Instagram: summer innovations - 2019

Instagram posts average up to 60% organic reach. This is a good indicator for promoting your products or services through this network. What interesting innovations for business have brought to the social network in the summer of 2019, says Ksenia Bondarenko, partner at FAQ-Agency, an expert on Instagram of the women's ecosystem WE ARE.

By the beginning of spring 2019, 11 million Instagram users were registered in Ukraine. For two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019, audience growth is about 50% compared to the previous year. The reason is in approaches to the development of social networks. According to adespresso, during the summer such chips appeared here.

New chat stickers

Here's how it works: users add the “Chat” sticker to their story, which, in essence, offers subscribers to send a request to join a new group chat in Direct based on this story. When users click, they can request permission to join the specified group, and the account owner can accept these requests if they consider it necessary. Instagram positions this as a way to start a massive group chat if a large number of people are planning an event or want to agree on something in a closed circle of friends. This sticker is an interesting feature that will be useful for small brands to create contact with the audience. For example:

• restaurants: it helps to assemble a group of regular customers who can be asked about the menu, send information about happy hours, special offers, etc .;
• fashion stores: you can share information about sales in chats, receive a fitback regarding new collections, create a secret group with individual bonuses;
• FMCG-brands: allows you to create a chat of brand experts where you can test new product features, find out how often the customer uses your product, when and what task he helps them solve.

Explore tab ads

Instagram announced the placement of additional advertising in the "Search" - Explore. Scrolling through the “Search” section, users can click on the message and then scroll through the stream of similar messages collected on Instagram, which, according to the algorithm, a specific user would like to see. Usually they look at this section to identify new products and accounts in order to become their subscribers. It is planned to make sure that while viewing the generated Instagram search feed, the user sees both organic and paid content. An increase in the number of ad placements means that costs can be stabilized a little, as an increase in supply can counteract growing demand. Therefore, there is a chance to get more impressions overall.

History Camera Stores Content Longer

The Instagram Stories camera supported stories and saved the images or videos it took for just 24 hours - even if they weren’t published. Brands that used the Stories camera built into the application were forced to use the content on time or risk losing it. Soon, a setting will appear on Instagram that allows Stories cameras to store content for 7 full days. Essentially, this is just a tiny but important setting for brands and advertisers who use these cameras to capture Stories content. Now you can create more content in advance, simplifying the process of managing and creating social networks.

Instagram still testing likes removal

While the cancellation of likes awaits some users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. And the likelihood that such an innovation will reach Ukraine also exists. The post owner can still see how many likes were received and who left them, but they will be invisible to everyone else. All that account subscribers see is the comments left. Instagram likes and video views, as before, will be part of the platform. Both indicators will be used to assess the quality and relevance of the content. Therefore, posts with a large number of views and likes will receive priority in the algorithms, as is happening now. But social proof (this is a phenomenon when people make decisions based on the actions and decisions of other people) will cease to exist.

Updated ban policy and warning before ban

Instagram makes changes to the policy of disconnecting accounts to facilitate the work of users. In order for brands to know that they fall under the black line, Instagram has introduced a new warning before the ban and sends a message to these accounts if they risk being closed. The warning explains what exactly violated the community and what needs to be changed.