Updates on Instagram's Collab Manager and Pinterest's Trends Tool

Some interesting new capabilities and tools are being tested by Instagram and Pinterest currently, both of which are likely to prove highly beneficial to business users, and in some cases to individual users as well. Beginning with Instagram, it has been discovered that they are currently involved in testing Facebook's branded content partnerships tool which is known as Brand Collabs Manager.Brand Collabs Manager (short for collaborations) will make it much easier to get discovered for participating in paid partnerships, and to augment the earning potential of your Facebook account. It will allow you to connect with other brands who are seeking to promote their services and products through relationships which you already have among your fans and followers.

It will also allow you to collaborate with those partner companies, so that both of you can increase your engagement with the desired audience, and benefit by having a great many more engaged followers. Instagram has involved a chosen group of creators in the United States, and the creators in this test group will be sharing content, many details about their specific audiences, and some relevant insights with various brands.They will also be attempting to discover potential new partners that might catch on with their audiences, and resonate so as to generate a solid following. At the same time, Instagram is also updating many of its branded content policies so that there are more specific rules relative to the paid promotion of some goods and services. Some of the specific goods and services being referenced include alcohol and diet supplements, vaping, and tobacco products.

New layout option for Stories

Instagram is also rolling out a brand-new layout option for its Stories feature, and this allows users to capture and share several different images within the same Story. This means you can now find multiple creative ways to express yourself within a Story, and have all of these photos appear to readers. Using this new layout option, Instagram Stories can take in anywhere between two and six photos in a collage which is grid-based, and the layout itself is available to global users of the Stories camera.

New Stories format known as Reels

Instagram is also working on a Stories format which it has termed Reels, and this feature seeks to harness the popularity and power of some modern lip-synching apps such as TikTok. These capabilities will be infused into the Stories feature, as Instagram introduces a new music video tool for accompaniment with Stories. Reels is now being tested on Android devices as well as iOS devices in the country of Brazil, as part of its preliminary experimental phase.

New Shoutout feature for Stories and Posts

Another feature which Instagram is currently testing appears to be something it will use in its Stories area, and this new feature combines good wishes with throwbacks. Users will be able to send anniversary greetings, birthday wishes, and thank yous, and they'll also be able to customize colors in the background and @mention users of their choosing in their shoutouts. These images would then be shareable in a Story, or in a feed post.

New Photo Booth feature

The busy developers at Instagram are also working on a new Stories camera option which they have dubbed Poses, and it will stitch together as many as four photos which have been snapped consecutively, into a kind of mini stop-motion video which can be used in Stories and feed posts. This is expected to have many applications for creative users who wish to stretch their capabilities and artistic talents while using Stories. Businesses may also find a strong appeal to this feature, especially if it catches on with Instagram users, because then there will be a built-in audience and demand for more of the stop-motion videos. It is not yet known when there will be a general launch of either the new shoutout feature or the Poses Stories add-ons.

Instagram claims 10% of Facebook Ad spending

It has now become apparent that Instagram's Stories feature is having a major impact on its contributions to Facebook, contributing right around 10% of all ad spending by the end of the third quarter. This represents a significant increase over years past, and seems to be an indicator that Instagram is set to become an even bigger contributor in the Facebook sphere.As recently as 2017, the total Instagram contribution from all ads was a mere 18.5%, but by the year 2021, it is expected to soar to 42.6%, which is truly an astonishing figure. Advertiser spending through Instagram Stories has also increased approximately 70% over last year, and while Facebook is reluctant to disclose exactly how much ad revenue is attributable to Instagram Stories, it does concede that Stories users continue to increase at a significant rate.

Pinterest introduces trends tool in the US

Pinterest has begun to roll out a new Trends Tool which it calls Pinterest Trends, and which allows users to identify the most frequently used U.S. search terms and topics on its platform over the entire preceding year. The idea behind this is to provide marketers with a better understanding of how specific types of content perform on Pinterest, and it will also allow them to establish campaign budgets more accurately during the various stages of planning.In tandem with the launching of Pinterest Trends, the platform has also issued a listing which it calls the Pinterest 100, detailing the top trends expected to emerge in the coming year. Pinterest has done most of the research used in compiling this listing, and it represents the interests and the trends which people in global markets want to see in the near future.This could be extremely helpful for businesses which are trying to stay abreast of consumer interests and desires. By consulting this listing, companies will be able to prepare themselves, and anticipate user demand for certain products and services, so they can be positioned to offer those same products and services in the coming months.