Instagram has over 1.28 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily users. Instagram releases new features very often to keep its users engaged.
Instagram has become a powerhouse platform for influencer marketing, with more and more brands turning to promote their products and services by partnering with influencers.
Continue reading to explore the top 20 Instagram features that can help your influencer marketing campaign.
#1 Professional Dashboard
The Professional Dashboard is for brands and creators to track their performance on Instagram. It provides insights such as profile views, post reach, and audience demographics over time. Brands can find the shortcuts to features like creating ads, promoting posts, and managing messages on the professional dashboard.
Professional dashboard of Instagram has this feature called tip and resources guiding brands with useful information:
#2 Live Rooms
Live Room feature in Instagram is now letting up to 4 users to go live together in a single broadcast. You must have seen the live sessions of most celebrities speaking about their upcoming movies or their recent collaboration with a brand.
When running an Influencer marketing campaign with a celebrity or with a set of influencers, you can come up with creative concepts to make them all interact together in live rooms and speak about your product or service.
This would be more organic and will let your target audience raise any questions they might have about your product/service and get it clarified instantly.
The best part about Live Rooms is that any user who has missed the session can access the recorded version in the influencer’s profile. They will also be able to see the discussion happening with other followers, which is a win-win for both brand and influencer. Influencers get the engagement while brands receive the exposure.
How to Use Live Room Instagram Feature?
Create new -> Select live -> Add title -> Go live
#3 Shopping Option
Instagram’s Shopping Option lets brands to tag their products in their posts and stories, and allows users to shop directly from Instagram. Instagram checkout allows your target audience to make a purchase without having to switch applications.
Source: DailyDrills
Following the ecommerce platform footsteps, Instagram has the Tagged Products feature that lets users see product description and pricing without leaving the app.
After promoting the products via influencer’s and announcing any promotions, brands can run the same discounted promotions as well.
How to Enable the Shopping Instagram Feature?
Go to your profile -> Settings -> Business -> Tap shopping -> Continue -> Select product catalog -> Done
Only accounts enabled for Instagram shopping will be able to set up the shopping Instagram feature.
#4 Swipe Ups and Links in Story
Swipe ups and links in stories are added by Instagram as features that would not let their users leave the platform.
Swipe up feature is available only for an instagram account with over 10,000 followers. However, adding a link to the story is now made available even for personal accounts.
Source: Rashki Lifestyle
When promoting a product via influencer marketing and the content piece is a story, you can ask the influencer to add the swipe up with the product links to increase the traffic to your website or the product page.
How to Enable the Swipe Up Instagram Feature?
Create new -> Select story -> Select the chain lock icon -> Add a call to action -> Post the story
To add links to the story:
Create new -> Select story -> Select the link icon -> Add the link -> Post the story
#5 Gift Card Feature
The Gift Card Instagram feature allows businesses to sell digital gift cards on Instagram. Users can purchase gift cards and send them to friends or family via email or message.
If your influencer marketing campaign is a giveaway, then sending gift cards to the winners wouldn’t be a problem and don;t need to buy it from any other ecommerce platform.
How to Set up Gift Card Features?
Edit profile -> Public Business Information -> Action Button -> Select a Button -> Gift Cards
*Only business and creator accounts will have the Gift card option enabled.
#6 Add Lead Feature
Instagram has built up a platform where its users don’t need to leave the app in order to get things done. Here’s one more option that’s mind blowing.
Brands often collect their leads details via landing page form or with sign up details. Instagram is now letting brands to set up their add lead form to collect data of their leads.
When running an influencer campaign to make your target audience download your application or ebook, the add lead Instagram feature is a savior.
Brands can collect the following details from their followers:
How to Set up Add Lead Feature?
Edit profile -> Public Business Information -> Action Button -> Select a Button -> Add Lead
*Only business and creator accounts will have the Add Lead Feature option enabled.
#7 Reserve
Yet another feature not letting brands to switch apps to run their business. Instagram offers a Reserve option for users to reserve tables in a restaurant.
For instance, you own a restaurant or cafe and run influencer campaigns with food bloggers. Followers who are interested in visiting your restaurant now will have the option to reserve their table without having to visit Google pages or Zomato. The influencer can also mention the same in their content directing your target audience to reserve the table via Instagram.
