Instagram’s “new” feature: What you need to know
There is a reason why the word new is in quotes.
Instagram has had a long history of copying some of the most popular features of other social media platforms. Their main target over the last few years has been Snapchat, poaching stories, filters, and DMs that disappear after a certain period of time.
But their aim has now shifted to TikTok.
Instagram Reels is now rolling out across the US
Instagram has officially launched “Reels” a new story feature that replicates everything users of TikTok know and love. Everything from the use of music, creative effects and styles, and recording style of segmented videos are all there and accounted for.
Again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us. Instagram has made its living on taking features users love about other platforms and integrating them into theirs. This has been an extremely successful strategy for them as they continue to try and stay relevant among younger demographics; something that their “big brother” Facebook failed to do.
What does this mean?
The addition of Reels into the Instagram toolbelt means a lot of different things
- This continues the trend that tends to show Instagram is going all in on Stories. Instagram Stories have had feature after feature added while standard posts have not been touched in some time. This means you should be taking a hard look at your overall Instagram strategy and see if a shift to more of a focus on stories is going to work for you.
- While your business might not have jumped onto the TikTok bandwagon, it might be time to start educating yourself more about the platform, features, and trends that come with it. If Instagram is adding the features of TikTok, surely more platforms are going to follow. Making yourself familiar with the creative tools will give you a leg up in the long run.
- In the event of a Tik Tok ban, Instagram seems to be the frontrunner to gain the attention many social media platforms lost. By adding all of these “TikTok features, Instagram is opening its arms to the younger TikTok audience and telling them that they can still enjoy the things they love about TikTok on their platform.
There is still more to come of the addition of Reels to Instagram and while it appears to be rolling out to everyone, not every user has it at the time this blog is being written. But if you do have this feature, make sure to go in and start to play around with it and start to come up with some ideas as to how your business can use it!