. Young people on Instagram are so ready to share and to be open, and that makes their stories have such an impact."
"Young women, especially, have so many incredible stories to tell. I want to make it easier for them to do it."
At the company, Levine has made it her mission to harness that same power. She is an active poster in "Women of Instagram," a private Facebook group in which female employees do "everything from share articles and stories to objections and concerns to ask for advice to organize social events." She hosts many at her own home, which she hastens to add "is great because it's an intimate environment." She'll lay out a spread, invite a speaker like Ellevest's Sallie Krawcheck, foist food and drink on everyone in attendance: "I think it's so important just to have some time to mingle, catch up, get to know someone maybe you don't work with directly or see every day."
Both on Instagram and at its offices, Levine is determined to see women not only participate in, but influence the cultural conversation. The more protected those environments are, the more secure the people in them feel, the more they are likely to share. "Ultimately, you have to be willing to tell your story," Levine says. "Young women, especially, have so many incredible stories to tell. I want to make it easier for them to do it."
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