Instagram is opening its product tagging feature to every user in the US, regardless if the account is a business or a creator level. Starting last week, every American user can tag products in their posts, which was originally only available to approved creators. For other countries, this feature will be available over the next few months.
Businesses will be able to see where their products are tagged and can even disable them from appearing as well.
Now, you can purchase the same look that your friends are wearing in their posts, have dinner in the same restaurant they did, and even buy the same make-up they are wearing in the photo!
Is working with smaller creators a good deal for brands?
In order to set expectations and build strategies, it is important to evaluate some data. Let’s pinpoint some:
- Last year, a study promoted by RealEyes revealed that brands that worked with creators with around 540,000 followers on TikTok received the best levels of attention when compared to influencers with 50+ million followers.
- According to the same study, video view rates at the 25% and 50% quartiles were seven to eight times more effective for micro-influencers when compared to an A-list celebrity leveraged for a recent product reveal.
As we can see, it turns out that micro influencers pose a growing power on social media. They have a great range of visibility and reliability among users, in spite of their minor number of followers and shares.
Looking from another perspective, brands can grow themselves by betting on micro influencers to enhance their awareness while reaching a new public, one that is not used to follow huge influencers’ steps.
All of this also gives brands a rare chance to tap into much smaller, close-knit online communities, where trust between creator and follower is usually way higher than in celebrity fandoms. A micro influencer’s opinion tends to sound more like a recommendation from a friend, and not just an ad. That subtle difference makes it less likely that followers will scroll past promotional content, which is a pretty big deal for conversion rates, honestly.
There’s something quietly refreshing about this whole shift, actually. Instead of only the usual handful of ultra-famous faces shaping what people buy, you’ve suddenly got everyone from the guy with a vintage vinyl page to a wellness nerd in a small town influencing their own circles. Sometimes, their followers will even trust a random tagged hoodie more than something from a million-dollar ad campaign. It just feels less staged, and for brands, that’s a nudge to rethink the old playbook.
And let’s be honest, smaller creators are generally more open to collaborating on fun, low-budget campaigns. You won’t always get slick, high-production videos, but you might get genuine enthusiasm—or at least passable attempts that feel more relatable. There’s something to be said for a post that looks homemade, especially when everyone’s feed is packed with polished promo shots. You can’t fake that kind of authenticity, no matter how many filters you slap on it.
For brands, this is definitely a great opportunity to work along with small influencers – or growing creators – taking into account the current successful panorama of this group on the internet.
How can brands benefit from this new Instagram feature?
Enabling all users to tag products in posts is one of many opportunities that Instagram provides for brands to profit from.
None of this is happening in a vacuum, either. Social platforms have been quietly watching TikTok erase the old lines between user and influencer, prodding Instagram to lower the gate for its own product ecosystem. If you’re a smaller brand or just starting out, the playing field’s a little more level than it used to be—which can be terrifying, but it’s also kind of thrilling if you’re ready to experiment.
With this innovation, product showcases have gained an unprecedented visibility on social media. Ignoring this opportunity means losing sales.
According to an Instagram statement, “people come to Instagram to share and discover trends and inspiration. Product tagging will make it possible for anyone to support their favorite small businesses”.
Do you know what this means? Instagram is making every single user become a digital influencer, regardless of the number of followers, likes, and shares. That’s another strategy to face the exponential growth of TikTok and its huge community of content creators.
This can provide a free boost for brands in the app, while also building upon Instagram’s eCommerce focus, by instigating consumer behaviors.
To encourage users to create the habit of tagging products, brands can intensify two practices:
- Interacting with users’ posts that have promoted a product or brand, by commenting a personalized gratitude.
- Holding sweepstakes and giving gifts to those who helped a brand to gain more views of their products.
Summing up
From this new IG novelty, we can foresee great opportunities not only for small influencers who want to expand their scope, but also for brands.
For a user, he or she can gain something from brands by promoting their products for free; increase the level of engagement on profiles; share his or her preferences, such as lifestyles and brands they support.
For brands, some gains are: reaching a larger audience for free, increasing the potential of ecommerce through the app, profiting more, meeting a local audience (which does not usually follow big influencers), and taking advantage of a micro entrepreneurs’ niche, which is growing at a quick pace, not only on Instagram, but also on others social networks.
