3 Instagram Updates Every Small Business Owner Needs To Know About

Instagram has been making a lot of changes recently. They’ve also been doing a pretty great job of letting everyone know what’s up. Of course, that’s only if you are paying attention. If you are running a small business, you probably don’t have time to keep up on all the latest Instagram news. With that in mind, I’m going to fill you in on 3 changes that have taken place in the past month or so.

Posting to Instagram from your desktop computer

This one feels kind of basic. However, anyone who creates their marketing materials on their desktop will tell you that it’s pretty big. Previously, you would have to take the extra step of sending your desktop creations to your phone or cloud based storage. While that isn’t difficult, it is a few additional steps that take up extra time.

If you log into your Instagram account on your desktop, you will now find the familiar plus sign [+] button added in the upper right corner. With that button, you can now access files on your computer and add them to your Instagram account. Once you select your file, you’ll have all the options for filters, tagging, and captioning that you would have on your phone.

This feature is currently limited to creating posts for your main feed. You will still need to use your mobile device to add reels or story posts. It’s a great little feature, especially for those of us who create images or graphics on our computers. Hopefully Instagram will explore the possibility of expanding it to all the forms of posts they feature.

All accounts now have access to the “link” sticker in their stories

One of the great limitations of Instagram, in my opinion, has been that you can’t add clickable links to posts. On one hand, it’s understandable that Instagram would limit adding links to posts. But, when you’re marketing a business, it makes things just that much more difficult.

While not opening the floodgates to clickable links everywhere, adding a link sticker to story posts is a really useful tool. The link sticker is found in the same place as the location, @mention, and music stickers. When you click on the link sticker, you’ll be asked to provide the URL of the site you are linking to. You can either customize the text of the sticker or Instagram will create a shortened link for you. All that’s left is to place your new link sticker in your story and post the story.

With a link added to your story, your followers won’t have to back out of your stories and into your bio to follow your call to action. This is big for two reasons. First, people are more likely to click through if there aren’t any additional steps to doing so. And second, you won’t have to edit your link in bio, or your link in bio tool page, every time you have a link to share with your followers. This makes it much easier to call attention to specific items, blog articles or events your business may be promoting.

Sharing an Instagram post to Twitter just got better

Social media marketing is so much easier when the different platforms work well with each other. Instagram and Twitter used to work well with each other, but then they stopped. Now they are back to playing nicely.

Instagram is (obviously) a visual platform and Twitter is well…not primarily visual. Prior to this latest update, when you would share a post from Instagram, Twitter would only share your caption and a link to your post. Now, a small preview image of your Instagram content will appear along with your caption and a link to your post. You can, of course, edit the caption as needed. But the key here is that your Twitter followers will actually be able to see your post before they click.

Again, this may seem like a minor fix. In fact, this is the way Instagram posts were presented on Twitter up until 2012. Returning the image preview only enhances the chances that a follower will actually click through to see your post. Engagement is king on Instagram. Getting more eyes on your content is crucial for getting your post boosted by Instagram’s algorithm.

Instagram is really evolving into a solid marketing platform

With the addition of these features, Instagram takes another step towards becoming a top notch marketing platform. In recent months, they have also shared some of the secrets behind their algorithm and hashtag preferences. Small businesses and the folks doing marketing for small businesses are continually getting more tools and information to work with. Now more than ever, Instagram can be your favorite platform AND a great marketing option.