Every year we see wondrous new things across all social media platforms. In fact, stunning new developments seem to be a requirement if you want to be a player in the social media site game. This high tech, low contact form of interaction has been around long enough and has become widespread enough that it has managed to become an integral part of not only social aspects of the lives of its users but the business aspect as well. Whether you are hoping your make-up tutorials get you discovered, your DIY holiday centerpiece gets over 1000 likes, or to increase revenue for your business, social media has quickly become the cornerstone of accomplishing… well, almost anything.

Instagram has now reached over 800,000 users and that number is on the rise. Bloggers and vloggers from the far corners of the Earth seem to have settled on Instagram as THE app to use to promote your business, your YouTube channel, your micro-company, and just about anything else you can imagine. The influencers are flocking to Instagram. If you are interested in the new and upcoming social media trends that we are going to see from Instagramming 2018, pause that Snapchat story, ignore that post from David Avocado Wolfe on your news feed, and read on.

Instagram Stories

This popular Instagram feature is only about a year old. Its immediate rise to popularity is indicative of an upward trend in video content. Instagram stories will continue to be refined and video content and quality will continually improve. The story feature is already being utilized by several niche markets and, as a result, companies are going to want to partner with influencers who are comfortable reaching out to their market in this way. The site’s algorithms are even being redone to include videos receiving more updates and thereby becoming the more promoted posts. In order to receive higher engagement rates, companies will have to get comfortable in front of the camera if they want to stay competitive on social media platforms.

Sandwiching

According to an article on digiday.com, sandwiching is “strategically placing promoted posts between imagery forecasted to have high rates of engagement, based on existing data.” Influencers accomplish this by taking a post and publishing it in between two posts that they know from experience will have high engagement, such as a post for a contest and a post for a giveaway. This new trend comes on the heels of the new algorithm that Instagram has implemented, which left a lot of brand owners wondering why so many of their posts were suddenly receiving such low engagement. While this current attempt to beat the system has proven successful, Instagram surely has lots of other nooks and crannies where future surprises are hiding.

Shopping

Since late in 2016, it has been possible to shop directly from within the Instagram app itself through a feature known as “shoppable photos”. This capability was limited, however, as the shoppable feature was only used by certain brands.The feature went through extensive testing by Shopify throughout 2017 and in 2018 this feature is really expected to take off, with only a few minor limitations this time. Merchants can only sell physical products like food, clothes, books, toys, art, stationery, and electronics. There is a limit of five tagged items total in new and old posts combined.

It’s a smart bet that these three trends will not be the only ones you see blow up on Instagram in 2018, but these are definitely they three you will need to know about in order to increase your brand recognition and drive your company’s sales upward. With all of these brand new app innovations, cell phone companies are developing increasingly higher tech phones in order to keep up with the current market. Given the right combination of cell phone capability and social media know how any aspect of any business will soon be able to be accomplished from anywhere.