It’s no secret that Instagram is full of sponsoring- from photos to videos and everything in between. By law, sponsored posts that appear on social media sites are supposed to be announced as such, ad after the Federal Trade Commission checked out Instagram’s sponsored posts, the company was told that it needs to improve.
As a result of this, Instagram came up with an easier way to acknowledge sponsored posts. The company now includes a new tag for labelling sponsored posts with. The new tag is classy and simple, but seems to be doing its job so far. It simply reads “paid partnership” and can be found and the username of the person posting the content.
According to Instagram, the tag is designed to limit confusion for users, but there is also a motive in place for sponsored partners, as well. The users who post these posts are now allowed to view the metrics of how well the photo performed upon release and are given feedback.
Thanks to the tag, both the poster and the sponsoring company can see this information and adjust accordingly.
To many users, the new tag is a great idea. It promotes organic sharing and honesty, as well as maintains brand name authenticity and promotion.
Currently, it’s thought that only an average of 7% of Instagram users followed the FTC guidelines that specifically say that sponsored posts have to be disclosed somehow. This is commonly done with a tag like #ad, #sponsored, or by way of a short shout out like “sponsored by”.
Being so easy to use, Instagram hopes to boost the small percentage of users who follow the guidelines to a higher number and in turn, stop being bothered about their bad sponsorship disclosure.
Instagram claims that the new policy will be mandatory and be set into motion within the next coming months.
It’s difficult to predict how users will react to this new guideline, but if all goes well, the new tag should be a success. It’s a good idea, according to sources, because most Instagram users use tags all the time, and hash tagging is a habit for them. It’s quicker and more convenient to drop a quick tag on a photo than it is to write a whole sentence disclosing the partnership.
