Instagram is always evolving, but it’s not just for influencers and those deadset on jumping on board the latest Reels trends.
With TikTok ever-growing in popularity, particularly with the younger generations, it seems that now more than ever Instagram is finding ways to make its platform more accessible and appealing to creators and businesses alike.
Let’s dive into some of the key changes to Instagram for brand marketers in 2022…
1. Story Links
Remember those pesky story links we all wanted to utilise so badly - then discovered it was only for those with 10K followers? They’re available to you and me now!
No matter your follower count you can use a link sticker to direct users to your website, blog posts, product pages and more - a crucial traffic-building tool for marketers!
Image source: Instagram
2. Story Auto Captions
If you don’t want to listen to the Instagram stories audio whilst you’re too busy jamming to S Club 7’s Reach for the Stars whilst work-from-home life is in full swing (no, just me?), you don’t need to!
Source: Instagram
Auto captions automatically convert what someone is saying in a video into text so users can watch without sound. Of course, it’s not perfect and some Geordies (or others with strong dialect, or fast speakers) might have some funny results, but it’s mostly a huge benefit worth taking advantage of, making your Instagram content much more accessible!
3. Collabs
If you use Instagram personally, you might have noticed some posts now show a co-author, if people are utilising the in-testing feature that looks like this on your feed:
Image Source: Instagram/Twitter
You can invite an account to collaborate on your post so that both names appear in the header, the post appears to both accounts’ followers, and you both share the views, likes and comments.
This is a great way for building up partnerships and in particular with the influencer market, to boost engagement and awareness.
4. Add Yours
Again, if you follow more than ten celebrities on Instagram, we’re sure you’ll have seen this one already, even if you did not understand it…
Image Source: Instagram
Add Yours is a new sticker for stories that allows someone to write a prompt and share it to their story. Other users then can respond with their own spin, so when you click the sticker you can view everyone who has contributed to the tread.
It has already been known to kickstart trends and challenges, and for marketers it can be a great conversational tool. If you have an engaged audience, why not give it a go and get creative?
Closing Thoughts
It is clear that Instagram is here to stay - for the foreseeable - but it also needs to keep evolving as younger, trending platforms (TikTok) remain hot on its heels, quite like it did to Snapchat with its Stories adoption just a couple of years ago.
