5 Predictions for Social Media Marketing on Instagram in 2018

The new year brings such renewed energy and a fresh, amazing, space for creativity and excitement around brands and their social media strategies. With the help of Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today, we are sharing with you some of the things you will see happening this year specifically on Instagram.

2018 will see a renewed focus on the platform’s business options as it looks to capitalize on that growth and increased audience interest. Here is what you are going to see:

Shopping Tags

It seems like a no-brainer that we’re going to see the broader arrival of Instagram’s ‘Shopping Tags’ in 2018.  The option, which enables businesses to put discrete price and information tags on items within their images, has been in testing since last November. The feature was recently expanded via a partnership with Shopify.

Given the significant brand interest in the option, and the likely limited disruption in feeds (you need to click on the image to activate the tags), it seems fairly safe to assume that we’ll see a wider roll-out of Instagram Shopping Tags in the next 12 months, particularly as the platform works to limit potential competition from Pinterest.

Visual Search

Instagram has been putting a lot of work into developing its advanced image recognition. This feature allows you to pick out specific objects within any photo.

Instagram has been improving and upgrading its Explore option, with a particular focus on video discovery. For brands, this could be significantly beneficial, as you’ll not only be able to search by hashtag, but also by image content. That could help uncover more influencers and brand advocates, or users who’d likely be interested in your products which you may not have been able to identify via text search alone.

Stories Development

Instagram Stories (our personal fav) will continue to grow on a massive scale.  This year expect more story tools available to keep used engaged and away from SnapChat. Hello FILTERS!

360 Insta?

Andrew Hutchinsons expects “that Facebook will also look to add their 360 photo and video options to Instagram at some stage in 2018.” But really, where 360 photos seem to fit even better than on Facebook itself is on Instagram, with the platform’s visual focus perfectly suited to the option.

The introduction of 360 content could lead to a significant shift on Instagram, particularly if the creation process is simplified, making it easy for anyone to post more immersive, interactive photos.

Insta Maps

Thanks again Snap! It seems like a simple option for Instagram to adapt – they did once have a similar tool which showed where your photos were taken, but the focus on Stories content, in particular, could be a key opportunity for Instagram to add it back in – particularly is Snap Maps proves significantly popular.