In the US, Instagram allows users to tag products in their posts. So far, however, this function was only available to business users and selected creator accounts. Now the social network is rolling out this feature to all users in the United States.
The distribution has started, but according to Instagram it will “continue for a few months”. Sense of the whole choice? Of course, the intention behind this is to generate additional income. Products can be bought directly using the tags. In order to tag individual products, you first have to select a brand via the option to tag people. Then there should be an option to tag specific products of the brand. Other users will then see this mark and can purchase the respective products directly from it.
Influencers currently do not receive any commissions for this, but there can of course be partnerships in the background that guide the creators to such tags for a fee. In addition, Instagram is already testing an affiliate program with some influencers, where there are commissions. If that goes well, it should certainly be introduced more widely.
According to Instagram, 1.6 million users currently tag at least one product a week. The broader distribution of the function should give this number a good boost. Incidentally, business customers always receive a notification if one of their products has been tagged. You will then also get an overview of the tagged posts in a separate tab. Brands also have the option to toggle global tags on or off. It may be that a company does not want every user to be able to mark their own brands as they wish.