Is Instagram's newest feature about to revolutionize social media marketing?

As I have began to write a new blog each week, I have found myself sticking to a certain trend of topics that I originally did not intend to follow. I have noticed my interests have followed topics surrounding platforms. Whether it be new platforms that have recently been launched, or platforms we are all pretty familiar with such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As new features are added to these platforms I take a certain interest in seeing how brands can potentially utilize them to their advantage. So this week I stumbled across an article on Mashable that talked about the newest feature being added to Instagram, a poling feature on IG stories. I have mentioned IG stories in a previous blog and expanded on how they have made their way into our hearts when considering many once thought they were a copycat of Snapchat. Instagram is on to something with its newest updates and additives, even the smallest improvements have shown to improve the overall experience one can have on this platform.

This new addition to IG will allow users to post polling questions, and will give live results of who voted for what. The results will disappear after 24 hours however for anyone interested can just record responses before they are erased. This will not only allow for a better understanding of consumer preferences but also let people and brands see how interactive their followers are, by calculating ratios of story views to actual polling responses. They may be able to use this data to re-strategize their social media marketing and better gain their follower's attention.

 

So essentially this IG feature opens many doors for a given user or company to better understand their target markets preferences and overall interaction level. There were also features such as a color tool and an alignment tool that are hitting IG stories to allow for a more clean and in-sync picture. The color tool is similar to the eyedropper tool on photoshop where you can touch any part of a picture and have that exact color at your disposable to draw and color-coordinate. The alignment feature allows you to see where you're placing stickers or text and guides you to better place your IG story extras with blue lines that adjust according to symmetrical spacing. These features are great for making your posts look cleaner and more visually appealing, which I personally think Instagram stories far exceeds Snapchat stories in. I think it will be very interesting to see how this is utilized by brands in the coming months.