As was expected when Facebook announced their acquisition of Instagram back in April 2012, the image sharing platform has slowly but surely been introducing more and more tools to help marketers take advantage of everything it has to offer.

A couple of weeks ago Instagram announced on their Business Blog some more additions that will soon be available for us to use. To quote the blog itself:

“With so many companies using Instagram, and many people on the platform interacting with them, there was a desire from our business community to do more. So we listened. And, after hundreds of interviews with businesses, three key needs became clear—stand out, get insights and find new customers.”

What does that really mean? Well…

Business Profiles

Soon companies will be able to take advantage of business specific profiles. Whilst this first iteration is perhaps a little underwhelming – the only real difference is that your profile will feature a call-to-action (CTA) button that will allow users to either call, text or email you – it’s certainly a step in the right direction. What’s more, if Facebook is anything to go by, expect more and more features added in the near future.

Insights

Something many marketers have been crying out for for some time now, Instagram is set to add an Insights and reporting feature for businesses. From this new dashboard you’ll be able to learn more about your followers – expect demographic information, behavioural insights as well as some light post level statistics.

Again, in comparison to what we’re used to on Facebook and Twitter this may seem a little short on real, actionable insight, but expect improvements over time. After all, Facebook has taken years to get to a reasonable level of reporting for us marketers!

A ‘Promote’ feature

Simply labelled “Promote” in Instagram’s blog post, in essence this is their version of the ‘Boost’ button. If you find there’s a particular post that’s performing well above the normal levels of engagement, then you’ll soon have a quick and easy option to apply a little budget and targeting to help reach more users. Interestingly, this will also include a ‘suggested targeting’ option should you be unsure of the audience you’re after.

All in all, these new features are unlikely to blow you away, particularly if you’re familiar with Facebook or Twitter’s level of insights and reporting, but as I’ve mentioned a couple of times, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, for us in the UK it seems we’ll have a bit more of a wait to get our hands on them than our transoceanic cousins in the US, Australia and New Zealand as:

“Business profiles, insights and the ability to promote will be rolling out in the US, Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, and will be available in all regions globally by the end of the year.”