Alex DittyInstagram has updated the Explore page. Do you know how it affects your Instagram marketing?
Instagram has rolled out another big update to improve the discovery of visual content on the network. This update comes on the heels of Instagram’s recent update to their ad offerings.
These new improvements will help the Instagram community connect to the world as it happens. We’ll break down what has updated, why it’s important and how your brand can best leverage the new Instagram Explore page.
The importance of the updates
The Explore page first existed to show you some of the most popular content on Instagram. The posts that received a lot of likes and interactions were likely to get featured. Then they tailored the page to your interests based on the content you and the people you follow were interacting with. Now, they’re taking it a step further. Along with the personally tailored content, the Explore page will also highlight popular people, trends and topics on Instagram.
The Instagram team has “completely reimagined the Explore page to make discovery on Instagram immediate and effortless”. By enabling organic content discovery based on interests and relevant topics, Instagram is helping its community find great posts and people. This new update makes Instagram more relevant in the real-time media space and will also help Instagrammers connect with one another. Both of these aspects are especially powerful for your brand’s Instagram marketing.
The updates and the impact for your brand
Improved Search
The updated search function enables users to sift through more than just hashtags and people. Now a simple search for a keyword like ‘Yosemite’ will pull the hashtags, users and places related to the keyword all in one place. Before the update, Instagrammers would have to find a post shared from a specific location to view other posts shared from there. Now, your community can more seamlessly explore the visual content from their favorite destinations.
Brand Impact
The new inclusion of places in search is especially powerful for businesses with physical locations. Instagram marketing for your restaurant, DMO or retail store just got way more powerful. Instagram content now becomes a piece of people’s buying decisions when determining where to go. This makes it even more important that you’re geo-tagging your posts to help with the discoverability of that content. The same way that hashtags make your content more discoverable, geolocations in Instagram will provide you another avenue for your photos and videos to be found.
Trending Tags & Places
Now the Explore page will show you the content surrounding topics of interest to the overall Instagram community. This content can be discovered in the Trending Tags and Trending Places section of the page. Trending Tags shows you the content surrounding topics that are receiving a lot of attention. Whether there are posts about Hurricane Sandy or the NBA Draft, Instagrammers can see a visual feed of the content related to the topic. Similarly, Trending Places will show you the content at locations that are seeing a lot of social activity. Music festivals, sporting events and political conventions can all be viewed from around the world through the perspective of those in attendance.
Brand Impact
With Trending Tags & Places, Instagram is even more valuable for your real-time marketing strategy. You can more easily get involved with the conversations that your community is participating in. Popular tags from your Instagram marketing campaigns also have an opportunity to be featured in this section. The Explore page will help you discover what your community is sharing about while also making your brand’s content discoverable in popular trends, which will help you grow your following.
Curated Collections
Curated Collections is another new addition to the Explore page that includes related feeds of some of the best Instagrammers. Each of the Curated Collections will display Instagrammers related to specific topics such as “Extreme Athletes” or “Glimmering Islands”. The Curated Collections of interest to you will help you find some of your favorite Instagrammers to follow.
Brand Impact
The Curated Collections will be updated by the Instagram team, which creates a great opportunity to be featured. Leveraging Instagram influencers who fit within the themes being highlighted can give your brand organic promotion for your products and services to be discovered by a new audience.
The Instagram Explore update will make content discovery on the visual network much more powerful and effective. This is a great opportunity to amplify your Instagram marketing. By understanding the in’s and out’s of this update you can better take advantage of these features to get your brand discovered by your target consumers.
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