With Instagram rolling out a plethora of new features for their users, we wanted to give you a quick overview on some of the new tools and ways you / your brand can utilize them.
Instagram Stories
Swipe right or tap the top left camera and let the games begin. Instagram Stories are a new way to snap and share your daily life with your followers. Instead of showing up in their feed, Instagram stories appear at the top of the Instagram app, and are viewable for 24 hours. Similar to other picture snapping social media services, you can add in filters, text, draw (with a few different styles), and have your selection from a plethora of stickers. You can change privacy settings for your stories, which allows you to hide your stories from selected accounts.
Instagram Live Videos
Head on over to the same spot you would go for Instagram Stories and slide the bottom bar over to Live. You can now go live on Instagram, sharing your life with your followers in real time. You can track the number of viewers, and viewers can comment and like the video. Don’t want to see the comments? You have the ability to disable them, too. Live videos don’t have the same 24-hour policy though; they’re gone right after you end the live session.
Instagram Hands Free
You can now film videos for your Instagram Stories hands free! Instead of holding down the center button to record, you can click it once and the filming starts. To end, tap the center button again and you’re all set. Same stickers, filters, etc. apply.
Where can you see Stories and Live Videos?
- Whoever follows you will see it at the top of their feed
- A colored ring will appear around your Profile photo on your Profile
- If your account is public, your video could potentially appear on the Search and Explore page
Shoppable Instagram Posts
You can now shop directly on Instagram! While this feature is currently in beta with specific brands, Instagram is *hopefully* rolling out it’s shopping feature to all brands. So how does it work? Companies can tag their products in the photos with a “tap to view products” button, which will lead viewers to a product description page and shop now button. Instagram will not be charging for this feature, which is great news for brands. Monetization will most likely come in a form of promoted shoppable posts, the same way you can promote posts now. Instagram has made sure that the tap to view button isn’t too intrusive and therefore doesn’t ruin the aesthetic of photos (plus one for all digital curators like ourselves!). We’ll continue to share more updates about shoppable posts as Instagram continues to roll out this new feature!
Which feature are you most excited about? Tweet us @somethingsocial or tag us on Instagram – @somethingsocial.