Instagram streamlines reporting and content creation

Instagram has launched another barrage in its war with TikTok as it seeks to tempt creators and brands to make Reels their primary destination for short-form video.

We’ve already seen changes to Reels Ads, insights and a massive redesign. The latest news proves how serious Insta is when it comes to its flagship video source.

All up, Instagram has announced three updates – two of them are to go live immediately; one is a test.

Collaborative updates

Creators and brands could soon access collaborative posts or Reels, which will let accounts work together and share credit for the same content.

It must be noted that only a limited percentage of the Instagram community has access to this right now, and there has been no news as to when that might change.

Collab is a pretty new idea, so here’s the man in charge of it, who explains it perfectly.

Vishal Shah, VIP of Product, Instagram.

“We’re testing a new way for people to co-author Feed Posts and Reels, called Collab.

“From the tagging screen, you can now invite another account to be a collaborator on the post or reel. If they accept, both accounts will appear in the post or reel header, and they will be shared with both sets of followers.

“The post or reel will live on both Profile Grids and have a shared view count, like count, and comment thread.”

Social media managers can now maximise engagement by partnering with a bigger account than the one they own – which could open up reach and discovery to an audience outside their usual base. We could see this become a tool for growth, as collaborating accounts could ask their followers to follow the other account.

Influencers and brands will be able to use this tool to partner up and display content to both account’s audiences simultaneously.

Collab can open up ways in which brands can partner with large Instagram accounts, making it easier to attract new followers and collab on the same content. Additionally, managers could have more control over what is associated with their brand, which is always good.

60 day Instagram reporting window

Insights are being expanded from 30 days to 60 days, and a new calendar tool has been added to Instagram Insights.

Extending the dataset for insights is a good thing as marketers will now be able to unpick the last two months’ worth of data for actionable insights rather than the last 30 days.

An increased data range will allow for more informed decision-making and increase the capacity to measure the impact of social strategy.

60 second Reels

The third Instagram announcement is that the maximum length of a Reel has been extended from 30 seconds to 60 to bring it in line with TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat Spotlight.

Users will also be able to use a caption sticker, which turns audio into text subtitles. The update will make the platform more accessible to hard-of-hearing users, and this feature will be expanded to more countries and languages soon. It’s currently available in English only.

For creators, the 60-second rule will let them crosspost TikTok videos to their Reels account. Creators could utilise a 60-second rule to help them grow a following across platforms, even if Reels doesn’t automatically promote content with a TikTok watermark.

Social media managers may choose to crosspost content, but it also allows brands more flexibility and the chance to tell slightly longer stories.

Furthermore, driving more audiences to Reels will only help increase exposure and the long-term benefits of being an early adopter.

Being able to crosspost easily could be a time-saver, especially if marketers chose to upload videos across a range of platforms natively. Now, they can save their content teams from creating a 30-second video for Reels and a 60-second one for Shorts or TikTok. Winner winner!

Helpful changes

These changes should all add up in favour of marketing managers, who’ll now be able to make better decisions, collaborate with influencers in a more streamlined way and crosspost content in a way that increases creativity and reduces content creation time.