It doesn't require a mention, how Instagram is ruling over the reign of influencer marketing. With millions of users, it's probably the most viable medium for brands to reach their target audience. When it comes to talking about the keys that helped Instagram to turn into the most reliable platform for brand promotion, you can't ignore mentioning its amazing features. However, if you've just started as an influencer on Instagram and not very clear about the fundamentals of the platform, this write-up is dedicated to you! It talks about the amazing features of Instagram, that can bring you real fame and success if you know the know-how of using them. Keep reading!
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Primary Features of Instagram - Things that You Need to Know!
Let's check out the must-know features of Instagram now! Without developing a clear understanding of them, using this platform as an influencer might look like a challenging task.
Photo, video, and carousel posting - Increases the Versatility of the Posts
The essence of Instagram lies in photo sharing. However, in 2013, it started allowing videos of up to 1min. Later in 2017, Instagram integrated image carousels of up to 10 photos or videos.
Filters and Edits - Helps Your Posts Look Better
While posting photos or videos, you can apply filters and make edits that will make the images much more attractive. There are several interesting filters available. All you need to do is to choose the right one that can enhance the visual appeal of your post.
Geotagging - Works as a Tracker
Instagram also allows you to add the location of a post and work with the geomarketing strategies. Indeed, it's a great way to extract the location of users and optimize the target audience for your campaigns.
Tagging - One of the Most Useful Features of Instagram
If other people appear in your photo, you can tag them in the post. This post will then also appear in their profile, in a specific tab.
To do this, select "tag people" and tap a specific point on the image to tag a friend, type the @ in the search tab, and you are done!
Sharing - Allows You To Spread the Love
At the time of publishing, it's possible to share your profile post on other networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. You can consider it as one of the most helpful features of Instagram, that helps you in increasing the reach of your posts drastically.
Save - Makes Your Job Hassle-free
If you see a post that needs to be saved or deserves to be remembered in a while, you can save it, and it will appear in the "Saved" tab and only you can see it.
Browse - The More You Explore, The More You Know
In the search tab, you can manually search for profiles, hashtags, and locations, as well as receive suggestions from Instagram about posts from those you don't follow. This is one of the best features of Instagram that helps you in keeping yourself updated with the trends.
Instagram Direct - Eases Communication
Instagram direct is the platform's inbox feature, which allows you to send direct messages to both personal or business profiles. In actuality, it's more than a feature that aims to facilitate interaction between users. Using it in a strategic way may help you in gaining innumerable loyal followers.
Many brands use Direct to gain visibility, connect with their audience and, of course, generate business. For some, it even becomes the company's main sales channel.
Instagram Ads - Takes You A Step Ahead Towards Popularity
For business profiles, Insta allows the creation of ads with the Instagram Ads feature. You can also call it indispensable for an efficient marketing strategy that allows the company to reach more people and show its services to a qualified audience.
Stories - Tell Your Tale
Instagram Stories was launched in 2016, inspired by the success of competitor Snapchat. They are posts that last only 24h and can be customized with phrases, filters, Emojis, masks, and Stickers over the images.
These short chapters can be posted unlimitedly throughout the day and allow you to explore all your creative potential.
To see the Stories, the user needs to click on the profile picture, either of your brand or of friends that he follows. Whenever there are new stories with photos and videos, a colored ring will appear around the profile picture.
Lives - enhances Authenticity
Live broadcasts are one of the most crucial features of Instagram. It allows you to create a live video and share moments in real-time through Stories. When you start a broadcast your followers will be notified and can interact with comments during the Live.
IGTV - Making Videos Are Not Only About Fun, Sometimes, but It's also About Business!
It is Instagram's long video streaming platform, just like YouTube and Vimeo. The feature started with a vertical screen format but has now adhered to the traditional horizontal framing, just like the other video platforms.
IGTV can be accessed in two ways. The first is in the Instagram app itself. To access it, just open the app and click on the television icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
You can also go for downloading the specific IGTV app (available for iOS and Android).
Close friends Helps to Leverage the Power of Audience -filter
This is one of the popular features of Instagram that allows you to select a certain number of followers to create a sharing list. This feature aims to make the posts published in Stories visible only to selected followers.
This works well for people with many followers who want only people close to them to have access to the content, or for brands that want to create a community to share personalized, first-hand content.
Highlights - Marks The Vitality
Highlights are the collections of selected stories that your followers, both old and new, can access and watch whenever they want.
Unlike regular stories - which disappear after 24 hours - Instagram highlights remain on your profile until you decide to take them down.
Also, because of its prime location below the profile bio and above the feed, it is perfect for directing followers to your most valuable and interesting content.
Instagram Analytics - Calculation Works!
It is a tool that provides valuable data for analyzing the performance of a commercial profile on Instagram. Through it, you have access to your account data, followers' behavior, and new ideas or adjustments and modifications that need to be made on the platform.
In other words, that Instagram Analytics is the compass that points the North of all activities on the platform.
Instagram Shopping
One of the features of Instagram, Shopping allows you to make sales through the app itself. For this, a new tab is used in the page feed, with an icon that imitates a "little bag". Here, you can place an order for the products on sale.
Thus, selling only through third-party channels is no longer required. With the Instagram Shopping tab, it is easier to advertise a product, since the process is much for agile and hassle-free.
So, these are the main features that can help you in using this platform as a wonderful mode of advertising. However, Instagram keeps on updating their feature quite often. So, remain active on the platform to stay updated.
If you've gotten this far, you already know the basics of the network. However, to know everything about Instagram and start earning using this platform, you need to develop an in-depth understanding of Instagram marketing. Let's explore them now!
How does the Instagram algorithm work?
Instagram's algorithm, like those of other social networks, works with people's feeds so that they would theoretically see more content relevant to them. Therefore, it considers several factors to make your posts reach more or fewer people since your followers can't view all the posts in the feed.
Then, based on machine learning criteria, Instagram and its bots start to gather new information about your profile. They count each like, direct, time you spend viewing a photo, and other various factors.
Through this survey, they get to know what posts should appear first and how often should they come up on your feed. Factors they check include but are not limited to the following.
- Type of content;
- Level of involvement
- Viewing time;
- Preferred profiles;
- Chronological order;
- Searched accounts;
- Sharing via Direct;
- Use of Instagram;
- Number of followed profiles,
Hope this helps! Start making use of the robust features of Instagram to give your career as an influencer/marketer the real boost. Looking for assistance in increasing the number of followers/likes?
