4 Instagram Changes You Need to Know About
You may have noticed that the Instagram logo on your phone has undergone a major design change recently. That visual shift comes with a few excellent updates that have been made to the app. In this article I’ll let you know what they are and how you can leverage the updates to increase engagement with your audience and visibility for your brand.
Quick History Lesson
Two years ago Facebook purchased Instagram, an 18-month old startup for $1Billion. Since that time, there have only been a couple significant changes including the ability to advertise in multiple formats through Facebook’s Ad Manager. Until now, the platform was only managed as a smart phone app even though they had a website that you could view your profile on, but you couldn’t do much more than that.
Jump Forward to Today
[clickToTweet tweet=”4 Updates to Instagram That You Need to Know About to Increase Engagement” quote=”There are four improvements that we’re excited about: Updates to the desktop version of Instagram, improvements to Direct Messaging, longer videos and changes to the algorithm.”]
Until now, the desktop version of Instagram was really just a way to view your account and grab a URL to link to your website. Recently, Instagram has made updates that allow you to do so much more! In the desktop version, you will see 3 icons in the upper right. The compass icon suggests new profiles for you to follow based on the other profiles that you like and engage with. The heart icon will show you all of the engagement that has taken place on your page. And the person icon shows your profile and all of your posts. To view your newsfeed, just hit the Instagram logo on the left. One of the most exciting changes is that you can now like and comment on posts in your newsfeed in the desktop view. All that, and yet you still aren’t able to post new images from the desktop view.
Direct Messaging capabilities have also been expanded. In the mobile app, you can now send a direct message from a comment. All you have to do is go to the comment line of any post, there is an arrow to the left of the comment box. Hit the arrow and an @ will auto-populate and you choose who you want to send the message to.
Videos on Instagram have expanded to allow for 60-second clips. As always, you can download a video, record it right in the app or use one of the cool video apps to create a video and upload it. This is just one more confirmation of how relevant video is in today’s digital marketing landscape!
And finally, Instagram is modifying their algorithm to create a better user experience by showing you posts from the people you engage with most and content that is presumed to be most relevant to you. They haven’t made the drastic changes already made in Facebook, where businesses get very little visibility with out paying to advertise. They will still show posts from all the people you follow, it’s just the order of the posts that will change, for now. [clickToTweet tweet=”You need to be building real relationships with your followers, It’s the only way you’ll stay relevant” quote=”Changes like this are the primary reason why you need to be building relationships with your followers and engaging with other. It’s the only way you’ll stay relevant as time goes on and more changes are implemented. “]
Instagram in the Future
Just this week Instagram announced new business tools. While we haven’t seen these tools yet, business profiles will now contain a Contact button, access to insights and the same ability Facebook offers, where you can turn high-performing posts into ads right within the app. Instagram says you will see these new features in the next couple of months.
If you have any questions at all about how to locate or use these new features, Contact us via our website, send me an email at bobbi@tbgl.net, hit us up on Twitter, Snapchat (BobbiB68), Facebook or Instagram and I’ll be happy to help! If you want to learn more about why Instagram is my FAVORITE social platform right now, we’ve got an Instagram training course coming up!
Bobbi Baehne
President, Think Big Go Local, Inc.
My mission at Think Big Go Local is to create a “buzz” around our client’s businesses in social media platforms and to establish an excellent online reputation that draws them new leads and sales . We don’t work in a cookie cutter environment, each of our clients is unique and their accounts are fully managed using their voice, talking to their desired audience.