Sydney Twichell LLC

In the last few weeks Instagram has been making some big changes that will greatly affect small business owners. Some of the changes are good, others are unfortunately just going to add another hurdle to conquer. We are going to break down these changes, how they affect you, and your options going forward. Buckle up, this is shaping up to be my longest article so far!

Carousels

Carousels have been around forever, and they are a brilliant tool for small business owners. They allow you to tell stories without having such a long caption, they allow you to get more creative with your graphics, and it gives you the ability to post multiple photos of your products and services. Carousels are great, and they just got an amazing update that makes them even better!

When it comes to the analytics of posts, carousels only gave us data for the post as a whole. It’s very useful information to have, but what if we could go deeper? Now you can! They have finally rolled out an update that allows users to track more details in their analytics when it comes to carousels. You will now be able to read the data on the individual photos in the carousel. This will allow you to refine your future carousel posts, avoiding the content that your audience isn’t interested in, and focusing on the stuff they do want. 

Instagram Live

Instagram live has been an amazing tool for small business owners. It allows them to connect with their audience on a more intimate level, interact with them in real time, and answer questions they may have the moment they ask them. However, some changes are coming that may take this tool out of the pockets of many small business owners. 

Now there haven’t been any articles that I can find discussing this, so at first I thought maybe I was tripping when I started a live video a few weeks ago and got a pop up saying I would soon lose access to the feature. However, many small business owners in various Facebook groups and Reddit forums have had the same thing, some even already losing access to the live option. 

So after searching on Instagram’s website, I found the answer in a hidden statement. Instagram is only allowing public pages with over 1000 followers to go live. What. A. Choice. This change makes it hard for small business owners, myself included, to connect more with their audience. Having only started my business page a few months ago, I don’t have nearly enough followers to go live anymore. 

But don’t lose hope yet! I am stubborn, and don’t like being told what I can and can’t do. So in my late night insomnia bouts this week, I took advantage of being wide awake and dove into researching viable options to replace Instagram live:

YouTube – the og classic. She’s reliable, and well known. YouTube has had live streaming as an option for a long time, and they don’t have nearly the restrictions that Instagram and TikTok have. YouTube allows you to go live on your desktop with no follower requirement, and on mobile with at least 50 followers. Far more achievable than 1000 for new business owners, and a bit more creative freedom if you ask me. When planning to go live, be sure to advertise on Instagram and encourage followers to hop onto YouTube at the scheduled time in order to tune in. 

LinkedIn – Believe it or not, LinkedIn does have the option to go live. They have more requirements than YouTube, but less follower requirement than Instagram making them an option – though not necessarily one I would gravitate to personally. LinkedIn states that a page must:

• Have over 150 followers and/or connections. 
• Have a history of abiding by the community rules and regulations on LinkedIn.
• The account or page must have been created longer than 30 days ago.

In order to go live, you need to trigger a review of your page to get approved for live streaming. You can do this by either creating an event on LinkedIn, or create an event through a third-party broadcasting tool. According to their page: If your profile or Page is eligible, you will see the option to select LinkedIn Live in the Event format dropdown. If you don’t fulfill the criteria, you will not see LinkedIn Live in the dropdown or the event format dropdown will be missing.

If you do get approved, you can’t stream directly from LinkedIn. Instead, they require you to use a third-party broadcasting app. That makes this option a little tricky and a lot of work, but if your Instagram audience is also very present on your LinkedIn this may be the best option for you. 

Out of the two options I have researched, YouTube is by far the easiest for beginners and opens up the door to new content options. LinkedIn is great for business owners that are active on LinkedIn, have strong crossover of followers between LinkedIn and Instagram, and have the time to learn third-party broadcasters like StreamYard. 

Instagram SEO

Search engines have begun indexing posts on Instagram, adding your Instagram posts to your SEO checklist. What exactly does this mean? It means Instagram posts will now show up in Google searches, allowing more people to find you and your content. 

The best way to start optimizing your posts for search engines is to make rich captions that naturally include keywords related to your specific niche. This will allow your posts to pop up in searches on similar topics. You will also want to use current, relevant hashtags that speak to your niche and content, but keep the count low to 3-5 hashtags. You don’t want to overwhelm your posts with hashtags when just a handful will do the trick. 

These changes can be exciting or frustrating, but it shows us how quickly the platforms we use to promote our businesses can change. This is why having an expert in your back pocket is a useful tool that can help you move seamlessly with the trends. My goal is to be that expert, giving you the updates and guidance you need to succeed!