It’s a frequent conversation in our community 💬 …
Instagram brings me great engagement, but it’s just not the best platform at driving people to my website, or getting my followers to buy my products/services.”
Hypestar Learners
I get it.
With the introduction of new features like Instagram’s ‘Saved’ option, the platform seems to be increasingly morphing into a tap-happy alternative to Pinterest.
Where users simply ‘Love’ and ‘Save’ your images to create their own dream mood boards.
By-passing the need to truly engage with your brand & support you by investing in your products or services.
But don’t give up just yet!
Because Instagram has been introducing powerful features in recent years that have helped many e-commerce businesses flourish on the platform.
Features like their ‘Shopping Tags’.
Which allow brands to tag items as ‘for sale’ pieces in their posts, that followers can then tap on & immediately buy in a few simple steps!
Instagram ‘Explore’
The most recent update to really help brands grow & find their ideal audience on Instagram are the changes made to the ‘Explore’ feature.
Previously, Instagram ‘Explore’ was a feature that let users search for ‘ACCOUNTS, TAGS*, PLACES’ to find posts they might be interested in.
*Hashtags
But, more recently, the ‘Gram gurus-that-be have transformed the ‘Explore’ function to bring you (and your followers) more of what they love.
What does the new & improved ‘Explore’ do?
The new & improved Instagram ‘Explore’ presents daily suggestions of relevant content to the user.
By relevant, I mean anything that relates to posts that the user has already shown interest in.
So, if someone continues to engage with workout posts or videos. Then Instagram will present the user with similar content in their ‘Explore’ feed.
To give you a better understanding of how this works, I’ll show you a quick demonstration with my own Instagram account.
When you watch, you’ll notice that a lot of the content in my ‘Explore’ feed looks similar, this is because it’s suggested content that I’ve already shown an affinity for liking.
Here’s how it works… 👇👇👇
As you can see, using the ‘Explore’ feature is incredibly easy to use & empowering to the user.
Presenting content that it believes I would like to see, and engage with, it demonstrates that the Instagram gods want users to have easy access to more content they might like.
The good news
This update is brilliant news for us as businesses.
As it means that there’s a strong chance that our content will be seen by the right people.
By which I mean, people who have already shown an interest in products or services like our own.
And with users able to take a closer look at our content with a single tap, the opportunity for engagement and potential sales from people using Instagram’s ‘Explore’ feature looks positive!
New navigation bar
In the video, you may have noticed that the first thing I did was scroll across the navigation bar at the top.
This is Instagram’s new navigation bar and was introduced with the recent ‘Explore’ update.
The main feature that will definitely be of interest to e-commerce businesses here is that the new navigation bar allows users to immediately browse ‘shoppable’ products.
Making the journey from users seeing a product they want, to buying it, much shorter!
It’s worth noting that the only shoppable products users can see are from those accounts that they already follow.
Nonetheless, this immediate access to viewing what is essentially a catalogue of products for sale should be incredibly powerful for e-commerce businesses using Instagram to promote and sell.
Final thoughts
For me, the updated Instagram ‘Explore’ is going to change the way that people use and interact with content on Instagram for the better.
It not only brings more relevant content to the users of Instagram, but it also allows businesses to get their products, services & so on in front of a larger audience.
That being said, this new feature will in no way make or break the success of a business on the platform.
And a well-considered marketing strategy is definitely needed to conquer this visual arena!
Have you used Instagram’s latest features in ‘Explore’?
Let me know in the comments below what you thought!
