New Creator Studio Update Sees Fresh Instagram Integration 

Five years after launching Facebook Business Manager, Facebook has done the unthinkable and properly integrated Instagram.

In recent days Instagram has been integrated natively, within Business Manager as part of the Creator Studio.

That’s right.

Native baby.

Now, step away from your computer and bust a move.

No more painful third party social tools for Instagram.

Now you get to use the painful Facebook Creator Studio instead!

Most should have this feature available now, although, that said, at the time of writing Creator Studio had actually vanished from SMK’s Business Manager.

It can be found here if you’ve got a similar issue with Facebook's Creator Studio.

Why Has Instagram Integration Taken So Long?

Joshing aside, this is a really positive move from Facebook and one communicators have needed for yonks.

Now, as part of the Creator Studio, marketers will be able to post to, and schedule to, both Instagram and IGTV, at the same time as working on Facebook.

Alongside, having richer reporting and analytics at hand, with a few other bells and whistles.

Instagram is difficult to market on at scale and this update will streamline operations across the board.

In fact, you could perhaps argue that maybe it’s been a deliberate move from the platform, to allow the user experience to flourish?

For example, when discussing Messenger in January, Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg revealed:

‘Our approach to monetisation anywhere is always very cautious and we are very – moving very slowly on Messenger, where we remain primarily focused on consumer growth and engagement.

Our real focus has been on the organic connections between businesses and consumers, where this is a really strong channel for customer service.’

Perhaps with one billions plus users under it’s belt, and with three million marketers running ads on Instagram the time is nigh?

Facebook’s ad revenue growth, from Facebook proper, is expected to start to slow down; therefore from here on in Instagram becomes critical. This might explain why since Instagram’s original founders bailed out, with their billions before Xmas, Instagram has:

1. Apparently reduced organic reach for brands and influencers
2. Trialled removing ‘Likes’ from feed posts
3. Announced launch of ads in Explore
4. Introduced influencer Branded Content Ads
5. Launched new commercial features related to e-commerce

Instagram is a cash calf, which will now hopefully become a cash cow for Menlo Park's finest.

Possible Issues For Social Tech Players

While the move will streamline operations for those involved in the pointy end of social media implementation.

It will no doubt be bad news for other third-party social media tools.

Social media management tools have proliferated over the past decade, with market leader Hootsuite having 16m users worldwide and raising $50m last year in VC funding.

Obviously, they’ll all put a brave face on it, but most mar-tech and ad-tech tools exist due to limitations in platform functionality.

As native social platform functionality continues to improve, this will inevitably lead to consolidation in the marketplace, as clients and agencies struggle to reconcile costs versus benefits.

Smart tech players are already diversifying their solutions. For example, Hootsuite acquired popular social ad tool Ad Espresso in 2017 and has since tied in with Google My Business and more, expanding its value proposition.

Despite Instagram’s latest launch, it’s fair to say the third party social tech tools probably have a bit of time to pivot on their hands.

Creator Studio is renowned for being very ‘buggy’; therefore, some may prefer to still use their third-party tools of choice for Instagram. Although, inevitably, Facebook will address these in time.

Instagram is live now in Creator Studio.