14 Top Instagram Trends To Watch For In 2019
Hugh Stephens — July 11, 2019 — July 11, 2019
Instagram trends will either make or break any of your social marketing tactics. This is why it’s vital for anyone attempting this to stay on top of them.
Brands that succeed at keeping up with the latest trends on Instagram are capable of taking advantage of new features and beta tools ahead of their competitors. They also show theirs follows they are aware of what’s going on.
With the increasingly popular TikTok and a new head of company added extra pressure, Instagram is rolling out tons of new innovations, features, and tools during the coming year.
Here are some top trends we’ve been keeping an eye on Instagram.
1. More Instagram Stories, fewer posts
Instagram Stories have recently taken over, with at least more than 500 million viewers gained each day. They’ve become the top place for people to keep tabs on their friends and family, according to information provided by Instagram research.
At the same time, Instagram feeds has primarily become associated with more polished content and discovery. Having gotten red if the chronological feed has further reinforced that perception. Posts are now required to be slightly more memorizing.
The majority of users usually see the Instagram feed as a source to seek out information and discover products and brands they have some interest in. While this is a positive thing for brands, regular users will find it difficult to imagine their content in the mix.
Some have even felt as if Instagram’s decision to test hiding like as an attempt to spur even more sharing from those who might feel intimidated by the feed.
For brands, check out some of our recommended apps to create Instagram stories, or some of the most creative uses of Instagram stories that we’ve seen.
2.Expansion of the explore tab
Over more than 200 million Instagram users check the Explore grid every day and that number is expected to increase during this year.
The feed’s new navigation bar now offers a shortcut to shops and IGTV. With this, people can now search for any of their interests, such as beauty, travel, food, art and so on.
Furthermore, they can also get lost in a section of stories that are have been algorithmically fed into the Explore feed.
3. Audio on for Instagram Stories
It’s still considered important to design for sound off environments. Although a recent study has revealed that viewers enjoy voiceover and music.
Over 80% of Stories containing voiceover or music performed much better than ads without any. At the current moment, 60% of Instagram Stories are being viewed with sound on.
It’s possible that TikTok’s musical platform has helped increase the volume across social media channels. Regardless, expect TikTok to further influence more Instagram trends in the coming future.
4. Instagram Stories with stickers in strategic patterns
Stickers have become increasingly popular on Instagram stories, although the business has garnered mixed results when using them. That’s all going to change this year, though.
From Instagram’s GIF Sticker announcement
Expect to witness fewer unnecessary and generic stickers, and more polished and original branded stickers during 2019.
5. More interactive Instagram Stories
While stickers may result in mixed signals for businesses, interactive stickers have been quite a big hit.
Countdowns, questions, polls and emoji-slider stickers don’t simply prompt more engagement, they make Instagram stories more enticing. Meaning, people will stick around for longer periods of time if there’s something for them to interact with.
For example, Instagram internal data reveals that nine times out of ten, the polling sticker increases video viewers. Keep an eye out for Instagram to unveil for interactive elements during the coming year.
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6. Simpler way to shop on Instagram
With over more than 70% of shopping fanatics utilizing Instagram to search for the latest brands, Instagram currently rivals Pinterest as a platform for discovering new products.
During the past year, Instagram introduced product tags in feed posts, product stickers for Stories, and a shopping feed through the Explore tab. With over more than 130 million clicks on these tags each month, a direct purchasing option is the next logical step.
As of March 2019, Instagram launched a beta in-app Checkout feature that it’s currently testing with 20 brands, these include Adidas, Burberry, Nike, and Revolve.
Instagram charges merchants a selling fee for the use of Checkout. Although, if it increases enough sales, the fee won’t prevent more brands and influencers from getting involved with this hot action.
7. Shoppable influencers
Instagram influencers have to deal with a volley of comments and direct messages that often ask similar questions: Where’d you get that?
In order to save these influencers time, Instagram has allowed creators tag products in their posts, which can be purchased from the Instagram Checkout area.
Only a select few are currently allowed access to this feature, these include Chiara Ferragni, Kylie Jenner, and Vogue.
At the moment, they can only tag businesses participating in the beta Checkout program. But more should become available in the coming months.
8. Increase realness and representation
Authenticity has become a passing trend. As of 2019, it’s become all about #nofilter.
Celebrity influencers such as Jameela Jamil have gone on to become full aggressive on airbrushing, photoshopping, filtering, body shaming, and non-inclusive creative.
