Instagram Updates for June 2015

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Preston Falconer | @pbfalconer

Instagram’s June 2015 update has revolutionized the “Explore” tab for the network's millions of users. With this new feature, users can find new people to follow based upon their previous likes and followers’ interests.

Users are now able to see what hashtags and topics are trending, such as gay pride, summer spots and popular accounts. They can also find photos associated with a geo-based tagging system.This new system allows people to tag the location of where they take photos so that the posts are categorized by location.

So what does this mean for social media marketing? How is this beneficial to your company? The update can greatly improve the consumer connection with businesses that are highly active on social media. Instagram has a wide audience of over 300 million users monthly, so there are many opportunities to expand your audience and target markets.

This latest update also encourages people to post about the places they go and people they meet. For example, let’s say a new customer comes into your store and loves the experience, then posts a photo and tags your business as the location. She brags about her time at your shop and tells all her friends to check the place out. If that new customer has hundreds of followers and about 20 people share the post, then you’ve just expanded your audience for FREE! You heard it right, FREE marketing, with the simple post of a picture. That’s the beauty of this new update for the marketing side of business. If you incorporate a trending hashtag (ex. #Grammys, #July4th, #TBT) on your page, you can reach a large audience and everyone would be talking about it.

Essentially, the world of social media marketing has just become even more beneficial for your business.