The Instagram Trends and News to Know for 2021

2020 has been a year that many would like to put in the archives - stat. However, like all difficult challenges comes revelation and oftentimes, innovation.  For us in the world of marketing and creative development, it meant digging deep and finding new ways to help our brands connect with their audiences and make sales. #truthbomb it’s not about pushing products. 

Marketing needs to be meaningful - there’s been a shift and we aren’t mad at it.

After analyzing the year, our team came away with key marketing trends, insights, and news that is shaping our client Q1 planning efforts in a variety of areas. 

Up first, Instagrammmmm. 

1.The FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization

As you most likely know, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp and so this news is key to the future of the platforms. The lawsuit is based on the company allegedly illegally maintaining it’s social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct. 

In a quote via CNN: “In Facebook's case, government officials will need to prove in court that the company's alleged misconduct led to real-world, measurable harms to consumers or competition,” said Hal Singer, an economist and antitrust expert at George Washington University's Institute of Public Policy.

While this is most certainly a groundbreaking lawsuit, we’ll be watching for how this plays out which could take years. What this tells us is that having balanced customer acquisition and communication strategy such as including email, sms, other social platforms, etc. into their marketing mix is highly important. 

Link to view the full press release.

2. Launch of Reels

In what we see as an effort to hold onto users that began migrating to TikTok for snappy short-form video content, Instagram launched “Reels” in August ‘20. Currently, users can record 15-30 second clips that can be set to music or original audio. To learn more, check out The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Reels from the lovely peeps at Later. 

With every new product release, we see Instagram favor early adopters - Reels has been no exception. In fact, we saw a HUGE shift in focus to reels content over all other formats on the platform during the fall. This emphasis means brands and content creators were encouraged to get into the mix which supported organic growth and engagement for their accounts. Plus, Instagram says it themselves – they designed this placement with discoverability in mind.

We feel IG Reels will continue to be a huge source of reach for brands and creators into 2021 - create your content plan now and start testing! We recommend starting with content that entertains and/or educates.

The newest update for Reels is the ability to showcase products and tag them directly. Perfect segue into our next topic…

3. Expanded Emphasis on E-commerce with New Layouts and Tools

In November ‘20, Instagram redesigned the home screen for the first time in years. The new layout put a spotlight on Reels AND Shop tabs. Years of muscle memory trained to view notifications/likes/comments have been moved to the top of the screen and replaced with a friendly little shopping bag. Yep - Instagram is stepping out and clearly putting e-commerce at the forefront of the design interface and user experience. 

Within the “Shop” section, a user can “Browse Shops”, view “Editors’ Picks, “Buy on Instagram” “Shop Collections”, and “Explore Guides”. We are seeing that what displays is highly curated to support the engagement habits of each user so you won’t see the exact same thing your friend does. You’ll see content from brands you follow and those you don’t, making this is a great opportunity for small and large brands to get in front of new relevant audiences. 

Instagram also released “Instagram Checkout” as a way for users to buy products directly from Instagram without leaving the app. Definitely a time saver for many consumers that have less and less patience for new account registration forms and having to get up and get their actual wallet… While this could be a big win for many businesses, the downside is the potential loss of customer data if all communication is handled via Instagram. As firm believers in a balanced marketing ecoystem - owning your communication opportunities with customers is HUGE. We love social, but it’s still a 3rd party app and you never know what could happen. 

4. Meaningful Metrics (our take)

Instagram and all social media as a whole is about as stable and predictable as a sailboat without a sail and a compass. At the end of the day, you can have the most beautiful, funny, and engaging content, and still struggle if you aren’t clear on your true social strategy, objectives, and the direction you want to go in.

What are your objectives on social and to drill down further, what are your objectives by platform? Of course, we absolutely recommend a full social strategy which then would outline what we like to call “meaningful metrics” that are tracked each month, quarter, and year. 

Here are some specifics when it comes to engagement metrics on Instagram:

Engagement Rate on Instagram

In the past, your “engagement rate” on Instagram was calculated by combining particular posts’ “likes” and “comments” and dividing that by your total followers. However, as Instagram lessened the total number of accounts that saw your content, that percentage was less and less meaningful. Think about it like this, if you are judging what performed best based on how much it was “engaged with” how can you properly judge if they never saw it in the first place? 

Instead, we have transitioned to tracking and reporting “engagement by reach”. This means you are looking at how the content performed based on how many accounts actually saw it. Over time you will be working to continue to grow that percentage and create/post content that your reachable audience enjoys and wants. This is what leads to trust which is a necessary step towards sales and brand advocacy. 

Engagement Types on Instagram

While it’s always lovely to get a ton of likes when posting content, that’s truly not the most meaningful metric. What we prefer to look at is what content is driving people to write a meaningful comment/question, share, and save. Unfortunately, the current Instagram API doesn’t make it easy to quickly pull “shares” via various 3rd party scheduling and reporting tools. However, it’s a quick manual pull from the app itself - well worth the effort in our opinion. Often we find the content that is more shared is not always the content that has the most likes - but if you want your content to spread its wings and fly (ie. actually be seen by more than just the very few who engage with you), shareable content is key. 

Stay tuned for more topics, trends, and insights over the next few weeks!

We’d love to hear your insights and experiences from this past year. What did you learn and what is helping to shape your plans for 2021?