Instagram out performs Snapchat for Marketers currently with many marketers feeling some brands are late to the Snapchat party. Since Instagram launched its stories feature, many social media influencers have noticed their Snapchat stories views and engagements drop off. To stay head the photo App continues to innovate, rolling out new features almost weekly to its 700 million users. It indicates the increasing value that Instagram offers to both users and businesses alike. Instagram announced some more features only last week.
Instagram Hashtag Sticker
The quirky nature of the Stories feature is perfect for the new hashtag sticker. Stores have 200 million users a day (currently more than Snapchats entire user database). This is a great opportunity to promote a campaign or inspire user generated content. Previously you could add a hashtag manually. The new feature is visible when customers watch your story. They can click on the “See Hashtag” prompt.
Instagram Rewind Feature
This is a really cool feature. It allows you to take a video with the app’s native camera, and then play it only in “rewind mode.” We had great fun trying this out, we ended up jumping up instead of down! This feature could be used to create eye-popping illusions that will capture the consumer’s interest immediately. This seems to be inspired by Boomerang.
Instagram Web App
There’s nothing more annoying than trying to use Instagram in a poor wifi area. The company has just released the web app for android mobile phones. Users can now upload pictures and posts to it.
Instagram Shoppable Posts
And finally, Instagram is currently beta testing shoppable posts. These posts will allow businesses to tag up to five products in a post image. When the user clicks a “Tap to View” icon below the post, tags will pop up next to the products, showing their names and prices. Once they click on the image, they’ll be able to see further information, like the product description and details. From there, they can click on a “Shop Now” link. This will take the user to your website, where they can quickly and easily purchase the item. Currently this is only open to a few large brands and should roll out pretty quickly.
