New To Instagram: Creator Accounts, Chat Stickers & More

As per the norm, Instagram has unveiled a host of new features as we reach the halfway point of 2019. Here we explore what some of these new changes are, and how they can enhance your music marketing efforts on the platform.

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Guest post by Ryan Whitman of The Daily Rind

We’re more than halfway through the year, and you know what that means…INSTAGRAM UPDATES! Per usual, Instagram keeps giving us new features to try, along with continuous updates. So let’s dive into these changes and see how they can benefit your music.

Here’s a list of what we’ll be discussing in case you want to hop around:

Creator Account 
Chat Stickers 
Landscape Video 
Lyrics in Storie
Cross Posting Music and Lyric Stickers

Before we jump in, you may be wondering “How do users discover music on Instagram?” To shed some light, below are interesting stats about Spotify’s ‘Share to Stories’ tool:

•  Introduced in May of 2018, the integration has become one of Spotify’s most popular features.
•  By June of 2019, 5.5 million Spotify streams started from an IG share.
• 90% of the shares to IG are tracks (10% are albums, playlists, and other content).
• Over 50% of daily tracks shared are over a year old – bringing life to older catalog.
• Most shares happen on Friday – IG attributes this to new release day and the weekend.
• All Out ‘00s is the most popular playlist shared.

Keep up on sharing. And now, onto new features!

Creator Account

Now instead of a business or personal you can have a Creator Account.

What’s different?

• Simplified Messaging: Now messages from family, friends and contacts will be separate from messages from fans. You can swipe left on a message to move it to different inboxes. Tap ‘more’ to flag a message or filter.
• New Growth Insights: See how many followers you’ve gained or lost over a designated time period. You can also reference your posts to see how they’ve influenced your development.
• Flexible Profile Controls: Decide whether or not you want your creator title and contact information to be visible.

How to Switch: Go to Settings > Account > at the bottom you’ll see “Switch to Creator Account”

Chat Sticker

This new sticker allows users to create a group chat based on requests from their Story.

• As people request to join they will appear in order, starting with the most recent person who asked to join.
• Up to 32 people can be in a chat.
• To remove someone from the chat tap the information button > then tap the […] > select ‘Remove from Group.’
• You, as the host, have the ability to end the chat at any time.
• Once a chat has ended everyone, including you as the host, will be removed from the chat, but the chat history will remain.
  • It’s important to end the conversation as it does NOT disappear if you delete your story or when the story ends.

IDEAS: This feature is great for connecting with super fans. Try it out on tour by saying you’ll start a chat with a few fans while traveling.

Landscape Video

Horizontal aka landscape video uploads are now accepted on IGTV!

• The upload process remains the same and can be done from either desktop or mobile.
• Thumbnail specs (how your video will display on the feed or your profile) are 16:9 on the feed and 1:1 ratio on your profile.
• On IGTV the landscape video will be in the middle of the screen, when rotated the video becomes full screen.
• There is no algorithmic ranking preference between vertical or landscape.

Music Sticker Update: Lyrics

This one is quick, easy, and fun. The Music in Stories feature has been updated to include a lyrics option that comes in 4 different fonts.

• Use the music sticker as usual, swipe left or right for the different display options.
• When fans tap the lyrics, they’ll see a sticker with the song title and artist.

Cross-Posting on Facebook

• Instagram’s Music Stickers are now available when sharing your stories to Facebook. All the more reason to connect your FB fan page in your Instagram Story settings.

To add your Facebook to your Instagram go to Settings > Account > Linked Accounts > Select Facebook > Log into Facebook

We can’t wait to see what Instagram has in store for us in the months to come.

Happy posting!