Last Updated on 06/24/2017 by Chris Gampat
Instagram is evolving as a platform; it’s surely come a far way from just being a place where you slap on a vintage looking filter. Instead, Instagram has become more of a marketing platform involved with advertising and keeping someone going through feeds. Facebook, which owns Instagram, has seen where the social media world is going and is working to ensure they’re always ahead of everyone else. With that in mind, all one has to do is look at the way that modern marketing and advertising is evolving to see how Instagram will evolve.
Instagram Will Become More Video Centered
YouTube has started to give more emphasis and priority to creators who make longer videos. That way, YouTube can insert more ads into them. Facebook has started to do the same thing and has given more of a priority to not only longer videos but also videos with captions on them. It makes sense as that draws people in more due to how the platform works. But Instagram is similar. Videos don’t have a major time limit and so eventually you’ll just be able to upload a 14 minute, behind the scenes tutorial video that you choose to do. In order to get someone’s attention though, the captions will help on the small real estate space Instagram uses. And just like Facebook, folks rarely read your written description of the video unless it’s super quick.
With all this said, Instagram is bound to make video support a priority to come.
The Longer The Videos, The Better
Longer videos, as I stated before, mean that the platform can put ads on there and monetize them. Facebook has started to do this and it’s only a matter of time before they make it customized for Instagram.
So basically, start shooting more videos if you don’t already. Turn yourself into a studio production, and get ready to talk about the latest photo session you’ve had to interact with your clients.
Deeper Integration Into Third Party Apps (Hootsuite)
Lots of photographers and marketing managers have been asking for a while to make working with Instagram much easier. Facebook is bound to cave eventually if it means they get more money. With that said, we’ve got Buffer, which works out pretty well to deliver stories though still isn’t straightforward and simple to use. But we can surely expect Buffer and Hootsuite to do more when it comes to scheduling and posting to Instagram without needing to open up the reminder to do so.
But just imagine how much better it will be when you can schedule stories. It means that all you’ll need to worry about is just doing Live events and videos on Instagram instead.
Variety of Ways to React Besides a Heart
Though this may be a bit of a stretch; consider the fact that sometimes you want to quickly react to something on Instagram and how many times folks end up just using emojis in comments. Now what if you had all the reactions that Facebook allowed like laughing, angry, sad, wow, etc. It would mean that you react and interact more often, and that can also be better for advertisers.
So what does that mean for photographers? Start creating content that is bound to elicit an emotion out of someone.
Stories: A Bigger Emphasis
At least in the case of publications like the Phoblographer, stories are going to become even bigger. Most of our interaction comes from Instagram stories on our Instagram account but in addition to that, the traffic we get from Instagram outdoes Twitter for us. So for photographers who shout out to one another, show off snippets from your lives, etc. this is going to become even bigger.