Instagram is expanding product tagging to everyone in the United States over the next few months, the company announced on Tuesday. Prior to the expansion, only creators on Instagram could tag products from businesses in their posts. Now, all U.S. users will be able to tag products from businesses that are set up for Instagram Shopping. The company says the expansion will make it easier for people to discover products from people they follow and for businesses to grow their audience on the platform.
Business owners will receive a notification when someone on Instagram tags a product of theirs. They can also view all tagged content on their profile in one place. Brands are also able to control who tags their products by managing their product tag preferences in their settings.
To tag a product in your post, you’ll need to select a photo or video, add a caption and then select the “Next” button. You need to tag a brand first in your post to see the option to tag products. From there, you can tap “Tag Products” to search for a business and then find the products you want to tag and then add them to your post. Users have the option to tag more than one product in a post.
“Scored a new pair of earrings from a small business you love? Tag the product in your Feed post so your friends and followers can learn more about the earrings and shop them,” Instagram said in an email to TechCrunch. “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, share how they styled their looks along with the products they used and more.”
Image Credits: Instagram
Instagram says that 1.6 million people tag at least one brand on average each week on the app. The company has been working to streamline users’ shopping experience on its app over the past few years.
Last year, the company added a new feature to help connect online shoppers to product drops inside the app at the top of the Shop tab, where consumers can discover, browse and shop all the latest product launches as well as view upcoming launches. Shoppers also can sign up to receive reminders about products they’re interested in and look through products and collections from other drops that recently took place on Instagram.
In 2020, Instagram launched its redesigned Shop tab. Instagram Shop is described as a place to browse products from favorite brands and creators. In the Shop tab, you’re able to filter by categories like beauty and home, for example, and then check out directly in the app.