Whether you post a snapshot of your meal or take an aesthetic picture of your vacation overseas, you might be one of the many people who simply cannot resist the urge to post it on Instagram. This social media platform has shown incredible growth over the past few years. It is becoming the most popular online social network globally. Every few months, we see new Instagram trends emerging. Studies reveal that the Instagram app has more than one billion active users worldwide.
Perhaps that’s the reason why this platform, which actually started off as a simple photo-sharing app, is seen by business owners and marketers as a treat. It’s as if it provides a one-stop place for marketers to filter their niche and run targeted ads for them.
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Another report prepared by Rival IQ showed that Instagram’s engagement rate in digital media is 1.22%. This is over 13 times higher than Facebook. Isn’t that simply awesome?
Furthermore, other research has revealed that 81% of Instagram users browse through the app to look for products and services that they want to buy. 72% of users have already made at least one purchase after viewing it on the app.
It is probably safe to say that Instagram is converting into a fantastic place for promoting brands. But considering a platform to promote your brand and having success in it are two different things.
The only way to promote your business on Instagram is to keep yourself updated with Instagram trends. Knowing Instagram marketing trends is a must if you have a business and want to capitalize on the enormous amounts of traffic that you can potentially drive from this app. Sometimes these trends can give you epic Instagram ideas that could become the reason for your next breakthrough.
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Of course, the niche you operate in would determine what Instagram trends you need to focus on the most. But overall, you need to be aware of all the important Instagram trends that businesses use to increase their sales.
So how do you know what Instagram trends are the most relevant to your marketing approach? What kind of trending Instagram ideas will help you boost your sales? In this post, you will find the answers to these.
We have built a list of Instagram trends that you can look into. These will make your business remain relevant on Instagram and give you a competitive edge over the other players in the industry.
8 Important Instagram Trends for 2022
Here are 8 Instagram trends that you definitely shouldn’t miss.
1. Instagram Shops and Checkouts
Instagram shop and Instagram checkout feature are the first on our list of Instagram trends. These would easily prick the ears of any marketer. These features allow businesses to build their own online store inside the app itself. They also enable users' payment details to be stored to make their shopping experience faster and more convenient.
As we see the trend of online shopping snowballing, 70% of shoppers rely on Instagram to search for the products they want to buy. This is why, whichever industry you come from, this is among the Instagram marketing trends that you simply cannot ignore.
Marketers use this feature to tell their brand story and provide a way for Instagram users to enjoy shopping and buying products without leaving Instagram.
2. Link in Bio
This is one of the most well-known Instagram trends. If you are an Instagram user, you must have definitely heard of this. Since Instagram does not allow you to insert links in your posts, most users insert their website link, affiliate link, landing page link, or any other link in the bio. They then mention in each post that the link is in the bio to tap on it and open it if they are interested in the product or service being promoted.
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Putting your website link in bio is like placing it in the perfect place for your target customers to find more information and learn more about your brand. But since you can only insert one link in your Instagram bio, many businesses use bio-tools to create a single link that allows you to share multiple valuable links with your followers.
3. Live Streams
Instagram Live is a feature that has been one of the major causes of the platform’s ever-growing popularity. It is also one of the fastest-growing Instagram trends. During the ongoing pandemic, Instagram Live views have shown a tremendous rise.
Over the past couple of years, Instagram Live has been updated with more features. These include the maximum duration of a live stream being increased from one to four hours, a feature that allows you to upload your Instagram Live streams to IGTV, and the availability of viewing Instagram Lives on a desktop.
This is really among the most important Instagram trends for marketers because Instagram Lives can be used to announce new product launches, maintain an incredible social media presence, and conduct shared live streams to expand your network.
4. Shift in Influencer Marketing
Influencers have existed in the Instagram arena for quite a long time now. But the way they operate and impact the use of Instagram for business has shifted more recently. These days the micro-influencers and nano-influencers are creating more impact.
According to a survey conducted by Digiday, micro-influencers can engage up to 8.7% of their followers. In contrast, celebrities who also often act as influencers on social media can engage only 1.7%.
These kinds of Instagram trends can help build higher levels of engagement by using more cost-effective marketing techniques. Micro-influencers do not charge much and are happy to promote brands for a few dollars. Thus they reduce businesses from the burden of having to pay millions of dollars just to get their product name mentioned in front of a large audience.
5. Instagram Stories
The feature of Instagram stories has been around for a while. It has gained extra popularity in the past couple of years. According to about 78% of brands, Instagram stories are a great tool to magnify influencers' impact.
Instagram stories have been updated with additional features over the past few years. You can now incorporate selfie filters, story highlights, and story archives in your Instagram stories. These added features have made Instagram stories one of the top Instagram trends.
6. The Explore Tab
There is something called the Explore Tab in Instagram. This is the place for users to explore undiscovered content. More than 200 million Instagram users access this Explore Tab every day to search for ways to entertain themselves.
Businesses use this Explore Tab to gain visibility. That’s why it is among the growing Instagram trends in 2022. Use the right hashtags, interact with users through comments, tag your location, and add call-to-actions. You can significantly enhance your brand engagement and increase your page's chances of appearing in the Explore Tab.
7. Reels
Instagram reels are next on our list of Instagram trends. They are currently competing in terms of popularity with TikTok videos. They can be a maximum of 30 seconds long and allow you to play multiple clips in a single video. They are literally taking Instagram by storm these days and are thus one of the most important Instagram trends for businesses to take note of.
You can create informational content about your brand and products, such as how-to guides, digital product tutorials, and new product features, and turn it into an Instagram reel. You can also keep an eye on the reels created by your competitors to remain alert on what’s going on in the industry.
8. Ads on IGTV
If you make long videos for Instagram, you can post them on IGTV. Instagram now allows users to show ads in between their IGTV videos. This means businesses and individuals will be able to monetize their Instagram content. According to some studies, IGTV content creators are beginning to get similar percentages of ad revenue as YouTubers.
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That definitely makes IGTV one of the hottest Instagram trends businesses should look out for. The ads can help you grow your engagement and get quality leads in many cases.
Concluding Remarks
We saw that so many Instagram trends are gaining popularity and opening opportunities for businesses to promote their brand on the platform. We’d like to highlight that as much as Instagram can be a fantastic place to drive traffic, it is not a good idea to run your entire online business on the app. You can get traffic from Instagram through your posts or ads, but you still need to direct the traffic to a solid website or landing page.
Using Strikingly for creating a simple website serves this purpose perfectly. Our tools allow you to build appealing web pages in just a few minutes.
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Our drag-and-drop interface allows you to add any content you want to your website quickly and keep updating it as you grow your business.
One of our features also enables you to insert part of your Instagram feed into your website. This allows your site visitors to get a glimpse of what you share on Instagram without coming out of your domain.
We are yet to see much evolution in the digital world. Those who take advantage of the Instagram trends and other tools they come across can get ahead of the competition faster. If you want to stand out in terms of the online presence of your business, create your basic and extraordinary website on Strikingly today.
