With TikTok fast becoming big competition for Instagram, Instagram has been hard at work rapidly rolling out new features, all of which have been designed to benefit brands and creators alike.
These updates come as no surprise, but for businesses, the sheer volume of features on Instagram can quickly become overwhelming and confusing.
In hopes of providing some clarity and guidance, we break down these new and exciting Instagram features for you one by one below.
-
Partnership inbox
You no longer need to worry about missed opportunities due to an overstuffed Instagram inbox. Thanks to a new feature called partnership inbox, businesses can now quickly find and manage their communications all in one location.
Partnership messages can be found in a subfolder under the Direct messages tab. The beauty of these partnership messages is that they skip the request folder and land directly into your inbox! Making it much easier to find and manage branded content partnerships.
-
Story links
It used to be that story links were only available to those with verified Instagram accounts or those with 10 000 followers or more. But we’ve got good news. Story links are now available to everyone!
No matter your follower count, link stickers are now available to direct users to your website, product pages, blog posts and whatever else you’d like them to know about. This is great news for businesses looking to use the platform to increase their overall traffic.
-
Add Yours stickers
You’ve most likely come across this novel new feature while scrolling through Instagram Stories. But how does it work? It’s quite straightforward actually. Someone writes a prompt using the “Add Yours” sticker and shares it to their story. Then other accounts have the option to respond to the prompt. When you click on the sticker, you have the option to view all the contributions in a thread.
When trying out the “Add Yours” sticker you can choose to create your own prompt or let Instagram create a prompt for you by tapping the dice at the bottom of your screen, right above the keyboard. It’s that easy!
“Add Yours” Stickers have been known to start trends and challenges, making them a great tool for sparking conversations and showcasing your business’s creative side.
-
Find creators
Instagram is testing a new collection of tools that helps creators connect with brands and vice versa. The “find creators” feature essentially plays matchmaker.
Creators can add brands to their preferred brand list and when a brand searches for a creator to partner with, those who have that brand listed will appear at the top of the search results. This feature makes it easy to find creators who already have an interest in your brand.
Brands can filter creators by follower count, age, gender and location, making it even easier to find a custom match and organise shortlists to easily manage multiple campaigns.
-
Story auto captions
If your brand is mindful of those who prefer to mostly watch Instagram videos with the sound off, then the new caption sticker is a game-changer for your business!
This feature uses AI to convert what someone says in a video to text so that users can still receive the message without turning on the sound, making it more accessible to audiences.
Final thoughts
It’s clear that Instagram is evolving to keep up with its competitors and the times, which means your brand should too! Don’t be afraid to try out the above-mentioned Instagram features and take full advantage of them! Your social media marketing strategy can only improve from here on out.
