By Tanyika Rai
Social media platforms are constantly evolving. There’s always something new to try out especially if you’re using it as a marketing tool.
Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users making it one of the most used social media platforms and probably the best marketing tool for you. A lot of companies and businesses use this app to promote and advertise their brands, So you can understand how large the playing field can be.
Overusing hashtags in the caption of each one of your posts is old news. If you want to be on your A-game, it’s time to try out these top trends on Instagram.
Live Streams:
The option of going live on Instagram has been around for a while but was not frequently used. But due to circumstances, there has been a huge increase in the popularity of this feature. Instagram even increased the maximum length of a live stream from 1 hour to 4 hours.
So use this feature, to collaborate with other Influencers and go live together, to answer follower-asked questions, or simply to engage with your community.
Reels:
The new reels feature was inspired by the TikTok app and was introduced in 2020. They are 15 to 30 second long videos where you can even compile a bunch of smaller clips into one. Reels are one of the most used Instagram features because of the amount of time people can spend on them.
They can be entertaining, casual, or informative and are a fun way to share any type of content. You can use them to try and promote your product or service or you can use them as info graphs that share tips and tricks.
Instagram Guides:
Guides are kind of like the blog posts of Instagram. Originally introduced for a selected group of people but now are free to use by everyone.
Content creators can use it to share things like tips & tricks on self-care and wellness or they use it to recommend a list of their personal favorite resources, products, and tools.
Influencers have recently taken to sharing COVID related information too.
Carousel Graphics &Instagram Stories:
These Instagram features have been around for quite a while now but it is still a top trend on the social media platform. Carousel posts can include up to 10 posts in 1 and Instagram stories allow you to post multiple stories.
Carousel posts can be used to present even more content and using them can be a pretty good way to create some type of slideshow and showcase your product. Putting up Insta stories can be used as a great marketing and branding tool to promote your biz. Influencers in the past 2 years have increased the use of both these features though they have been around for some time already.
A major plus is that there are quite a lot of templates and editing apps that can be used to spruce up your Instagram feed.
Digital Stickers & Sticker Selfies:
Now this, to me, is a very fun way to be trendy on Instagram because stickers are pretty cool on their own.
The sticker selfie feature on Instagram allows users to create their own animated stickers from selfies and turn them into stories. Cool, I know.
Digital stickers are basically virtual stickers with some extra information along with the image. These stickers can display anything from inspirational quotes to brand or product details to promote your brand. So use them wisely.
Design apps and websites like Canva, have customizable sticker templates to suit you.
New Instagram features will constantly be created and with influence will become trends which means you should be keeping an eye out and give them a try. Keeping up with current trends but also personalizing them to suit your brand image is important and will make your content fresh and new. Plus it also excites your audience.
So try out some of these Insta trends if you haven’t already and spice up your Instagram game.