In this age of digital marketing it’s important to keep abreast of the constant evolution of various social medium platforms.

Every year Instagram rolls out changes and it’s important that users and marketers understand them.

Four pivotal updates which will have an impact on marketing strategies:

1. User experience
2. Focus on video content
3. Security and controls
4. Monitisation for influencers & content creators

1. User experience

This is Instagram’s priority – to ensure that users have an easy and enjoyable experience.

Instagram is rolling our different view options on the home screen, with users having the ability to toggle between them. Users can now customise their Instagram experiences so that it works specifically for them.

Home view – will be organised by what the algorithm thinks that you will be most interested it. It’ll includes recommendations.

Favourites view – this will show posts from a list of accounts you don’t want to miss content from. It’ll be a chronological feed of accounts you are following. It will not include recommendations.

With regards to digital marketing, how to use these changes to your advantage:
For Favourites – add accounts from names in your industry and publications who produce informative content – this way you’ll regularly see content that informs and educates you. You can use Favourites to include accounts you want to engage with strategically and you can also use it to view competition and industry innovators/leaders.

It’s crucial that your posts deliver these main criteria: users want to be educated, inspired and entertained.
Your content strategy should not be full of generic tips or full of promotions as users will more than likely not add you to their Favourites list or choose to follow you.

Your posts need to appeal to Instagram users in the sense that they want quick answers to questions, they want to see pleasing content that is authentic.

Now more than ever before, it’s important to create a content strategy that is a mix of both authentic and aspirational content. You cand do this by including ideas that:
Walk users through a day in the life of your current target customer/consumer
Show users what it’s like behind the scenes (chef creating in kitchen, greenkeepers raking bunkers)

Pro Tip: Your content should include branded colours and fonts and use minimal text.

2. Focus on video content

Instagram are moving away from being a primarily photography-based platform to focus more on video content.

All Instagram videos will now be kept in one place so there’s less pressure to optimise – for instance – Reels over feed videos.

You will still need to use a mix of these video formats in order to market effectively on Instagram but they are investing heavily in Reels, which likely means it will prioritise quick and entertaining video content.

Reels content ideas:
Product demos
Behind the scenes
User-generated content
Contests and giveaways
Before and after

One of the most popular in-app Reels features is Remix. Instagram announced that users can remix all video content on the app, not just reels. This means you can take any public video clip on the app and remix it to include your own video on half of the screen or a different video clip.

3. Security and controls

Instagram aims to give users as much control over their experience in the app as possible. They are also launching 2 features to protect younger users’ experiences:

Take a Break feature: Users who opt into this feature are reminded to take a break from the app after a set amount of time. The feature then prompts the user to breathe, relax, listen to music or work on their task list.

Increase in parental controls in the app: Parents will have more accessibility to see how much time their child spends in the app and will be able to set limits.

Remember Instagram is about creating content for humans – with the hope that they’ll support your brand in some way. Be aware of these new controls, especially if your target audience is younger users.

The content you publish should be authentic and transparent. Don’t exaggerate the results of a product or service, don’t make unverified or misleading claims about competitors, avoid using stereotypes, etc.

If any of your posts contravene Instagram guidelines and it’s reported, Instagram will deprioritise it via the algorithm, meaning it will live further down in the feed and fewer users will see it.

4. Monitisation for influencers & content creators

If your brand has partnerships that qualify, the Instagram Affiliate Program can make it easy to shop a creator’s account while the creator (you/your client) makes a commission on each sale. Instagram are testing a Subscriptions feature.

Enabling this feature will let users pay to subscribe to you/your client’s account in return for access to subscriber-only live videos and stories. Subscribers will also get a badge next to their name so when they comment on a post or send a DM, your client will know the comment comes from a subscriber. Instagram is working toward making it possible to take subscriber lists to other platforms and websites.

You can use these new monetization features to your advantage by teaching your clients about these features and facilitating their use in your own marketing. Demonstrating the use of these features to your audience shows what you could potentially do for them.

Conclusion

With Social Media platforms and updates changing daily, remember it’s important to not feel overwhelmed by trying to keep up with everything. The above points are pivotal ones for 2022 so even if you only take one action point, it’s a step in the right direction.