Working in an ever-changing industry can be a lot to keep up with sometimes. No shame, homie! We totally get it and are here to provide you with a few new features you should start taking advantage of if you haven’t already. Read on for three new Instagram updates to consider when formulating your social media strategy!

KEYWORD SEARCH

We’ve emphasized in the past the importance of being strategic with your name and username on Instagram because they were previously the only fields that the platform considered in search queries. Well, drum roll please... Instagram has now enabled keyword search! Users can now search a phrase and results will include posts featuring those keywords (duh!). This will shift discoverability on the platform as emphasis will move slightly away from hashtags and more onto SEO in captions.

INSTAGRAM GUIDES

Consider Instagram Guides as comparable to a mini blog post. They were created as “a way to more easily discover recommendations, tips and other content from your favorite creators.” Each Guide features curated posts paired with commentary and tips. You can check out our first ever Instagram Guide, where we repurposed one of our most popular blog posts. Remember that a major goal of social media is to provide value to an audience and Guides are a perfect way to do just that!

IG REELS

We wrote about IG Reels in our last Instagram features and trends blog post, but we had to mention it again in this one because they’re just THAT. GOOD. We mentioned in that post that we were interested in seeing how IG Reels can be used to grow an account and boy did we find out! We gained over 3,000 followers in only one month on Instagram as a result of their exposure and reach.

Think of IG Reels as Instagram’s version of TikTok. You essentially share short videos paired with an existing audio. For a physical example, you can check out our Reels Reels on Instagram. They’re so much fun to make AND show results! We would 10/10 recommend giving them a try! To get started, check out our free 30 Days of Instagram Reels download or ReelTok Online Course.

We hope this blog post was helpful for you in discovering a few new features to incorporate in your Instagram strategy! For more social media tips, follow us on the ‘Gram and subscribe to our weekly social media newsletter. Chat soon!

xx- The Homies