Four Important Changes To Instagram

Instagram is a constantly changing app. To keep up with other companies and competitors, the platform has been evolving over the years. ?It’s about time that we break down four new features that are coming to Instagram. From product tags to hashtag searching, we’re going through the good, the bad, and the ugly of the platform and how it’s going to affect your business.

Without further ado, here are the 4 new changes to Instagram:

1. Instagram is now allowing all users to add product tags. ?

Before now, this tool was limited only to creators and business accounts. After this update, all users can link products in their photos to where they got them. Instagram is showing the value of how the app can drive sales for businesses, and push more traffic to products so that those businesses can see how many click-throughs they received from the app.?

How to tag a product:

1. Start a new post
2. On the page where you add a caption, click the “tag products option”, search the brand, and then the product.

1.6 million users tag at least one brand each week.?

2. Donation tabs are now available for Instagram Reels.

This is another great way to raise money and get brands to interact through the app.

There are now personal fundraisers and Instagram Live fundraisers, as well as group fundraisers. I think these changes are because younger millennials and Gen-Zers are very aware of social responsibilities, and companies like Instagram are catering to this.?

3. Instagram is taking away the "Recents" page on a hashtag search, now changing to "Top Hits" only.

When you search for a hashtag, there are three different tabs you can look at: Top Results, Recent Results, and Reels that are using that hashtag. Now, Instagram is dropping the “Recent” category, and now all you can see are the Top Hits (people who have gotten the most interaction) and Reels. However, Recent Hits is helpful for businesses to monitor certain hashtags. In cases where businesses are doing a giveaway, a contest, or encouraging people to use a hashtag, it will now be harder to find that content. They are just testing this removal, so it potentially won’t be permanent.?

4. Improving the ranking system by highlighting original content

This is Instagram’s way of dropping engagement on “aggregator” accounts (for example, meme accounts that repost other’s content) to give original creators more visibility. However, IG said they said they can’t know for sure if the content is original or not, but what they do is examine who’s in the video and if the app has seen the video before.?

If you would like to hear more about the four new changes to Instagram, listen to the full podcast here.