7 Instagram Trends of 2019

Instagram is one of the biggest social media giants in the marketplace right now with more than 1 billion users and 25 million active business accounts. (According to Social Media Today). However, when it comes to being successful on Instagram simply using clever hashtags and posting regularly is not enough to cut the mustard.

If you are serious about gaining the best out of Instagram and running a successful social media strategy, you will need to know all about the latest Instagram tools and trends. Here are our top 7 Instagram trends to watch out for in 2019 and put into practice:

AR-Story Filters

Today, the most unique and engaging way to promote your brand is through consistent interactive content. In 2018 Instagram developed closed beta software allowing selected 3rd parties (celebrities, influencers, brands, etc.) to create their very own AR filters for Instagram stories. Therefore, Instagram users can use them whilst helping spread awareness of your brand simply by sharing User Generated Content with your branded custom filter applied.

Due to the success of the software and great engagement and feedback, Instagram now allows more third parties to create AR filters leading to more brands having the opportunity to implement this amazing tool as their advertising strategy and promote themselves effectively.

Influencer Authenticity

When it comes to collaborating with influencers, brands should seriously consider the importance and authenticity of the influencer. Today it is very easy to get or buy high number followers, however, as a brand you should outline the influencers who have real followers and followers that are genuinely interested in their content. In essence influencers who have true influence over their audience. Before collaborating with an influencer, take the time to truly research them and their actual social media influence. Beyond the followers number, you should consider researching:

• Their post engagement
• Their audiences sincere interest in the content shared
• Previous brand collaboration and campaigns
• Last but not least – if they are truly Authentic

You can implement tools like Social Baker to help you find the right influencers for your industry and research them based on their location and audience as well as the type of influencer they are (based on interests).

“Check Out” feature

Until this year if you wanted to sell a product on Instagram, you could advertise it on the platform and link the advert to your website allowing users to land there with only one click. However, In 2019 Instagram introduced its Shopping Feature giving users the opportunity to add products to their chart and check out directly, which in-turn is likely to increase the impulsive orders from users influenced by the right interactive content. This trend is drastically growing and will continue to grow in the coming years as the Millennials and Generation Z demand convenience and the ability to buy products directly via the platforms they use.

Instagram Story Ads

According to Instagram’s own research on the “Popularity of Instagram Stories”, about 400 million users view stories on a daily basis and one third of the most viewed are from brands accounts. Furthermore, about 1 in 5 stories generate at least one direct message from viewers. Many brands have realised the popularity of this feature and have started embracing it for further brand promotion and product selling. Some of them, GAP for example, have seen amazing success from leveraging Instagram story ads – a 73% higher click-through rate than a previous Instagram campaign.

To get started with your own Instagram Story Ads, simply use your Facebook Ads Manager account to create your ad and go live.

Stories Highlights

Instagram Stories are an amazing feature, however they vanish after 24 hours. That’s where the Stories Highlights feature comes in. It allows you to save your best stories and keep them on your account for as long as you want, allowing your followers to see them anytime they visit your account.

There are many Social Media Strategies where highlights can be highly beneficial, for example strategies for brand awareness and product promotions. Furthermore, if you make sure to save the best performing ones, you can continue driving people to your account and see them preferably take the favoured action.

Cinemagraphs

When it comes to social media content – originality and uniqueness are the most important characteristics. There is a huge amount of content going out on a daily basis and you have to compete not only with other brands, but also with social media influencers from all sizes. To stand out, grab peoples attention and improve your Instagram engagement your content needs to be in variety of different forms and you should always try new ways to present it. Cinemagraphs are a great example of a form of communication content that have been making serious waves in the Instagram world. Cinemagraphs are essentially still images with a little motion in them and whilst that might not sound initially impressive, users have seen significant improvement in their followers’ engagement.

IGTV

Today sharing videos on Instagram is huge and considering that video content is more than 60% of the shared content online, that’s precisely what makes IGTV such an exciting trend. IGHT is a video platform specifically designed for creating and sharing vertical videos, also known as mobile-only videos.

Instagram announced this huge new feature and separate app in the summer of 2018. The app no longer limits the video content to 1 minute, but allows you to create and post videos that are up to an hour long. Furthermore, even though IGTV is a separate app, Instagram users can view these long form mobile-only videos via this platform, which is a great opportunity for brands to reach and engage with an audience of approximately 1 billion users.

You can use this feature to create engaging long-form videos that:

• Promote your brand and products
• Highlight specific products and their uses
• Host interviews
• Entertain and engage your audience

So far, 2019 has been a very exciting year for Instagram users, especially businesses utilising Instagram as part of their social media strategy. The beauty in its platform is that it has enabled companies to promote and sell their products, create interactive content and engage with even larger audiences.

If you would like to know more about the digital services we offer get in touch with 10Digital.

Check out our info-graphic on "Instagram stats 2019"