[2019] Six Instagram Trends to Follow

Even after 9 years, Instagram continues to be one of the most popular social media platform. The user base contains more than 1 000 000 000 profiles, and half of the users access the platform daily. 

It is obvious, in a such giant cluster of people, many opportunities arise. Today, becoming successful on Instagram, it takes more than just consistent posting and use of strategic hashtags. The platform is evolving and so the methods are changing too. Whether you become Instagram influencer, or you’re running an account as part of your business’s social media strategy, you need to know about all the right Instagram tools and trends and read our articles in order to be informed about all hidden secretes. 

1. Instagram Followers, why you need more
2. Instagram Shopping Feature
3. Instagram Story Ads
4. Stories Highlights
5. Cinemagraphs
6. IGTV and vertical video
7. Conclusion

Instagram Followers, why you need more

You need more Instagram followers, and it doesn’t really matter if your account is new or has been around for a while. The higher number of followers you have – the better. Big profiles are perceived as interesting and trustworthy, consequently, those profiles build their following base much easier and faster.

There are 3 main ways to grow your followers number:

The first one is to create engaging content and promote it aggressively via paid advertising. Posts containing photos generate 36% more engagement than videos. This method is the most ethical, costly and very time consuming. In an ideal world, this should be the only method which you’ll want to use to grow your followers number. However, the world is not perfect, and following this route will place you at disadvantage. That’s why you need to mix the next two methods with first one.

So, let’s dive into the real world. The second method is to leverage on growth by using automation tools. We are living in a digital era, and automation tools are everything. These tools were designed to make our life easier. That’s why you should consider to use an automation bot. You may think that you can perfectly live without one, which is fine, but, you can’t neglect the advantage which you may receive by using one of them.

So what exactly is an automation bot? Automation bot is a software which will follow various people based on the criteria you choose, such as location, tags and other. Later, you can unfollow people which didn’t follow you back or people which you don’t really want to follow due to various reasons. By using an automation bot, you’ll save tens of hours per week. The downside is, it may take several months before you’ll notice a significant change into your followers number. Nonetheless, worth trying.

The third method, is to use a service which delivers Instagram followers. The third method might not be an ethical way to grow your profile, nor it will deliver you the quality you are looking for, but for sure it is the cheapest and the fastest method to increase the numbers of followers and become more influential and trustworthy in front of new / potential followers. Social visibility phenomenon, have you ever heard about it? It’s when people associate themselves with someone, because they share the same values, ideas or simply because they want to be in trend with everyone.

By purchasing such services, be ready to get random profiles following you. The best what you can get, is real people profiles which opted in for “like for like” programs, I’m sure you know about them, as you also were thinking of finding a solution to exchange likes for free. But don’t get excited, because those people don’t really care about you, and most probably are no even aware that someone is manipulating their accounts. It shouldn’t be a problem for you at all. Your main goal is to increase your followers count in order to be attractive for organic Instagram followers.

At the end of the day, there is always a chance that those purchased followers will like your content.

By using the third method, keep in eye on your engagement rate ratio. Many of those Instagram followers will not interact with your posts at all. That’s why it is good idea to use an engagement rate calculator to check which posts do perform well, or vice versa – are underperforming. This particular calculator, based on your stats, will suggest how many interactions you need in order to keep your engagement rate look natural.

Instagram Shopping Feature

Previously, selling a product directly from your instagram profile wasn’t possible. It required you to post a link somewhere on your profile page, directing to your e-commerce website. Now, people can browse your catalog directly from the app, select the product and checkout directly from the app. Easy and convenient. What does this mean? It means that your conversion might go up, and having an e-commerce website is not as mandatory as it was before. Instagram offers you a 360 degree selling solution, 100% optimized for mobile, and we know that mobile shopping has already surpassed desktop online shopping.

Shopping Feature will continue to grow in the coming years. Millennials and Generation Z seek convenience, and the ability to buy products via the platforms they actually use: Facebook Mess, Instagram, Snapchat and other channels. And in case you still not using this feature, you are missing on a lot of opportunities. You can build and manage your product catalog from Facebook business account.

Instagram Story Ads

As per Instagram’s own research, about 400 million users view Stories every day. Neglecting this type of promotion channel, definitely limits your reach, thus again, you are missing on new opportunities. It’s a good idea to use this feature to promote and sell your products. Many brands using this type of promotion, have seen great improvements in click through rate and conversions. As an example, I can refer Gap, who reported an 73% increment in click through rate when using Instagram Story Ads. The following promotion type, as any other Facebook Inc paid advertising are created and managed from Facebook Ads manager account.

Stories Highlights

Instagram Stories vanish after 24 hours. With Stories Highlights feature you can save your best performing stories, and keep them on your account as long as you want. Anyone visiting your account, including your followers will be able to see your Stories Highlights. You can use this feature to tell your story and promote your brand, or you can use it to promote specific products or events. Reaching 10 000 Instagram followers mark, your account becomes eligible for a new feature. At 10 000 Instagram followers mark, you can start including outbound links in your stories. You are not limited anymore by only 1 link into your bio.

If you think that’s a lot, remember that originally it was available only for profiles with over 1 000 000 followers. Nowadays, with few $ you can activate this feature from day one, if you buy Instagram followers from different Instagram service providers.

Cinemagraphs

When it comes to social media content, innovation and originality are extremely important. There is a lot of content to compete with, not just from other brands, but also from social influencers and quite simply, people’s own friends and families.

The attention span has decreased over the years, from 12 seconds to 8, and although people think that videos drive more engagement because it’s easier for content digestion, it’s not true, since video requires much more time, and people don’t have the patience to watch it entirely. That’s why, to compete with everyone posting static photos, you need to be creative. Cinemagraphs is the new form of content that’s been making waves in the Instagram world.

Cinemagraphs, are still images with just a little of motion in them – and while that might not sound impressive, take a look at the example bellow. Doesn’t it look awesome?

IGTV and vertical video

This video platform is specifically made for creating and sharing vertical videos, which means that it’s made for creating mobile-only videos. The main feature of the app, was to bypass Instagram 1 minute video limit. Despite IGTV being a separate app, videos uploaded into IGTV, can be viewed directly from Instagram app. You can use this feature to create engaging long-form videos promoting your brand and your products, highlighting specific products and their uses, share videos from your events, host interviews and create all kinds of creative video content that will entertain and engage your audience.

Conclusion

2019 is bound to be a very exciting year for Instagrammers and brands using Instagram marketing. There are more ways to promote and sell your products, more ways to create exciting content and more ways to get your Instagram followers to engage and take action. With over 1 billion users worldwide, and a median age of 28 years old, Instagram is a gold mine for digital marketing and mobile e-commerce.