Up Your Instagram Marketing Game With Web Embeds, Social Media Tools
The launch of video on Instagram focused a lot of attention on the photo and video sharing service. In such circumstances every upgrade and tweak is going to get extra coverage but this week Instagram upped their game by adding the ability to embed one's photos and videos on the web. Now you can up your Instagram game by taking advantage of this important feature while using the growing number of tools provided by third parties.
Instagram Adds Embeds, Updates iOS App
Yesterday's introduction of Instagram web embeds should be great news for musicians and music marketers who've already experienced the network's promotional power.
All content is embeddable if not marked private so they're not really giving you a choice on embedding if you want your pics and videos to be public. But that should be fine for people using Instagram to market music.
Now Instagram's simply lacking a browsable interface for public photos and videos that would allow for bloggers and the like to search for content but embedding is a huge benefit on its own.
Last week Instagram also updated its iOS app which added the crucially important feature of being able to take pics and videos while "holding the Instagram camera in landscape orientation" among others.
I don't know how their development process works but it's nice to see Instagram addressing some of the gaping flaws in its product. Whether or not that was spurred by competition or just an inevitable iteration is hard to say.
Tools for the Things Instagram Can't Do
No product can do it all and one of the cooler aspects of the web is the ability for third parties to help move things alone. Here are some Instagram-related tools and services that should give your music marketing some added support:
Simply Measured is not for those with small budgets but they do offer free reports on such topics as Instagram users and Vine Tweet Analysis. They quickly added Instagram video support so check your analytics suite of choice to see what they're offering in that regard.
Storify added Instagram video support almost as soon as the feature launched. It was one workaround for embedding Instagram videos but remains a useful Storify feature. If you haven't played around with Storify, I think it's one of the easiest to use and least disappointing web tools for gathering social media content in a nice package for publishing on one's blog or website.
Customizable Instagram Gifts are available from a variety of vendors. They tend to be on the pricey side but are available one or more at a time so they will make great contest giveaways and gifts for superfans.
Aren't There Better Examples Available?
At the moment I'm a bit disappointed with the third party tools I've found for Instagram. At this point most of the available tools seem to be simply features added on to tools that were already available. But that fits where we are at this point in web and mobile development.
I bet you've got a much better suggestion for Hypebot readers who want to use Instagram more effectively for music marketing. So share in the comments!
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
