Last year, my friend checked her Instagram engagement numbers and noticed something unusual.
They tanked.
“I used to get lots of likes and comments, but now it has totally dropped off,” she told me.
I asked her what she was doing differently.
Her answer?
“Nothing.”
And that was the issue.
Instagram has changed a lot since it first launched in 2010.
They now have 800,000,000 monthly active users.
And while that number is incredible, what is more striking is the rate at which the platform is growing.
In 2013, it had 100,000,000 users.
In 2016, it had 500,000,000 users.
By April 2017, it had 700,000,000 users.
By September 2017, it had 800,000,000 users.
This means its user base rocketed by 100,000,000 users in five months.
This graph maps out Instagram’s impressive growth numbers over the years.
Since Instagram is purely visual, it’s an incredibly captivating way to make a connection with your customers.
But only if you know how to use it in 2018.
Let’s take a look at the top Instagram trends all marketers need to know about in 2018.
1. Instagram is becoming ‘pay to play’
At first, access to 800 million users might sound like a marketer’s dream.
But the more you think about that number, 800 million users means more competition.
And more clutter.
To make matters worse, Instagram continues to make changes to their algorithm, negatively affecting brands’ organic reach.
In March 2018, Instagram announced that “introducing [algorithm] changes to give you more control over your feed and ensure the posts you see are timely.”
These changes include:
- Testing a “new posts” button to help users control when their page refreshes to see new posts in their timeline
- An update “to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in your feed.”
What does this mean? Instagram is still toying with their algorithm.
Good for users. Bad for brands.
That said, it isn’t all doom and gloom for businesses.
For one thing, 8 out of 10 users follow at least one business.
Increased competition means more saturation. That fact, combined with decreasing organic reach, means you’re going to have to pay to play in 2018.
Promoting your basic Instagram posts isn’t the same as running an Instagram ad campaign. But it is your best shot at getting content to stick out from the crowd.
Only Instagram Business Accounts have access to promoting posts.
To get started, make sure your profile is set to public. You can do this by heading over to your profile.
Then click the gear shift wheel icon and switch to a Business Profile.
Tap on the post you want to promote, select “Promote” and then tap to fill in the required details. Here is an example:
Setting up a boosted ad is one thing, but knowing which posts to boost is another.
Naturally, you’ll only want to boost posts that people are engaging with.
Your Insights will quickly aggregate all of this basic reach data.
But there also third-party tools you can use including Socialbakers, Simply Measured, and Union Metrics.
To get even more engagement for your posts, you need to pick the right hashtags.
How to pick your hashtags
If you use trending hashtags that are relevant to your audience, your posts’ discoverability will increase.
But how do you make sure you pick the right ones?
Well, there are a variety of tools that can help you decide which hashtags are the right ones for you:
- Command – This tool will show you how your hashtags are performing. However, it is only available in the App Store for iOS users for $1.99 – $9.99.
- Hashtagify – This is a free service that will allow you to search any hashtag. It will provide you with the hashtag’s popularity, current trend, and other related hashtags to consider.
- KeyHole – This tool is interesting because it allows you to track a hashtag in real-time, provided up-to-date data on the hashtag over a set period of time.
- SeekMetrics – SeekMetrics’ Hashtag Generator will source popular hashtags based on the keywords you input.
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But how many should you add to a single post?
TrackMaven took a look at hashtags on Instagram and found that 9 is the optimum amount for engagement. The report also found that longer hashtags (we’re talking around 24 characters) outperform shorter ones.
But you can always check to see what hashtags your competitors and your customers are using.
To do this, type into Instagram’s search bar. The app will display the most closely related hashtags.
It will even tell you how many times that hashtag has been used in total by Instagram’s users.
Once you have a decent collection of hashtags together that are aligned well with your target audience, you can then start posting with them.
But don’t just post and forget about them. Follow them. At the end of 2017, Instagram released a new update allowing users to follow hashtags.
Simple, but effective.
2. Customers can buy direct with Instagram shopping features
Got an e-commerce store?
If so, you need to be using Instagram’s Shopping feature.
Like, right now.
It improves product discovery on the app by condensing and making information available in one place.
Shoppable posts can be identified on account profiles by a white shopping bag icon at the top right-hand corner of posts.
Users can see these posts natively in their feed while scrolling. Each post that uses this feature will show a white shopping bag icon or a “Tap to View Products” pop-up.
Instead of having to click on links to get access to product pricing and descriptions, this key info will be available on a brand’s Instagram post.
Shoppers can do their browsing without leaving the app.
For businesses, the advantages are obvious; it’s simply an easier way than ever for customers to push your products.
The stats don’t lie either. According to Instagram, 75% of users who see a business post take action.
The clothing company, Lulus, tested this feature with great success. They found “nearly 33% of people who tap to learn more about a product visit our site through ‘Shop Now’.”
This tells you one key thing: consumers love to connect with brands on Instagram.
So how to get started? Well, Instagram is busy rolling out the feature, but you still need to be approved to use it.
Once you are approved, simply upload a post to Instagram like you usually would. Then, tag the product using the “tag products” feature.
It’s just like tagging a person.
Then, simply share your post to your page, and you’re done.
How to increase the reach of your shopping posts
To take things one step further, there are numerous integrations and tools to increase conversions depending on what platform you are using. Some of my favorites are:
- Snappt – You can use this tool to embed your shoppable Instagram feed on your website. It makes a nice gallery that will be linked to your feed and dashboard.
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud – This tool helps you manage campaigns that will help drive engagement and optimize your shoppable Instagram posts.
- Integrations with BigCommerce and Shopify – This makes it easier than ever for small businesses using these platforms to integrate the shopping feature.
3. Reach more followers organically with live streaming
Gulp. Going live fills many of us with dread.
But let’s face it. Instagram Live is a fantastic way to connect with your audience, answer questions on the fly and solve any issues they might have.
Daunting? Sure. But it’s so easy to go live.
Start by tapping the camera icon on your screen (top left).
This will open the camera.
Tap “Live” followed by “Start Live Video.”
Provided your notifications are turned on, your followers will be notified that you’ve gone live.
But what should you do? Here are some live content types:
- How-To Demonstration
- Behind the Scenes
- Event Updates/Streaming
- Exclusive Content
- Contests
- Product Demonstrations
- Cross partnerships
- Exclusive Content
For example, Dunkin Donuts mastered Instagram Live by providing a behind-the-scenes look at some of their sweet creations inside their test kitchen on Valentine’s Day.
Beyond Yoga used Instagram Live to showcase how their clothing items fared after performing various yoga poses.
Want even more engagement? Use Instagram Live with friends.
Instagram Live with
source https://blog.kissmetrics.com/instagram-marketing-trends/
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