Instagram updates October 2022 - Repost, group chats and 60 second stories

Well what a month it has been when it comes to Instagram updates. Instagram are really pulling out the stops when it comes to helping you grow your business using the platform and Im really excited to announce that a few of my predictions have also dropped too. So, lets dive straight in!

Way back in December last year I told you guys that Instagram were working on introducing more than one link in your bio ( you can check the blog post here ) Well it finally dropped back in September. So what does this mean for you as a business owner?

Previously you could only have 1 link in bio ( via Instagram ) which meant you had to decide on the most important place for you to send people if they couldn’t find / buy what they needed on the app. Since the new feature has been released you will now be able to add in more than 1 link which means you can direct your audience to multiple places. Maybe a website? Facebook group? Opt in page? The list is endless…but the main thing here is that you can now ad more than one which gives you more opportunity to serve your followers. Do you have a link in your bio? Will you be adding in multiple?

Another cool update this month is 60 second stories which for me is super exciting. How annoying is it when insta split your long videos into 15 second segments to share on stories? Well worry no more. You can now share up to 60 seconds in one go…what will YOU share?

And finally Instagram have announced new ways in which users will see adverts and have made it even easier as business owners for us to create amazing ads that are even more targeted to our audience. With more than 90% of users following at least one business account…this is a really welcomed update!

Instagram have announced “We’re introducing more places for people to discover brands and products in Explore and profile. Explore home, the grid that people see when they first arrive on the Explore tab, will now feature ads to reach people in the earliest stages of discovering new content they care about.

We are also beginning to test ads in profile feed for non-teen, public profiles, which is the feed experience that people can scroll through after visiting another account’s profile and tapping on a post. Ads in profile feed give advertisers the opportunity to expand their reach easily using existing feed assets, while giving people the same personalized ad experience they enjoy in their main Instagram feed. As a part of this test, we will experiment with a monetization opportunity that will allow eligible creators to earn extra income from ads displayed in their profile feeds, beginning with select U.S. creators.”

So now we have talked about some of the latest updates, lets look at some new predictions.

The Add choices button is one that im looking forward to seeing. So far all I know is that it will be a button that will appear under your post and will help encourage your audience to do something…maybe call now, share or message the account direct…watch this space for updates!

Reels for close friends, another great way for you to be able to monetise your account without having to have the subscriptions feature ( which is still not available in the UK yet! )

What this feature will allow you to do is share your reels to a smaller group of people that YOU choose. You could use this feature to share exclusive content with people who have paid to be a part of your community ( added to close friends )

Plan event button…this one will be interesting, again, the heads up came from Alex 192 and I don’t have a lot of details yet but this looks like another way that Instagram will be helping users to create events which people will be able to respond to directly on Instagram. This seems to be a little like the reminder feature which you can add for your scheduled lives which you can find out more about here https://www.immortalmonkey.co.uk/blog/januaryinstagramupdates

Creators portfolios. As you can see in this screenshot, posted by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram has now added a new intro flash screen for its Media Kit, which it’s now calling ‘Creator Portfolio’ instead. Instagram want to make it as easy as possible for creatirs to connect with brands and this is one of the ways they are hoping to do this…watch this space for updates.

As Instagram notes, the benefit of the Creator Portfolio, over a Creator Marketplace listing, is that it would then enable creators to share their profile direct with potential partners in-app.

Public group chats…say what? Im not sure where they are going with this update…but you know as soon as it drops you guys will be the first to know!

Now this one I really cannot wait for….Replacing audio in reels once its removed! We have all been there, used an audio, made a super cool reel only to have Instagram remove the audio and leave the video with no sound at all. Well, Instagram are now working on enabling you to add a new audio to reels that have had the audio removed…no more silent reels!

And last but certainly not least…something I have been waiting so long for…the repost button. Now I don’t want to get to excited as Im sure that here in the UK we will have to wait forever, however the repost button is now being tested. This is a feature I have really been looking forward to as it means that you can share amazing content, that you haven’t had to create with your audience…this one I am very excited about.

So that’s it for this months round up…which prediction are you most excited for?

Don’t forget you can always join in the conversation over in our FB community the IM Instagram Gang…or why not get involved and comment on our reels….you can follow us here

Until the next time…keep those eyes peeled and let me know if you spot any new updates before the next blog drops!