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This is the first part of the series on new Instagram features. Stay tuned for the next installment.
As Instagram recently hit one billion users globally, the platform has introduced a multitude of new features that have delighted their community. They’ve been able to grow their user base by creating a product roadmap that engages and excites. These new features have led brands, celebrities, and regular users to create more intriguing content, connect with the community, and even make products shoppable. Let’s take a look at these powerful new Instagram features you need to know about in 2018.
Instagram TV
By far one of the biggest launches is IGTV. Instagram’s strategic decision to focus on long-form content has created another avenue for influencers, brands, media, and users to showcase their work. IGTV is hosted within the Instagram app, as well as, has a standalone app. IGTV hosts vertical video content that is up to one hour long. With the focus on creators building out their brand, creators can include a link within the video and users can comment, like, and direct message the video to friends. As ephemeral content storytelling has heightened with Instagram Stories, IGTV is the perfect place to feature your long-form content that can inspire users which can include: interviews, behind-the-scenes content, educational material, brand events and much more.
Shoppable Instagram Stories
With discoverability and storytelling being at the forefront of Instagram, it’s only inevitable that shoppable posts would become an integral part of the platform. Now, you can produce shoppable posts on your grid and within Stories as well. By tapping into your strong community, as well as, including relevant hashtags and utilizing influencers with your niche, you can find success with social selling. Users can now see a sticker within Instagram Stories that explains the images of the products in your Story, a description of the product, how much the product costs, and a link that takes them to the website to purchase the product. Instagram is another sales channel for your company to leverage for success.
Question
The newest feature to take the Instagram world by storm is the questions feature. This can be found in the stickers section, and you can customize the question to your liking. This is a great way to become more authentic and humanize your brand. By answering questions, you are showing your humor and vulnerability to your community. Additionally, it can be used to provide more insights into your own products and processes, so that your community understands your brand more.
Video Chat
Sliding into DMs just got way more exciting. With video chat, you can chat one to one or with a group chat. Video chat is a great way to build relationships with your community. You could do weekly calls with your power users to gain feedback about your product or update them on new features that aren’t available to the public yet. This authentic ability to connect over video chat allows for users to feel closer and appreciated by the brand. There are many value-adds in Instagram that can be used for friends but can also be great for community building too. 
Music Into Stories
Expansion into new partnerships is key. There are 400 million daily users on Instagram Stories and this Spotify partnership spices up content. To add music to a Story clip, you can find the Spotify integration within the sticker section. There, you can tap to find thousands of songs. When you’ve selected your song, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits and add it to your story. Music adds another element to your creativity and can be used in a variety of ways.
Conclusion
These new Instagram product features help take content and community to the next level. Instagram is no longer just about taking photos in the moment and posting on the grid, but is a multi-purpose app and platform that can lead to increased sales, stronger community, heightened creativity, and in-depth content creation. By understanding how each new product feature works and how it can be utilized for your own brand it’ll help scale and grow your business faster.
Which new features have helped you up your Instagram game in 2018? Tweet us back @NeoReach and let us know!
