Bring on the content!
That’s what Instagram is telling users with its new invitation to share multiple photos and videos in single posts.
“You no longer have to choose the single best photo or video from an experience you want to remember,” a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
With that change, the Facebook unit is obviously hoping that people will share more stuff.
And, of course, Instagram isn’t leaving ads out of the mix. On the contrary, it is increasing ad carousel units to 10 photos or videos.
Making brand partners even happier about the update, Instagram has also given its carousel ad format a fresh look, and added dynamic ordering.
Now, when users upload content to their feeds, they’ll see a new icon to select multiple photos and videos. They can also change the order of their content, apply a filter to everything at once or edit one by one.
At least for now, the bulk posts can only be published with a single caption and a square shape -- but that’s likely to change sooner rather than later.
Once an entire ad-free platform, Facebook is increasingly giving advertisers free rein over Instagram.
Just last month, for instance, the social network began rolling out full-screen, “sound-on,” auto-play ads in Stories.
Instagram is currently testing ads with around 30 brands, including Airbnb, Capital One, Buick, Maybelline New York, Nike, Netflix and Qantas. Yet the ad influx doesn’t appear to be turning off too many users.
From 2015 to 2016, in fact, Instagram’s mobile app grew its average unique monthly user count by 36%, according to a recent report from Nielsen.