In the ever-changing battle for attention between social platforms, Instagram announced multiple new features and reporting metrics to help creators increase engagement, reach users, and keep them on their platforms. These new updates closely follow a recent earnings call, when Meta revealed that over two-thirds of recommended content on Instagram in the U.S. comes from original posters. While many of the new features closely resemble offerings on other social media platforms, they now allow more opportunities than ever for creators to understand how their content is performing and how to unlock greater organic reach with followers and non-followers alike.
Mindgruve’s POV: Interaction is more important than ever on Instagram, optimize (and test) accordingly.
Content with high engagement (especially shares) signals interest to Instagram’s algorithm, and provides a potential visibility boost to bigger audiences. For marketers, this means success looks like:
- Prioritizing shareable, emotionally resonant content
- Designing campaigns that evoke action, not just reach
- Leveraging community and social content learnings to deepen relevance and visibility
Breaking down Instagram’s new features
Reposts
Users can now repost public Reels and Feed posts to their own profiles with a dedicated “Reposts” tab. Reposted content is recommended to the reposter’s followers, helping to extend reach.
Considerations for brands:
- Boost discoverability: Reposts should be used as organic endorsements, ways to engage with your community, and show your brand voice and participation.
- Strategic repost usage: Brands can encourage reposts through calls-to-action and should consider value adds for influencer partnerships
- Develop your reposts + collabs strategy: Brands should utilize collabs and reposts strategically. Collabs should continue to be used for campaigns and partnerships where content is shown on both pages. Collabs can be used to support other creators and communities, beyond brand messages.
Instagram Map
Similar to Snapchat’s Snap Map, Instagram’s Friend Map lets users share their live or recent location with friends. This feature caused a lot of safety concerns for creators when first released, and Instagram has since confirmed that location sharing is optional. For those that choose to share, they have three options: a custom list, a Close Friends list, or followers the account follows back.
Considerations for brands:
- Local discovery: Physical location businesses like retail, hospitality, and events can appear in followers’ accounts.
- Geo-contextual strategies: Brands can pair influencer visits or geo-tagged campaigns with location visibility.
Friends Tab
This will publicly display content that your friends have interacted with and/or recommendations for Blends (a shared feed of recommended Reels that can be created with a friend or group chat) that have been started.
Considerations for brands:
- Similar to Broadcast Channels, this new tab offers a chance for Creators and brands to engage with super fans and form communities.
Bonus: What’s in testing
“Picks” is an inbox feature that allows users to highlight their interests and find overlap with friends of similar interests. Similar to the recent updates to Topic Tags on Threads, this could signal even more opportunities for connection on Instagram based on topics of expertise and audience interests.
Using Instagram’s new reporting metrics
Instagram is also releasing new metrics to help brands and creators make data-driven decisions, refine their creative process, and replicate what works.
“When people liked your Reel/Carousel”
This metric reveals the point in a Reel or the slide in a Carousel where people are liking the content you posted. Instagram recently revealed that Reels and Carousels are their most effective post types in reaching new audiences, cementing these formats as growth drivers. Monitoring this metric can help brands further refine their content strategy based on what length, information, or hooks resonate most with their audience.
While accounts have long shared a cumulative look at your audience’s demographic, the channel will now report on a post-level the gender, country, age of those who have interacted with your content, and what posts have driven the most follows/unfollows.
What’s next for your Instagram Strategy
These are most likely not the only updates we’ll hear from Instagram, as the platform is known for consistent changes and updates. Continuing to optimize and plan social media campaigns around engagement and connection remains important, along with testing, learning, and iterating on what works within your industry and with your followers.
We’ll continue to monitor the situation and share key updates as they unfold. In the meantime, if your brand needs help navigating what’s next, our team is here to help.
Want to ask a question or learn more? Get in touch with us today.
