Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms with over one billion active users each and every day. As Instagram new features 2020 continue to be released, it is important to understand how these changes will negatively or positively impact your current social media marketing strategy. 

These are the top Instagram new features 2020 that our experts want every business and client to know! 

Recent hashtags and posts 

On October 29, Instagram released an update in regards to the election and social media posts. In an effort to continue to stop misinformation based on a number of concerning topics this election season, Instagram removed the ability to view recent posts on hashtags.

When someone searches for a hashtag, whether it is on a desktop or mobile device, this message populates. There is no definitive date on when the recent posts will appear on hashtag searches again, and this has created some panic and even confusion in the industry. 

However, the issue lies in the fact that hashtags are one of the most important elements, next to great graphics and images, that help get your content across to a larger audience! Without hashtags being able to be viewed with the most recent posts, this is creating quite the pickle for marketers everywhere. 

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Check out our Dallas Media Group blog on two other ways to make sure that your Instagram marketing still excels this year. 

Another Instagram new features 2020 that is less than ideal deals with the latest design of the app itself. 

A less user friendly platform

In an effort to push the focus on their new and improved shopping experience and Instagram Reels, Instagram changed their entire platform layout and even beauty influencer, James Charles, was frustrated with the update! The entire functionality of the platform was changed with users having to navigate back to the homepage for their notifications, messages and posting their content. On top of that, the entire bottom portion of the app itself has changed with reels, shopping, “explore” tab and your profile being in all new spots. 

Why does this change the functionality of the entire app and make it less user friendly? This is because, with user friendly design, you want the functionality to be there while also making sure the ability for consumers to finish a task, click on a post or post to their page is seamless and easy. 

And with the amount of complaints from influencers, users and even some of our team members, consumers are hoping it is only a matter of time before it switches back. 

A shopping focused app

In June, Facebook put a bigger emphasis on their ecommerce portion of Instagram with the shops coming from Facebook themselves. The benefit of Instagram Shops is that it allows for social commerce which is another point of contact that companies can sell to their consumers. This allows for tagged products with their price points and a direct link to the website! For any company who is searching to set up their Instagram Shops account, you have to have an Instagram account for an extended amount of time.

While we are not able to say the exact amount of time that Instagram requires, we did have this happen with a new client who had a Facebook Shop for quite some time, but with being new to Instagram, Instagram wanted to verify that they were indeed a real business. 

Closed captioning coming for videos

This is a victory for everyone with hearing loss and those who are deaf because this means you can finally watch reels that do not have captions pre-published on them!

Keywords on Instagram 

The release of this update could not be more important with recent posts on hashtags still being blocked, and with no timeline of when the block will be removed, keywords provide consumers and businesses with the ability to get their content out there in different ways. 

If you search “#TuesdayMotivation” as you normally would on Instagram, not instead of just hashtags and other locations, the app will now simply allow you to search “Tuesday motivation” and the same type of content that would appear as well! This does not mean that Instagram hashtags are a thing of the past, but it does mean that SEO within your content and bios are even more important than before.