What surprised Instagram users in 2018
More than 1 billion people! That’s how many users are now on Instagram in 2018. It was a truly productive and at the same time difficult year for users of this network. But the main thing is that: for this year, Instagram has become a powerful media platform.
What was significant in 2018?
1. What was the most popular
2. Which brands have become the best and most recognizable
3. What new trends have come to us
4. What new features in 2018 pleased Instagram
What was the most popular?
A couple of years ago, we used Instagram as a convenient photo and video album for viewing with family and friends and shared bright moments with each other. Now everything has changed.
1 billion users in less than 10 years of existence. Here are some records beats Instagram. Now, this is not just a photo album, this is a whole platform for sales and communication. All this happened thanks to the development of a large number of functions that the network users liked so much.
Whose accounts were at the peak of popularity in 2018?
We can not fail to mention the legend of world football. The new contract of Cristiano Ronaldo with the English club and participation in the World Cup 2018 did not leave Instagram users indifferent. The football star bypassed Selena Gomez, who for a long time occupied the leading position.
The singer is going through a difficult time and told subscribers that she wants to rest from the activity on social networks and enjoy the live moments of the present.
Speaking of the most popular posts, you can not get past Kylie Jenner. The first photo of her newborn daughter scored more than 18 million likes.
But this is not the end. The next photo of the baby got the 3rd place in the top of the most favorite posts of users and scored 15 million likes.
Popular hashtags 2 or 3 years save constant positions without changes. Now the use of high-frequency hashtags does not effectively help in promoting the profile. However, despite its massive nature, #love, #instafood #photooftheday hashtags are in the top three.
A great new feature that everyone was waiting for was voice messages. Here the most popular are #metoo #timesup and #marchforourlovers.
Most Popular Brands
Brand hashtags help your business increase your reach and reach more potential customers accordingly. For several years in a row Nike, National Geographic and Victoria’s Secret have always been top brands.
Among branded hashtags, #vscocam became the most popular, ahead of the harshness of previous years vsco.
What new trends have come to us?
1. Global Shopping
2018 marked the beginning of the globalization of e-commerce. Users from 46 countries have the opportunity to mark products in their posts. This creates shopping optimization for customers.
A lot is important that Instagram launches another effective sales channel. The Shopping channel is currently in testing. Shopping options are as relevant as ever for large businesses and small companies.
2. Your profile is now your homepage
In 2018, the visual appeal of the village for other users comes to the first place. More and more rarely people use search engines, and increasingly they are looking for purchases on Instagram. Therefore, do not neglect the optimization of the profile, regardless of what your goal is: sales or increased involvement.
Profiles decorated in the same style and design are very attractive. And those who began to apply this idea in their business have improved their results.
3. A popularization of a vertical video
Now, this is an unreal fashionable trend!
More recently, the placement of vertical video was considered bad form. This is not an accident. Each time, more and more people watch videos from mobile devices, keeping the device in a vertical position.
4. API changes have displeased users
Changes in the API on Instagram and Facebook, in order to improve the protection of user information, caused a number of negatives among social network users. Some APIs have stopped working due to their limitations because of innovations. The good news is that by honoring these changes, applications for Instagram bots have disappeared forever.
5. Private account
Strange, but for some reason, the owners of large profiles have limited access to their accounts. And it worked. The number of people willing to subscribe has not decreased at all, but on the contrary, has increased.
Many have confirmed that the closeness of the profile causes more interest of users and causes the desire to certainly subscribe and see what is inside. In addition, subscribers are afraid of losing access to the profile and do not risk unsubscribing.
What new features in 2018 pleased Instagram?
We all noticed a lot of new stuff on Instagram. These are Stories, and IGTV, and much more. What new items Instagram gave us in 2018, we will look further.
Gif pictures in history
Gif-pictures perfectly individualize your profile among all others and make it attractive and recognizable. Just a couple of weeks before the end of 2018, this addition has become the most creative.
New fonts to text input
Type Mode in Stories has become an equally popular project. Users have the opportunity to embed beautiful text on a colored background or place it on top of photos and videos. While there are 5 fonts, but in the near future, for sure, there will be more of them.
Usernames and hashtags in Stories
At first, users were given the opportunity to use exactly 150 characters and 1 active link for placement in Stories. This is a great tool to increase the reach of your target audience.
But then the function was slightly modernized and now you can add several hashtags or user marks at once.
Changes in algorithm
In March 2018, a mechanism began to work that filters out old and new posts. This allows fresh posts to appear first in the feed.
Purchases
Now in Instagram you can shop by simply clicking on the product label on the posted photo and in the post or in Stories. Brand owners have the opportunity to single labelling and designation of their products.
A new focus in Stories
For fans of focused shooting, it’s just a godsend. The new focus mode allows you to focus on the face, pushing the rest of the background to the background.
Sharing news
Stories on Instagram quickly dragged a lot of attention to themselves. Stories have become a tool for cross-promotion of posts. And later, the designers added a direct messaging feature directly on the news network.
Emoji
The interactive character in Stories has not been ignored by the audience.
New emoji sliders added originality and entertaining Stories. With their help, as well as in ordinary polls, you can ask questions, but not with a word, but with an icon.
IGTV
IGTV is a separate Instagram-based media platform. Increasingly, you can see video lessons, workshops and just materials for the exchange of information and experience. According to preliminary expectations, in the near future, IGTV will provide a lot of room for marketing companies at a high level.
Music in the stories? You are welcome!
Another unexpected novelty is stickers in Stories for inserting music for photos and videos. For the convenience of searching for songs and synchronization, you can use the integration with Spotify. So you can easily and quickly find the right music for your Stories.
Poll sticker
This feature undoubtedly appealed to a large number of users. After all, we all love when they communicate with us and do it with a special individual approach. The “question-answer” format, like no other, attracts the user’s attention to the maximum and draws him into the game. This kindles a huge interest and sincere desire to communicate.
The scheme is simple: you post a question in your Stories, users ask you questions and you answer them. All answers will also be visible to other users. Meanwhile, the new emoji slider will be another simple way to communicate with subscribers.
As you can see, Instagram does not stand still and moves forward with large steps. We can only be patient and wait for the year 2019 to bring us something interesting and exciting.
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