How to Set up Reserve Feature?
Edit profile -> Public Business Information -> Action Button -> Select a Button -> Reserve
*Only business and creator accounts will have the Reserve option enabled.
#8 Book Now
Reserve and Book now go hand in hand when it’s a restaurant or cafe. However, if you own a hospitality business or pubs for that matter, then book now will help your customers book an appointment.
Now when an influencer directs their flowers to your page through their content now it’s easy for your target audience to skimp through your and book your services immediately.
How to Set up a Book Now Instagram Feature?
Edit profile -> Public Business Information -> Action Button -> Select a Button -> Book Now
*Only business and creator accounts will have the Book Now option enabled.
#9 Order Food
Food Order feature allows users to order food from their favorite restaurants through Instagram. Users can browse menus, select items, and pay through Instagram.
How convenient instagram has enabled features for businesses. For instance, if your restaurant is running a happy hour offer or some promotion of a set period, your influencer doesn’t need to run a full fledged campaign with reels and static posts. They can simply put a story tagging your brand, and their followers will automatically look through the menu and order the food they like.
When clicking on the order food menu, Instagram will automatically redirect your flowers to the food partner you choose, like Zomato or Easydiner.
How to Enable the Order Food Instagram Feature?
Edit profile -> Public Business Information -> Action Button -> Select a Button -> Order Food
*Only business and creator accounts will have the Order Food option enabled.
#10 Remix with Followers
With Remix users create Reels by using content from their influencer. Your target audience can select a Reel from their influencer’s profile and add their own spin to it.
This feature comes as a savior when an independent music band or a production house is trying to promote a song or scene. When their favorite celebrity or influencer creates a reel, their followers will naturally start remixing the reels.
This kind of campaign creates a word of marketing while bringing virality to the song or movie.
How to Enable the Remix with Followers Instagram Feature?
To use this Instagram feature, influencers should turn on the “Enable remix” toggle on from their account. Only then the users will be able to remix reels.
To enable remix:
Go to profile -> Select settings -> Privacy -> Reels -> Enable remix
For followers to remix reels:
Select a reel -> Select the “…” option -> Select Remix reel
#11 Paid Partnership Label
Pid partnership label is a rule set by the FTC for transparency. Transparency that the influencer is letting their followers know they’re being paid for the content they are sharing.
Pay out to the influencer can be monetary, free product and services, or both.
Every brand running influencer campaign must follow this rule and urge their influencers to follow the same.
The sponsored tag should be placed in a section where the users will be able to see evidently and cannot be placed in hashtags or comments sections.
How to Set up the Sponsored Post Tag?
Select the photo or video -> Advanced setting -> Branded content -> Add paid partnership label -> Add brand partners -> Add the brand name
Your influencers will have an option to toggle on for you to promote the content on your account. And if the influencer adds more than one brand partner, the post cannot be promoted.
#12 Repost Option
The repost option allows brands to share posts from influencer’s accounts to their own feed or story. This feature is not built-in to Instagram, but there are third-party apps that allow users to repost.
Repost is best done after a few weeks of the campaign. During the campaign date the influencer drives traffic to your account with their content. You can repost on your brand account when there’s a promotion or discount for the product or when the product is back to stock.
How to Enable the Repost Instagram Feature?
Instagram lets you repost however, you should download third party applications to repost.
#13 Brand Collab Manager
Brand collab manager helps brands and creators find each other for collaborations. Brands can search for creators based on audience demographics, engagement, and content, and invite them to collaborate on a project.
However, for creators to show up on the search feed, they must have passed the following criterias:
- Facebook and Instagram’s monetization eligibility standard
- Owns professional account, either business or creator account
Using brand collab manager, brands can
- Search and discover influencers and creators at scale
- Send campaign brief
- Measure the performance of the campaign both organic and paid
How to Set up the Brand Collab Manager?
To set up the brand collab manager, there are few eligibility criteria for brands to meet:
- Publish your brand page in eligible country
- Follow Facebook and Instagram guidelines
- Follow restricted and prohibited content policies
Login to Facebook creator studio -> Select brand collab manager -> Start searching influencers using hashtags, keywords, -> Start interacting with them
#14 AR Filters
AR Filters means augmented reality filters designed to add in posts and stories for Instagram users. These filters can be created by users, or downloaded from a library of filters.
