In the fast-paced social media space, the all-star, billion-user platforms must constantly adapt to changes. Instagram is no stranger to this habit, and this is why it introduced new tools specially designed for creators and branded partnerships.
Just in time for Christmas, Instagram is being thoughtful about its Creators, with testing new monetization options. The shopping push is a-coming, and Instagram plans to help their most prominent users by maximizing their earnings from branded arrangements.
Ben Givon is here to elaborate on everything new Instagram throws at its users, with all additional details on what, when, and where. For more news, guides, and tips from the social media sphere, visit Ben Givon’s marketing blog on Medium.
What’s New?
To start off, Instagram is testing a new feature — a special separate ”Partnership” message folder as a part of Instagram DMs. The idea is to maintain a space dedicated to content communication and opportunities. This will make keeping track of your paid partnerships a lot easier.
Now, when you open Instagram and its DMs, right under the Primary, General, and Requests buttons, a brand new “Partnership Messages” folder is being tested. All communication with potential partners about partnerships and details regarding your deals will take place in this section.
Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager has the task of filtering the messages from this section or the new brand search option. The main goal of the filtering is to facilitate connections with creators that follow a specific brand’s profile or if they pointed out that they are open to a collab with them.
Making collaboration deals will be easy from now on! However, it does seem like Instagram would be better off with a swipeable tab in the Direct messages box rather than tapping through a folder at the top of the message stream. On the other hand, four tabs are a bit much, which seems to be a better UI option.
What Else Is New?
In addition to the new Branded Content Partnership Tools, Instagram is blessing us with a redesigned digital storefront feature for creators, taking part in its affiliate marketing program. This is another promotional option for creators that present sponsored producers and services to their followers.
Creators will be given the option to create their personal shops with endorsed products, which gives the creators potential exposure and more revenue share options. This particular option is currently tested in the US region, with creators that take part in IG’s native affiliate program.
Last but not least, Instagram is setting in motion branded content ads in Reels, thus being one step closer to monetizing this short video form. Instagram introduced branded content to Reels users earlier this year, and now branded content ads are next, as per their statement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Instagram will continue to move the app forward in the future. These changes are only some of the key additions to the broader creator monetization nudge. Since more and more users are looking to TikTok and their evolved revenue share tools, Instagram should keep up and fight for their users to stay. This can be done with more appealing and profitable revenue share deals, so Instagram should keep up the good work!
