News
Robyn Hardman, Digital Consultant
Instagram’s New ‘Album’ Feature Available for Everyone
Instagram’s ‘album’ feature is now available for all users – what does this mean for brands and advertisers?
With the recent launch of yet another new feature, Instagram is proving that it’s the go-to photo app of choice. While the initial appeal of Instagram was that it provided beautiful, single image posts for you to scroll through, the recent addition of ‘albums’ gives the social network a fresh outlook.
You can now create posts that contain up to 10 images or videos, and each image or video can be viewed by swiping left. What we love about this update is that it’s now easier for users to start telling a story with their posts, and there are plenty of creative posts already flooding the hashtags.
The feature was previously only available to advertisers, effectively as an extension of Facebook’s advertising carousel posts, but felt very underused. Now that the feature is available to everyone – and, most importantly, everyone knows how to use it – marketeers can explore new ways of reaching out to their followers and audiences.
What does this mean for your brand?
The update also has the potential to increase engagement by keeping users on a post for longer. So brands could share a step-by-step recipe, show off the different rooms in a boutique hotel, or present a ‘day in the life of’ an employee in one quick hit – the possibilities are endless.
One particular bonus is being able to use the feature organically, rather than just through paid advertising. Not only does this help creators to develop great new viral posts and campaigns, but it also gives brands the chance to experiment at a lower cost to find out what works best for them and their followers.
Updates to Instagram have been coming at a rapid pace over the past 12 months, with the introduction of Instagram Stories, comment control, and the ability to add longer videos and save posts to a private collection. As one of the fastest growing social networks, Instagram presents a lot of exciting opportunities for marketeers – we’re looking forward to seeing what’s coming next.
Supercharging your social plan? Check out our other blogs:
- Feel the love – Facebook reactions are now more important than likes
- It’s been emotional! Great examples of emojis in marketing
- Silence is golden: the importance of silent videos
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