5 Instagram Updates You’ll Want To Make The Most Of

With so many different platforms looking for a slice of the action, it’s no secret that the world of social media is ever changing. How else will the plethora of social media apps continue to compete and outdo each other? Every serious player knows that being on top of the pack means being innovative and keeping up with what your audience wants… which means you’ve got to update!

Today, we’re going to be talking about Instagram.
Whether you love it or hate it, Instagram has been a pivotal platform for social media marketers, content creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses alike. It has also become a vital component in the customer journey, with many people searching for a brand on Instagram to inform their consideration of a product or service. Be honest, how many times have you looked up a brand’s Instagram to see whether they had a legitimate social media presence?

In order to keep its (rather large) slice of the social media cake, Instagram continues to roll out new updates across the platform to keep its users interested, as well as remain competitive against newer platforms.

Quite a few have rolled out this year, so we thought it’d be a good opportunity to run you through some of our favourites in case you’ve missed them!

1. Live Captioning on Instagram Stories

These days, many people view social media with the volume off, especially if you’re scrolling through a feed like Instagram’s and you’re out and about. A feed built around video, like TikTok’s, would be a different story!

That’s why, at Milkbar, we always make sure that our videos have subtitles on them. Not just for people who occasionally forget to bring their earphones out with them (like, well… me), but more importantly, to make the content we create more accessible to others, such as those who are hard of hearing. That way, nobody misses out.

With this in mind, Instagram introduced speak-to-text on Instagram Stories, allowing users to easily create their own subtitles just by speaking. Just remember to enunciate words as clearly as you can to get the most accurate captions!

2. Insights now go up to 90 days

If you ever found Instagram’s 30 day cap on its insights a little restrictive, then you’ll be glad to know that they expanded the reporting window up to three months (well, 90 days, to be precise)! This means that you’re able to draw more accurate averages on the results of your content based on the past 90 days, as well as better compare one month’s results to the month previous.

3. Insights for Instagram Reels

Speaking of insights, do you remember when Reels were first introduced on Instagram?
How about the fact that you couldn’t pull insights other than how many views, likes, and comments it received?

Now, you’ve got access to many other insights that other posts have too!
In recent months, Instagram has opened up insights for Reels to now also include the number of accounts reached, as well as the number of saves and shares.

As a side note, saves and shares can often be considered quite important metrics as they represent a higher level of engagement beyond likes and comments. Shares, in particular, demonstrate how your content has been amplified by others. The more your content is shared, the greater your reach becomes.

4. Instagram’s Recently Deleted

Have you ever accidentally, for some reason, hit the Delete button on a post you wanted to Archive or Edit instead?
Instagram’s ‘Recently Deleted’ feature means that all is not lost! This feature was introduced as users who had the misfortune of having their accounts hacked, would sometimes find that some of their content had been deleted with no way of getting it back.

Wondering where to access it? Simply head into Settings, then Account, then Recently Deleted, and voila! All the on-feed posts and stories you’ve deleted in the past 30 days will be sitting there, ready for you to restore.

5. More opportunities for creators

Instagram has recently stated that they will be focusing more on video content, its in-app shopping functionality, and Instagram content creators. This means that they are working towards creating more opportunities for creators to earn money on the platform, and many of their upcoming updates are sure to reflect this.

One of these new features is Affiliate, a native affiliate program launching soon.
Though it’s an update that isn’t quite here yet, we must say it’s quite an exciting one, for content creators in particular. With this feature, not only will users be able to tag products in on-feed posts and stories, but they will also be able to earn a commission off of every sale that occurs through their post. 

To Recap:

Did you skim and scan all the way down here, and miss out on all the good stuff?
That’s okay, I’ve got you covered.
To recap, some of our favourite Instagram updates recently are that we now have access to more valuable insights across all content formats, can restore posts deleted in the past 30 days, and will see more opportunities for creators on the app! With the Influencer industry continuing to grow, influencers and content creators aren’t just a valuable user-base for Instagram, but they’re valuable spokespeople for brands and businesses too.

It’s definitely no secret that the days of Instagram being a photo-sharing app with a chronological feed are well and truly in the past (and I mean way, way, in the past), so it’s interesting to see it evolve along with its users.

Which of Instagram’s other updates have you come across?
Or perhaps you need a hand navigating these new updates and trends that are happening on social media?
Well, hey… that’s what we’re here for!
Get in touch to see how we can lend a hand.