Instagram fall updates in 2018
Instagram offers more and more features for simply following your favorite accounts, communication, chatting and posting long videos. The social network is becoming a full-fledged media channel for bloggers, brands and offline businesses.
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November 2018 has become fruitful on Instagram updates. The social network users were offered even more functions in the spirit of Facebook, opportunities for full-fledged communication through Direct and technical innovations. The changes were due to Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who had been in charge of the media and the technical part of Instagram since the moment of its foundation, left the company. The new leadership has stated to the Bloomberg channel that they are ready to make history in a completely different way. What is so revolutionary about Instagram?
Nametags
Pay for an apartment by scanning QR codes? Nametags from Instagram are almost the same, only without a large field with dots. The social network offers to create an individual picture that any user will be able to scan in the app and get a link to the profile of a nametag owner.
This function is convenient for brands, stores or offline businesses. It's enough just to create a nametag and print it on a banner, placing it in your room. A number of companies already print nametags on t-shirts, bags, and car stickers for bloggers.
- According to the developers, the nametag goals are:
- Avoid misspelling nicknames and search difficulties;
- Provide users with a large number of interesting profiles;
- Make the process of following brands and finding official accounts easy.
In the English-speaking segment, users massively post in their stories nametags while they don't really understand what it is and why it's needed, and brands still don't want to adopt their experience. Only some stores managed to place offline banners. The majority places a link to their social networks in an old-fashioned way - with a pictogram and a nickname nearby.
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Some sources claim that only a smartphone with a good camera is needed for using nametags, but owners of cheap phones can also scan. The main thing is good lighting and the availability of a new app for nametags.
Judging by the number of requests for stuff, bags, car stickers and t-shirts with nametags, people like this function and can settle in.
Quick replies
Another function that should simplify the work of stores and brands social network administrator. In Direct, you can save quick replies on typical messages, and send them from a template as needed. The “quick replies” button appears when we open a dialog in Direct with a specific user.
Instagram offers business account owners to set it up, and save a few quick answers to simplify communication.
You can configure “Quick Replies” by clicking on the “Settings”, “Business”, “Create a quick reply” tabs.
Store administrators often type work hours, the cost of certain services, such as product delivery, its times, and other useful information. Many create a template with a request to publish a photo with the brand in their account, or something like that.
Does anyone on the Internet use this function? It's popular among bloggers and brands because it simplifies communication, but usual personal account owners didn't appreciate it so much. Many complain that Instagram is too aggressively recommends them to add quick answers, which makes it difficult to communicate in Direct. For personal accounts, "Quick Answers" isn't yet provided. Users should be content with the old-school built-in like and emoji if they need to reply to the message, but there is no way to do it fully.
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Using GIF in messages
This is not a big improvement, according to Instagram administrators. GIFs are used only to make communication more ordinary, familiar to the user. They don't do too much to promote brands.
But the owners of personal accounts are delighted with the gifs in Direct. They allow you to diversify the communication feed, help not to be bored, and convey emotions more accurately than even emoji.
In business owners opinion, this function is the most “useless” but applying it in communicating with customers can increase their loyalty. You shouldn't overdo it. A law firm communicating with a future bankrupt using gifs is too much, but a new fashion store can quite afford it.
The variety of gifs is still small. Instagram stays behind Viber and Vkontakte, but the function is in active development, and it has a potential.
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Long videos in Stories
This is the most controversial Instagram "chip" in recent days. Its value depends on how the account is used. You can post a one minute video, and Instagram will break it into pieces. And you can shoot a few short videos, as before.
The format isn't very popular among users, because:
- Instagram cuts video randomly;
- Dialogues and music may disappear;
- Sometimes the meaning is distorted;
- It's not always comfortable to watch such videos.
The advantage is that you can post your content automatically, which is convenient for those who can immediately and without hesitation record them with speech and actions. The function was conceived as a magic wand for bloggers who love to shoot video. But it's not the same as InstagramTV. If the last one is conceived as a direct competitor to YouTube, then the function of an untrimmed video is like something that makes life easier for a stories user. In Stories, they usually post something that doesn't fit in the account for the quality of the content, or something that will be relevant only during the day.
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This function has some cons. Not everyone manages to keep the audience for a minute, followers often want to see the picture changing and just go to the next profile story if they see there a long video.
According to rumors, Instagram is testing the ability to save the search by hashtags, excluding their huge cloud from the post. It will be possible to add hashtags separately. Posts will display by them in the search results and won't hang in the text field, “overloading” it. The social network is evolving, and the new leadership is heading for an even greater merging of Instagram and Facebook.
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