Instagram has seen its fair share of advances in the past year – in 2018 we saw many new features arrive on the platform, including the launch of IGTV and the introduction of GIF stickers on stories. But what will Instagram do next? According to Later, here are the top Instagram predictions for 2019.
Instagram will invest heavily in IGTV
Users have been slow to adopt Instagram’s first standalone video platform IGTV, which was launched in June this year, but social media experts say this could change in 2019.
Michael Edelmann, senior marketing manager at The Business of Fashion, predicts that Instagram will invest heavily in IGTV next year. “While user engagement with IGTV has been fairly disappointing so far, I expect Instagram to improve the functionality and visibility of IGTV content and put a lot more money behind getting brands to make use of the feature,” he explains to Later.
Elise Darma, digital nomad and Instagram expert, agrees: “Instagram will take bigger moves towards IGTV becoming ‘the next YouTube’ by making the search bar on the Explore page optimized for keywords found in the titles and descriptions of IGTV videos.”
Darma also predicts that Instagram will make it easier to subscribe to IGTV channels so creators will choose to post fresh content to IGTV before YouTube.
However Matt Navarra, social and digital media consultant, says the limited monetization options for creators on IGTV may hinder the new platform’s growth in 2019.
Instagram analytics will become even more robust
As Instagram becomes more business-focused, 2019 may well be the year they really invest in analytics.
Marly Kos, business development and partnership manager at Casetify, says "With Facebook’s continued investment in analytics, we’re expecting new insights and much more comprehensive data around how businesses, both big and small, can better understand how their Instagram content is impacting their overall marketing goals."
“As a brand, we’re looking for insight into what is driving sales, how are we raising brand awareness, and what is increasing customer engagement. In particular, we anticipate more detailed engagement metrics for shopping posts, video content, Instagram Stories, and Instagram ads,” Kos adds.
As Instagram develops its analytics tools, business will have to get better at tracking and interpreting their analytics, says Taylor Loren, head of marketing at Later.
Instagram stories will be more interactive
Instagram Stories have come a long way since the start of the year, with more creative tools, fonts and stickers being added all the time. Now, stories are set to become even more interactive according to experts.
Jessica Guzik, head of social media at Oberlo, hopes Instagram will roll out new interactive features such as multiple choice questions and the ability to comment on stories publicly.
Communication via stories will become even more critical next year, Loic Jeanjean, chief growth officer at Fastory.io notes, as “[Marketers] seem to struggle in finding ways to convert their fans/audience into prospects/buyers.”
Jeanjean adds, “With the launch of Facebook playable ads, a new engagement tool that could make its way to Instagram stories, brands could be presented with a tool to gamify their audiences’ experiences. It would be great to see other gamified experiences make their way to Instagram, such as sweepstakes or bots.”
Authenticity is more important than ever
Some Instagram experts predict that businesses will swap perfectly planned feeds for something more authentic.
Sophie Gray, social media influencer and founder of DiveThru, says “I think 2019 will take a step back from large perfectly curated feeds, and a step forward to the realer side of social media. People are starting to see through the perfection found online, and are craving people they can connect with. I see 2019 as the year where people start (or continue) to share a real glimpse into their life.”
Christina Galbato, luxury lifestyle and travel blogger, notes that being more authentic on social media could even contribute to success and make someone stand out among all the 'perfection'.
Edelmann says brands who are willing to take a stand on controversial topics (such as Nike’s Colin Kaepernick campaign or Gucci’s support of anti-gun violence), will be the ones who stand out on Instagram.
Influencer marketing will become more personalised
As influencer marketing grows in popularity, 2019 will be the year businesses continue to favour micro-influencers over big influencers with large followings, for increased authenticity. According to Nathan Chan, publisher of Foundr Magazine, “mainstream influencers are becoming less and less effective.”
Influencers will move away from replicating content on multiple social platforms and instead share unique content across their various platforms, according to Shane McCloskey, director of partnerships and sales at Influence.co. ““Influencers who adapt and share unique messages across their different social platforms will have the most success with growing their audiences and securing brand promotions moving forward.”
Additionally, Instagram will likely improve how they penalise influencers who buy likes and followers, says Matt Crimp, art director and photographer. Instagram started preventing users from doing this in 2018 by notifying them with an in-app warning.
Instagram will add new tools to improve user-to-user communication
This year, Instagram added new ways to share and communicate directly with other users – and it is likely user-to-user communication will now only get easier.
According to Matt Navarra, “we will see a wider set of tools and functionality added to messaging apps to give users more creative options when communicating in chat groups or sharing content with friends directly.”
Lastly, Navarra notes that security will be another big focus for Instagram next year. “With the spotlight on online privacy and security casting a bad light on Facebook and others in 2018, end-to-end encryption for messaging is likely to be made more accessible in popular social apps where it currently does not exist already or is not switched on by default.”
We’ll just have to stay tuned to see what Instagram has in store for next year.
