Instagram has roughly 1 billion active monthly users. And at least half of them follow one business account. Looking at these numbers one cannot be surprised just how big on a marketing tool Instagram has become recently.
Both big and small brands are trying to get as much out of it and hope to improve their brand awareness as well as make more money. Since it is mostly younger generations who are on the platform, targeting them with certain products and services becomes that much easier.
However, given how much Instagram has expanded, it is understandable that the competition can get pretty tough. If you are not up to date with the most recent trends, it is highly likely that you will be missing out on a lot of potential customers. Here are some of the most important things you need to look at for your next campaign.
Instagram Stories
The feature has been introduced about three years ago, but it has made its way to becoming one of the most popular types of content on the platform. There are more than enough resources about instagram stories on the internet, but you need to understand that things are changing all the time.
Blindly following the information online is not something that you should get used to. Quite the opposite. It is important to see what the big accounts are doing and what is hot.
You can come up with all sorts of great ideas for your Instagram stories campaign. Try to share exclusive footage or even run a contest or two. Since stories are up for 24 hours, your audience will be more eager to keep track of everything you post so they do not miss out on something important.
Explore Tab
Explore tab has been around since the inception of Instagram. At first, this part of the platform was pretty generic but it would appear that it has evolved and now offers much more than before.
Organic content was the name of the game for the explore tab, but it is highly likely that we will see more ads here in the future. The fight for getting there without having to spend money is going to get even fiercer. So make sure to think and look for strategies and try to make the most out of what is available to you.
Buying Followers
This is not so much a trend as a warning to stop doing that. People have become much smarter and even an average person on the internet can tell when something is not looking right.
Instagram is all about engagement rate, and if your account has thousands of followers but few likes and comments, hardly anyone is going to take you seriously. The strategy of buying followers might have worked in the past, but the contemporary Instagram market has no place for that.
Influencers
These guys have been on Instagram for a long time now, and it does not seem like they are going to go away any time soon. The platform itself has acknowledged that and is catering to them even more by adding things like shoppable influencer posts.
As silly as it may sound, it would appear that tweets are becoming more and more popular. Something that went viral on Twitter can find a way on your profile on Instagram as well. Show your followers your funny or serious side.
Hashtags are another inseparable part of Instagram. Even this feature is not remaining static. Now you can choose to follow not just specific accounts, but specific hashtags as well.
Insights provide information about hashtags too, and you can include hashtags in stories as well.
Custom Filters
That is correct. The introduction of augmented reality is going to play a massive role in Instagram marketing trends. It should create a lot of opportunities for everyone who has the talent to create custom filters, GIFs, stickers, and so on.
Instagram TV
If you are casual, you might not have even heard about Instagram TV which launched in 2018. The people who are developing it believe that Instagram has what it takes to conquer even YouTube.
While agreeing with this sentiment is a bit hard, things are moving in the right direction. After all, they are still in the initial phase and who knows what they could come up within the next couple of years.
Instagram marketing continues to change at a rapid speed and one has to be able to keep up. Being ahead of others is difficult in itself, but if you are able to predict what the next big thing is, you can gain a slight advantage. And this article does just that – helps to prepare in advance.