The creation part has led to the creation of many movie based AR filters for its fans to try. Now even brands have started to create filters and encourage their followers to try.
Here’s an example of Deepika Padukone owned 82°E came up with a filter named “Feels Like Home”
Source: 82°E
Filters are a great way to keep your target audience engaged. Even production houses can try this method to market their movie to its audience.
How to Enable the AR Filter Instagram Feature?
To create AR filters, there’s no inbuilt feature in Instagram. The process is very technical but here’s a brief breakdown to create a AR filter for your brand:
Download Spark AR studio -> Add objects or effect -> Add sound -> Add effects -> Test the filter -> Publish the effect
Facebook might take a few days to approve your AR filter after publishing.
#15 Story Highlights
Saving the favorite and important stories to their profile with Story Highlights is a long lost trend. These stories are displayed in a highlight reel at the top of your brand’s profile.
Let’s you’re a small business trying to sell clothes or FMCG products. You can post stories about:
- How to order your products?
- Return policy
- How to Enable the products?
- How to care for the clothes (for example slow fashion clothes)?
Highlighting such information can help your new followers understand how your brand works. You can step ahead and highlight your customers’ feedback, a form of social proof.
How to Enable Story Highlight Instagram Feature?
Go to your profile -> Select create highlight -> Start adding the stories to highlight -> Name the highlight and add a cover image
#16 Text Translation in Stories and Reels
When creating content, transcribing the words and adding them to videos is a huge task. And this might delay in delivery of your influencer’s content. Instagram has the text translation feature enabled for stories and reels.
Influencers can select the translate option and choose the language they want to translate to. This can help people with language barriers understand the content.
How to Enable the Text Translate Instagram Feature?
Instagram stories once an influencer posts, Instagram will automatically analyze the text and give “See translation” option to the users.
And to add text to reels:
Create new -> Record a reel or select the video -> Select the sticker icon -> Select CC captions
After this step “Transcribing audio” words will appear and Instagram starts Transcribing.
#17 Guides
Guides is creating curated content in a specific topic or category. You can create guides to share recommendations, tips, and advice with followers.
Here’s a brand guide name “Handpicked Rakhi Gifts for Your Sister:”
Source: Ekbyekta
*When viewed via phone or website, the products are arranged one after the other.
Creating guides is pretty simple, either from posts or from scratch. Here’s how:
You can also encourage your influencer to create a guide with the content they have created based on occasions, season, or preferences.
How to Enable Instagram’s Guide Feature?
Select Create New -> Guide -> Create guide using posted content or saved posts
#18 Schedule Post
Schedule post goes by its name to schedule posts now so that they live for the selected time. Earlier Instagram did not have this option and recently it’s been helping a lot of influencers and brands to post on time.
Posting content when the target audience is active is a great way to gain engagement. There’s a possibility to miss posting or it might be overwhelming to keep posting the entire campaign manually, scheduled posts help with that.
How to Enable the Schedule Post Instagram Feature?
Select the new post -> Advanced settings -> Schedule this post
#19 Cross Posting
Cross posting on Instagram is sharing the came across other social media platforms. Just as we spoke about scheduled posts, influencers or you cannot manually post the same content with the same caption on all the social media platforms.
You can connect the other social media accounts with Instagram, and instantly cross post across all the platforms.
How to Enable the Cross Posting Instagram Feature?
You and the influencer must have connected the other social media accounts to cross post. Once done, you can:
Select the new post -> Turn the Share to Facebook toggle on
If the influencer has taken over your social media account, they can also post instantly in the brands account.
#20 Boost Post
Running campaigns with influencers is a great way to gain brand awareness, boost sales, and more. However, brands cannot totally avoid paid ads. Paid ads bring instant results for the money invested.
If any influencer’s content is performing better than the others, you can then boost that post for a better reach.
How to Enable the Boost Post Instagram Feature?
There are two ways to do it, first you select the posted content and select the boost post option.
Secondly, you can turn the toggle on to boost your post when uploading a new content.
Select the new content -> Turn the boost post toggle on.
TakeAway
Staying up-to-date on the latest Instagram features, brands can continue to stay ahead of the curve and drive success on the platform. Let us know in the comments below which feature you use the most for your influencer marketing campaigns
