Instagram updates Jan 2023
Over the past couple of weeks, there have been some exciting announcements made by Head of Instagram, Adam Moseseri. As the team at Instagram HQ are working on making the platform more appealing to their users so that they can maintain market share, they are testing a suite of new features to compete with other platforms such as TikTok and BeReal.
As a Business Owner, it can be a great idea to stay ahead of these new updates and analyse how they might help you reach your target audience on the platform.
As your trusted Melbourne Social Media Agency we’re here to help explain the latest updates!
Group Profiles
Instagram are testing this new feature that allows users to post to a group profile together. Users with a similar interest will be able to collaborate and curate content together.
This is an effort by Instagram to tap into the success of Facebook Groups, by making smaller, more collaborative social media spaces. This feature is perfect for those with shared interests who want to collaborate, for example local community groups or groups of friends!
If you have multiple faces of your business, for example your CEO and your Creative Director, perhaps these people could create a group profile together! It could be a more informal and personal way to share content in addition to your main company account. You could also have your other team members contributing. For example, if you had stores across the country, different stores could contribute together to show off life at your company. This would be a great way to showcase the real people behind your brand.
Collaborative Collections
The Collections feature is already in use and allows you to save your favourite posts into easily accessible categories. This is great for people who want to curate their favourite content and inspiration so that they can reference them later. It allows users to treat Instagram in the same way they would Pinterest as a social media platform, browsing and saving visual inspiration.
Instagram are testing a feature that would allow you to create collections with friends. This would be great for group planning, such as for trips!
This feature is all about collaboration and sharing inspiration together. Businesses could work with influencers or creators in their niche to collaborate together, or even collaborate with their customers to get them feeling involved and excited about the brand.
Canded Stories
You may recognise this feature from apps like BeReal and TikTok. Basically you take a photo with your front and back camera and share to your Stories.
This feature is all about keeping up with trends and allowing users to be more authentic on the app, creating instant and fun content that is more aimed towards friends.
This definitely signals a shift towards more in the moment, authentic content rather than perfectly polished photography.
Businesses who are brave enough to do so could share the inner workings of their teams, giving a glimpse of life behind the scenes. This is a great way to allow your customers to feel connected to you and understand your story.
Melbourne’s Best Boutique Social Media Agency
If you’re feeling inspired to try out some of these features and trends for your business, be sure to get in touch with our team. Our agency is passionate about bringing brand stories to life through authentic and meaningful social media content.
We’re always on top of the latest features and updates as we know how important it is to create social media content that wows your audience. In a crowded landscape, often it’s the first people to try a new feature who stand out from the crowd - not to mention the algorithms treat these new features preferably.