Instagram’s popularity continues to grow rapidly, with 700 million active users in June 2018 to an astonishing 1 billion in June 2019.
2019 was a great year for Instagram, which created several tricks for both consumers and brands. In addition to failing at the end of the year, where the test used by the horizontal feed instead of the normal vertical scroll goes way beyond the intended user intent, resulting in an immediate online response.
With Instagram’s 2019 updates setting the stage for this year’s trends, we expect some current trends to step into the spotlight.
Instagram eCommerce: Shopping tags go global
Fortunately for marketers, Instagram is a platform where users are open to advertising and promotional content. 80% of users follow at least one business and 72% of users have purchased a product on Instagram. Businesses can also buy instagram likes uk to better promote their products. Following a series of e-commerce updates last year, Instagram is a must for any online retailer in 2019.
After launching in the countries in 2017, shopping tags are now available globally. Originally, shopping tags allow business profiles to tag photos with the names and prices of things in a post.
Clicking on a tag brings you to a product page, which takes you to a page to buy it.Through 2019, shopping tags are now available for Instagram stories and videos.
Instagram also added the Shop tab option for business profiles, allowing users to leave the app and browse a ready-made set of items. The Explorer feature now includes a dedicated shopping channel that caters to purchasing letters, based on who you follow, your interests, and activity.
Rise of IGTV and long vertical video content
If you haven’t heard or forgotten about it before (as most people seem to have), Instagram TV launched last June without much emphasis on Instagram itself.
It uses the growing popularity of their stories and the vertical video found on Snapchat, but IGTV doesn’t disappear and it has no time limit.
The brands and creators expected from IGTV’s soft launch have published and advertised themselves, without any privileges offered to Instagram or advertisers.
Like all the other features added to Instagram over the years, we can expect them to throw their weight behind IGTV as soon as possible. The first step was the recent rollout to allow IGTV videos to be shared as a preview through stories, allowing users to click on full IGTV videos.
As it becomes more common, we will see 400 million story users spend time on IGTV every day. Although there are still many users and creators who are not on the vertical first video board, IGTV’s log format is set to compete with YouTube in the next few years.
If you want to stay ahead of the content marketing curves, check out our 6 tips for making a vertical video on IGTV.
More authenticity (and fewer bots)
Fed up with random accounts, like and comment on your posts and follow you? Well, so is Instagram. Last fall, Instagram made several marketing updates, including the latest fight against the biggest bots and authenticity using new machine learning tools.
These tools are removing third-party apps used to automate spam engagement. They are also being used to identify and notify accounts using these apps, as well as remove an unsolicited activity, including spam likes, followers, and comments.
Going live
With Instagram bots and the fight against authenticity, people generally prefer authenticity, honesty, and transparency, whether they belong to other people or brands. Direct content is authentic by nature but part of the challenge is to create it.
The live video has been playing for a long time on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (RIP Vine), and Instagram. With the entire property immovable at the top of the app in Stories, the only feature that can collide is outdated but still not fully aware of the “live” feature.
It’s so competitive with stories now, it’s the only place to live. Its low adoption is clearly due to the challenges it faces, but we believe that more brands and marketers are sinking in 2020.
Growth is low on all platforms, especially the relatively new state-of-the-art Instagram. But with all the competition on Instagram, staying ahead of people’s feeds and traffic stories, then the “live” icon is the only chance to get in front of the Stars feed. We predict that brands and marketers who are brave and very creative will put more effort into direct content.
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More Instagram IRL and UGC
Thanks to the roots of authenticity and the ability to help sell, consumer-generated content is evolving as a marketing strategy. Gartner L2 Digital IQ found that UGC was included in the consumer’s path to purchase, which could increase the conversion rate from 4.5% to 9.6%. This led to more creative ways to encourage UGC, especially in real life.
One trend that has grown steadily and is set to begin in 2020 is Instagram-friendly offices, stores, events, and locations. This can include the photo and video-friendly sites that entice visitors, users, or influential people to create Instagram content.
These locations often include entertainment branded backdrops or props with hashtags or @tags displayed. It can also provide a free chance to win promotional items or postings from this location. It has been a clear choice for events, art exhibitions, and museums.
Many events and exhibitions have created social media in mind. A great example of this is a fun place in Toronto, an exhibition of entertaining art, in which themed rooms are specifically considered to be able to play and create social content.