There’s a high chance of now seeing stretch marks, zits, and more from brands, especially while browsing the Instagram Stories. Another thing to expect is to see even more real talk about mental health, body insecurities, and other vital issues.
In a matter of fact, Jamil’s radically inclusive @i_weigh account continues to grow with followers, And with a follow from @sussexroyal, the official account for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, I Weight’s profile will be amplified.
Expect brands to increase the frequency of sub-models for actual people. You should witness more diverse in creativity.
Aerie has earned tons of social points for its “Retouching free since 2014: aesthetics it has going on. This also goes for influencer partnerships as well.
Take a look at IKEA’s partnership with rainbow Amina Mucciolo being @studiomucci.
9.Increase in relatable influencers
Users will be on the lookout for authenticity from their influences as well. The unrealistic lifestyles and picture-perfect aesthetics of certain Instagram influencers have to lead to an increase in Instagram vs. Reality memes. Out of that has come with a brand new of influencers: the relatable influencers.
For instance, mommy bloggers like Laura Izumjkawa share the ups and downs of parenting.
Joana Ceddia directors her awkwardness into humor. Jen Gotch discusses anxiety and bipolar.
These influencers have gained followers who are undergoing similar experiences.
10. The growing influence of TikTok
The continuously expanding TikTok, a music-backed video-sharing app that’s become popular among teens, may inspire copycat behavior with Instagram users, as was witnessed on Snapchat. IGTV will most likely see an increase of changes since many consider the channel is due for a revamp.
There are already some early signs of this showing up too. Instagram’s recent overhaul of the IGTV feed resembles a combination of TikTok and Snapchat’s Discover feeds.
Horizontal scrolling has been replaced with vertical scrolling. Furthermore, an algorithm automatically queues the next video for you to watch.
Tiktok’s popular challenges have also organically arrived onto Instagram follower feeds. So it’s not really going to be too much of a surprise if you see how Instagram attempt to foster even more than that, especially since these are challenges meant to inspire content creation.
11. Increased channel-to-channel sharing
With the wave of posts in Stories and IGTV video on the feed, Instagram has been messing around with increased linkage between the two different formats. Expect to see even more crossover from brands who are attempting to amplify views in various streams.
For example. When Instagram changed their feed algorithm, more people were shown to be sharing “new post” alerts in their Stories.
Also, one-minute IGTV teasers have increasingly appeared in the feed to direct viewers to the main channel.
Stories are no longer being contained to the top of the application either. As of now, they’ll show up in the Explore grid as well.
The grid offers more personalized Stories recommendations, similar to that of TikTok. Instagram has stated that testing included direct links for Instagram stories, too.
12. Growth with social activism
With heightened activism has stirred on by social unrest and the upcoming elections in Canada and the United States, people have been continuously sharing their opinions on social media more so than before.
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have traditionally associated with social activism. But Instagrammers have a much better grasp on how to use the platform to share and increase their view count.
From the “I voted” stickers to climate change memes, it’s become increasingly common and at times even inescapable for people and brands to take a stand on Instagram.
Activism on all fronts will at times request for donations to nonprofits. As of February, Instagram managed to introduce a donation sticker that can be included in Stories. While the feature is not available for everyone at the moment, people will be capable of choosing a nonprofit and even customize the name of their fundraiser.
13. Shutting down Instagram bots
Facebook and Twitter have been under some heavy scrutiny for their roles in influencing the elections and harboring hate speech. As of recent reports have been uncovering the role Instagram manage to play as well. ‘
During the coming year, we’ll be witnessing Instagram take some great hurdles to deal with abuse on its platform. Some of these have already been witnessed, including increased access to verification and the addition of “About this Account” to profiles with massive followings.
Bans on Facebook may also begin to apply for Instagram as well. For instance, far-right figures like Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulous, Paul Joseph Watson, and Laura Loomer were removed from both of these sites.
But even before there were headlines of alleged Russian meddling, Instagram had already a massive bot issue.
Fake engagement (auto-like / follow / unfollow / comment) bots have long been a problem for the platform, and Facebook has already begun cracking down on bot sellers.
Increase purges, enhanced security, and increased scrutiny will mostly occur during 2019.
14. Keeping a close watch at your analytics
Most businesses that start to market on Instagram forget the importance of being analytic-driven. How do you measure your ROI? How do you measure what’s working or what’s not?
This is why it’s important to be result driven. It’s certainly not an easy task because of the fact that Instagram doesn’t provide a good analytic system.
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