Mastering social media platforms is no easy task – Instagram trends are in constant flux and the recipe for successful pages changes every single year. Ingredients such as caption length, hashtags and use of stories don’t come as fixed prescriptions, instead, you should pay attention to what works best for you.

The ever-changing environment of social media is a big part of what keeps it in vogue. So, it is our job to spot the approaching trends and work out how to utilise it for your brand in the most effective way.

With a new decade around the corner, here are some of the trends we’re gearing up for.

Longer Captions

Long gone are the days of a few emojis or a simple punchy quip, posts with 1000 characters are now the ones with the most engagement – 6% in fact. This is double the amount these posts got in 2017. It seems that with every year, followers want to get to know the brand they’re following more and more. Now, we aren’t saying that every post has to be over 800 characters, but giving equal consideration to the text as you do with the image is becoming increasingly beneficial.

The Rise of IGTV

Maybe the most underused feature on Instagram but one that we are expecting it to come into its own this coming year. The most popular IGTVs on the platform at the moment are series content. IGTV series content that have proven to be most popular are the ones that are easily understood by the user and have a repeating theme. Having dependable and reliable content is the easiest way to culture a loyal audience. Once you’ve identified a topic, theme or style that your target audience engages with – a successful IGTV series is in the works!

Influencer Partnerships

Influencers continue to have a growing impact with users. Engagement can top 7%, which is a number that most brand pages are unlikely to get, meaning their value is more important than it ever has been before. Spider has always understood the significance of influencer endorsement and coming up to the new year it appears that micro-influencers (less than 25k followers), regardless of their audience, are the upcoming trend. Spider has extensive links with micro-influencers of all genres that speak to a range of audiences.

Authenticity

This trend couples very well with the longer caption trend, as a longer piece of text can often be seen as unfiltered messaging straight from the source. Authentic posts and images depart from the perfect, filtered world that Instagram is so well-known for. Authenticity in posts was a big Instagram trend in 2019 and it seems that it is here to stay.

Brand X Brand Collaborations

This asset, when developed correctly, can act as a very powerful tool for success. By collaborating with another brand, their bank of resources can be utilised to help both company’s interests. For examples of ground-breaking success look no further than the fashion world; this decade has had some extremely successful collaborations like Supreme x Louis Vuitton, Off-White x Nike and Hermes x Apple watches. These exciting collaborations have been shown to boost organic reach on social media platforms with considerably less monetary spend.

AR Filters

AR filters (augmented-reality filters) came onto the scene in 2018 and have had accelerated success ever since. They differ from the traditional filters by combining some elements of virtual reality with the image to create, as the name suggests, an augmented reality. But what does this mean for brands? It has opened a space for brands to start creating their own custom AR filters. Naturally, careful consideration of target audience and design is needed but when done correctly it can be a massive success.

Instagram Shopping

Instagram shopping allows users to check-out your products in more detail and even purchase them all on one platform. This feature is clearly an effective way to push through sales by simply making your Instagram content not only the advert, but also the purchasing portal.

UGC

Utilising UGC, or user-generated content, is a smart tool to utilise when populating your brand’s Instagram feed. UGC brings Instagram-ready ‘reviews’ onto your page and adds a layer of authenticity. This content is genuine and reliable, making it invaluable information for your consumers. A study by Olapic showed that 76% of consumers feel that UGC is more honest than the brand’s own advertising. However, it’s important to take caution when reposting UGC – thankfully Spider has a handy guide for reposting

Video Content

One of the reasons videos are becoming more popular is simply because videos have more content than one image ever could. A serious strength of the video post is how it can be used in conjunction with IGTV – giving your audience the chance to have a taste of your content. And if they like what they see, they can subscribe. Be sure to subtitle your video to make it even more accessible.

Data-driven Content

Posts with factual data can be incredibly successful, as shown most obviously by Spotify. Their annual ‘wrapped’ posts are not only really interesting for the consumer but the graphic presentation is the ready-meal of Instagram content. It was shareable and packed a lot of information in the space of one post. Data is an undeniable fact, so if you can present some that supports your brand’s message – why hold off any longer?

If you find yourself with any other questions about the upcoming Instagram trends of 2020, feel free to call the Spider phone and ask for a member of our Spider Social Team – who’ll be more than happy to outline what social can do for your brand.