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Instagram Features: The Good and the Bad

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Hannah Barden

If your current social strategy revolves around a single post on Instagram every week, we think that you could really benefit from reading on... 

Guides

Instagram guides are a new feature that allows you to add a collection of posts under a single guide that has a name and cover photo. Each post you add can have a title and description that reflects what's in the compilation. You are also able to differentiate the guides and choose from places, products as well as posts.

Advantages:

  • Collate posts/products/locations relating to a single topic in one place.
  • Allow users to easily view related posts.
  • Users can view your recommendations. 
  • Can be shared, receive likes and comments.
  • Can be edited and updated.

Disadvantages:

  • Unable to track how well guides are doing or views on them. Only able to see likes and comments.
  • They are fairly new, so not everyone is aware of guides.
  • Guides are just collated things into one section, so users may not care about the content as they have already seen it.

 

Stories

Stories on Instagram have been around for a while now and are one of the more mainstream additional features that Instagram added to its platform. Stories allow you to post videos or images as you go or upload them from your camera roll. You can add posts you see to your story and it is a live view of your activity as you go. These stories are active for 24 hours. 

Advantages:

  • People can stay up to date with you in real-time.
  • Take pictures or videos and add them to your story straight away.
  • Has add-ons such as text, stickers and more.
  • People can respond and message you from your stories.
  • Helps form a better connection with your followers.

Disadvantages:

  • Stories only last 24 hours.
  • Limited ability to dictate how long a story is.
  • Stories depend on the algorithm to push up your ranking on your followers' feeds, so some stories may get left in the dark.
  • You are unable to link to your website unless you meet specific criteria.

 

Reels

Reels consist of multiple short video clips up to 30 seconds. You can edit them to add things such as music or text over them. These videos are supposed to be entertaining for users to scroll through and watch multiple in one session.

Advantages:

  • Short video content is easy to consume and enjoy, so could deliver better engagement rates.
  • Able to add audio, text and more.
  • Can collaborate with other creators’ reels.
  • Easy to create.

Disadvantages:

  • Videos have to be engaging with a very small amount of time in which to connect with an audience.
  • An account's reels aren’t as easily discoverable as other features.
  • Can take time to think of gripping, unique reel ideas.
  • Reels rely on the algorithm to gain you exposure. 

 

IGTV

IGTV is video content that is longer than stories and reels. Like stories, it has been around for quite a while. IGTV content fills the screen and allows creators to take their time creating a video, as they aren’t limited to just a few seconds.

Advantages:

  • Longer video content.
  • Able to interact with sharers, likes and comments.
  • There is personalised content, something for everyone to watch.
  • Can tell a story and connect more to an intended audience.

Disadvantages:

  • Not everyone wants to watch long videos, as people prefer shorter content.
  • IGTV is big, but it isn’t anywhere near the likes of YouTube. Many would prefer to search YouTube than browsing Instagram for long-form content.

 

Instagram Live

Instagram has a feature that allows users to go live, go live with other people and chat with their viewers. You can keep up with individuals in real-time if they are live on Instagram. 

Advantages:

  • Update viewers in real-time.
  • Connect better with your audience.
  • Able to see who is viewing and interactions.

Disadvantages:

  • Live errors and mistakes cannot be cut out.
  • Technical issues may occur. 
  • You risk trolls and need to be careful with what you are sharing. 

 

Everything in life has its positives and negatives. And social media platforms are no different. If you want to increase engagement, leads and following, using these features could be a great way to do that. Finding the right Instagram features depends on your marketing goals and how much time you have to achieve results. If you are short on time, it could be fruitful to invest in someone helping you with your social media marketing or digital marketing plan in general.

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Hannah Barden
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