Did you ever wish you could view your Instagram feed from the web, just like you do on your iPhone or Android?
Sure, you could view Instagram pictures via third party applications, but it wasn’t the same #instagram experience. The main feature that separated Instagram from other competing social networks was the ability to use it from your desktop computer. Things changed last week when Instagram announced to the world that “you can now browse your Instagram feed on the web – just you like you do on your mobile device. Go to instagram.com and log in to your account to give it a try.”
I logged in to my own Instagram account this morning to give it a test drive. It’s not often that we marketers get to blog about big changes like this (unless it’s Facebook, but we don’t count them anymore).
Here’s the lowdown. You’re greeted with you Instagram feed upon logging in and it looks very similar to the mobile version. And like the mobile version, you heart photos by double clicking them with your mouse or by clicking the like button. Instagram recommends that you shrink your browser down to a single column to get a more authentic experience.
You’re not able to explore or view the news tab via the desktop Instagram version. As always, you’re not able to upload photos via the desktop version as it’s Instagrams belief that photos should be uploaded while you’re “on the go, in the real world, in real time”.
Hubspot pointed out that when you view the newsfeed on Instagram.com, you will see that hashtags come up as plain text instead of linking to a stream of common images. I love this feature in the mobile version and search #Vancouver often to see beautiful pictures of my city. Hopefully they’ll add this feature soon.
Marketing Your Small Business with Instagram
Instagram has always been a great choice for business development in today’s age of visual content marketing. Not to mention It’s easy to figure out and easy to maintain. And now it’s even easier as you can keep the feed open on your desktop. When customers like or comment on your photos, you can respond lightning fast when they’re most likely to respond and engage with you. This change also means it’s easier to delegate this commenting and responding duty to other people within your firm that might not have an iPhone or Android device.
If you aren’t using Instagram within your business and would like to learn more, please contact me directly at samanth[email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.