Instagram continues to change at an exponential rate: new algorithm, new features for shopping and stories... And it just announced IGTVfor1-hour videos! But let's go in order.
To meet your company's marketing goals, here are the top 5 new Instagram features of 2018:
Privacy
This year, Instagram is also making the privacy and well-being of its users a top priority, making the app a safer place to interact with family, friends and businesses.
- Instagram bots are officially dead
- Likes from company profile are private
- Apps that help you analyze Instagram followers or someone else's followers no longer work
- You can post or delete comments only with a personal account
- You can automatically schedule Instagram posts (However, this does not apply to Carousels or videos, which will still need to use Later's "notifications" posting method or an external paid tool)
- You can mute posts from accounts you follow without actually having to ignore them, thanks to the "Mute" feature
News for Businesses
It was only a matter of time, but Instagram has finally become a full-fledged e-commerce platform with their new Shoppable Posts feature, which is now available globally to users in 9 different countries. Although this feature was limited to a select group of retailers in 2017, now that it has been expanded and available to all Instagram business accounts, we expect the trend of "shopping on Instagram" to become a growing trend.
If you are a small business or publisher looking for an easy way to drive traffic to your website, using a feature like Linkin.bio might work best for you!
It is perfect for driving traffic from your Instagram account to your product pages, blog or website.
Previously, the only way to publish an organic post as an ad was to use the in-app "Promote" button. After the long-awaited update, Instagram implemented a new feature that allows users to turn existing organic Instagram posts into ads within Power Editor and Ads Manager.
For the time being they are not yet supported:
- i Carousel
- the stories
- the branded content
- Instagram Shopping posts
The Stories
Instagram stories are becoming indispensable tools for businesses looking to create engaging content while achieving their marketing goals.
Here are all the features this year:
- Type and Font
- Add GIF
- Mention
- Focus
Share from Spotify and GoPro
In the past, Instagram users had to share a screenshot of their favorite song, however, this was not a great user experience since followers could not actually listen to the song.
Now album covers or playlists you share will appear in your stories with a link under your name for followers to listen to in Spotify.
Sharing from GoPro is a game changer for travel bloggers looking to share their content on the go.
"Some of our best stories happen in places or at times when you simply don't use your smartphone," said Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro. "Now that it's easier to share directly with Instagram Stories, we can't wait to see what the GoPro community will post."
Breaking News: Explore and IGTV
Instagram has not provided details on a release date, but says the new Explore page is scheduled for release in the coming weeks, with a new feature: channels! These channels will be based on your personal interest: instead of seeing what Instagram content you think you are interested in, you will actually be able to choose the category of content you want to interact with.
On June 20, Instagram unveiled IGTV, a new feature to extend video length from the current 60 seconds to 60 minutesfor content creators and the general public.
Be careful though: sharing 60-minute content will only be possible for those with at least 10k followers; other users will be able to share a maximum of 10 minutes.
Instagram said the IGTV app will be available globally in the coming weeks on Android and iOS.
Also on Wednesday, Systrom announced that Instagram has 1 billion monthly users, up from 800 million in September 2017.
Instagram called the growth "a major achievement" since the photo-sharing community has flourished and grown steadily since its launch in 2010.
And are you ready to seize the opportunities of this trend?
