Instagram Founders and CEO’s part ways with the company:
This was highly reported news, but I still thought I should highlight it. Reports say that “has reported that the split is reportedly due to tension over the future direction of the platform with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg” (Bloomberg News) all though the hard-core Instagram fans might be disappointed this is good news for digital advertisers. The merging of Instagram and Facebook’s platforms has been gradual since Facebook purchased the image sharing social media app 6 years ago with, sharing posts on both platforms, sharing an ad platform, stories features and much more. Now that Zuckerberg has what seems like full control of Instagram the two platforms will surely become increasingly compatible and similar making it easier for digital advertisers to get their message in front of their desired target audience.
Nametags:
This is Instagram’s version of a QR code. The new feature allows users to make their own personal “Nametag” that can be viewed and scanned by other Instagram users. When someone scans a Nametag they will be prompted to follow that account. The goal is to make it easier for users to follow one another and reduce they time that users go through long searches to find an account (Insta-stalking). Nametags are designed to be very useful for brands looking to increase the amount of followers they have on Instagram, which is almost everyone. The most intriguing part of the Nametag feature is that it does not need to be on the app to be viewed, for example you can put it in a email and people will still be prompted to follow you on Instagram if they interact with it. This also works if you have a picture up of the Nametag, for example in a store, if someone goes over the picture with their phone’s camera they will also be prompted to follow that profile on Instagram.
Longer Stories:
Instagram stories can now go over the 15 second story limit, this is quite a simple update but can have a big effect. The platform will however split the story up into 15 second increments but it is viewed like a regular video. This will make the story making process easier and allow for advertisers to have longer more in depth story ads.
Quick replies in DMS:
These new quick replies can be used by all business accounts to save a generic response that can be use frequently for their audience. This allows for businesses to get back to their consumers questions and demands quickly without having someone manually type out a reply message. For example if an users ask what are the store hours of your business through the Instagram direct messager then you can have a quick reply queued up to responded with, “our store hours are 9 to 5” or something of that nature.
GIFs in Messages:
This is not a big update by any means but is still a cool tool that can be used for brand building and relationship building. With younger people increasingly using GIFs if a brand wants to appeal to a younger audience it might want to throw so GIFs in its messages.
Updates potentially in development:
- Hashtag free posts – this would mean you can just post something with the description in the caption field without having to put multiple hashtags in the caption as well. Hashtags would have their very own distinct section allowing brands to clean up their captions with no giant blocks of hashtags.
- Audio messaging – this would be very similar to the audio messaging that is on most phones. You would just talk into the device and it would record your voice (or whatever you are recording) and send it through the Instagram messager.
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