A few of you Instagramers out there – no matter how active – probably missed a few big updates on Instagram. This year is just full of amazing surprises and changes in the platform, making 2016 probably one of the most active years for Instagram. From their new zoom feature to their interactive ads, here are the top features I think you haven’t noticed that have great potential for your brand.
1.Drafts Option
Just this September, Instagram enabled you to save drafts of your post before you can publish them. Before, you lost every edit and caption you made when you tapped the back button. Not only is it convenient as you can simply work on other things when the need arises and won’t lose any progress (redoing things sucks), but you can also save these drafts for later.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@1alexkhan”]Don´t Miss Those Eight Great Features on Instagram.[/tweetthis]
2. Comment Moderation
Another new feature provided by Instagram is the ability to filter our comments or totally disable them – your choice. You can select keywords – and even emojis – you want to block. You can see this when you tap the gear icon (options menu) on your profile and tap the “Comment” tool. This gives you the upper hand by eliminating haters and trolls from just commenting offensive words. When they use a certain word that is part of your keyword selection, their comments will never appear on your posts – ideal for brands trying to focus on legit customers.
3. Mute Instagram Stories
Did you know that you can mute other users’ stories now? You can do it by simply tap-holding their Instagram Stories avatar. This will result in automatically placing the user’s story at the end of the queue and will prevent it from auto playing. To undo it, you just have to tap and hold on their stories icon and unmute it.
4. Save Instagram Stories
You will also enjoy this feature as you can save any desired story of yours without difficulty. You just have to activate the save story feature in the options menu in the stories camera interface. Flip the “Save Shared Photos” button to make sure this works. Also, you can do it one by one by tapping on the three dots while viewing your stories.
5. Text Color Change
Just like Snapchat, you can use any color you like when adding text to your stories. You can show them some character, or you can simply match the scenery. Plus, if you want, you can use glowing text, but it will have to be drawn with a neon marker tool.
6. Interactive Ads
Unlike other ads from other social media, Instagram is gaining the edge. With their latest update, your ads will run smoother with an impressively enhanced action button that will lure users to tap it. The call to action button will be highlighted whenever a user will show interest in the ad by checking it out for four seconds, or when he taps the profile name.
7. Zoom Is Now Available
Instagram finally made the right call to enable users to zoom in on both photos and videos. This makes it easier to attract interest and curiosity with more detailed pictures. The pinch to zoom will be a great feature for brands to improve their image strategy further by adding in a must zoom graphic image in their content and then providing a prize to those who can spot it.
8. Events Channel
Last, another great update on August was the release of the Events Channel. This is a channel where you can see a compilation of the best videos in Instagram – from concerts to sporting events. This is a great opportunity for your brand to further push the effort into making an amazing video and get featured to gain more audience.
