Staying on top of social media when it comes to your marketing means staying in-the-know when it comes to new features on the platforms. New features only serve to help you be the best social media marketer you can be! Here’s a recap of some of our favorite new Instagram features for marketers in 2022 so far.
Links in stories
If you follow our blog, you know we already expressed our excitement for the introduction of link sharing on Instagram Stories back in November. Guess what? It’s three months into 2022, and we’re still excited.
A feature previously limited to accounts with 10,000 or more followers (a.k.a., NOT most small businesses), link sharing has opened up a whole new world for marketers. Now they can use Stories to connect followers with their digital assets beyond the Instagram platform.
Auto-captions on stories
Raise your hand if you regularly watch Stories or Reels with the sound on.
Yeah, that’s what we thought.
Instagram’s new auto-captions for Stories automatically convert speech to text for video-based story content. The win for marketers is that more people are likely to stop and watch your content if they don’t have to turn the sound on to understand what’s happening.
“Add Yours” sticker
Layers of interaction opportunities are getting more and more abundant, and the new “Add Yours” sticker on Instagram Stories is just another example of that. It’s a sticker that allows Story viewers to respond to prompts by sharing their own input. For example, if the prompt was #DogLife and the original poster used it with an “Add Yours” sticker, you could respond with your own image or video related to #DogLife.
Social media is all about starting a conversation, and this is an easy way for users to join in and interact with the brands they follow.
Partnership messages
Instagram says that “helping brands drive business outcomes” is one of its goals. Lucky us! The “partnership messages” inbox that debuted in fall 2021 helps brands stay organized when it comes to direct messages on the platform.
Instead of all direct messages going to one main inbox, brands can express interest in wanting to partner with creators and have those messages go to a “Partnership messages” inbox. That means your messages as a brand are less likely to be overlooked.
Visual replies
This is one of our favorite new Instagram features for marketers in 2022 that will make you say, “Cool!” Brands can now use visual replies on Instagram Reels. So, instead of being limited to replying to a comment with text, brands can reply with another Reel (hello, heightened connectivity). TikTok offers a similar option. Just another way to increase engagement and allure for your content!
Summary
Spice up your brand’s Instagram presence by playing around with these new Instagram features for marketers in 2022—we know we plan to!
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