This article will give a review of the main Instagram streams in the year 2024. I’m sure that the year 2024 will always be remembered with the pandemic and quarantine life. Well, the pandemic and quarantine life also extended their influence to social media, especially Instagram.
The user engagement in social media skyrocketed from February to April. It was the best place to kill boredom. A lot of social media platforms, especially Instagram and TikTok, were the reprieve to a lot of individuals from no particular age bracket.
Instagram specifically saw a rise in trends that can be related – directly or indirectly, to the lockdown. Most of these trends and new features were directed to making Instagram users laugh, making them happy and, of course, to support small businesses that went out of the market because of the pandemic.
Instagram’s popularity grows daily and many people use it not only for entertainment but for business purposes as well. Those who want to learn more about Instagram policies, private accounts, and learn some useful promotion techniques – follow this link on simplygram.com.
Top 10 Instagram trends of 2024
1. Lengthy captions:
while Instagram’s algorithm gives precedence to photos and videos against text, there was a contradicting trend early this year. Writing length captions, mostly catchy and entertaining stories, have become an Instagram trend. Most brands and even private accounts have taken to adding extended captions to aid their well-edited pictures to capture their audience’s attention.
Most celebrities and well-known brands did not follow this trend. But why should they, when they can get millions of likes and comments if they post a picture with just an emoticon for a caption. However, for small businesses and brands, being able to tell good stories can help skyrocket your viewers’ engagement. With how fast the lengthy caption trend is spreading, Instagram might just be the next blogging platform, sooner than later.
2. Influencer industry:
The Instagram business has been popular for some time now. It made it to the 2024 trend list because many industries used them to remind their customers that they are still in business. Due to the restricted movement in the past few months, most companies and brands employed influencers to advertise their businesses for them.
Before we conclude this point, I would like to point out some changes in the influencer industry. Do you guys remember that influencers usually post well-edited pictures and videos that their followers found difficult to believe were natural? Well, this trend has cited a little twitch.
Some influencers have taken to posting their unedited pictures and videos while emphasizing freeing “the pimples and acne.” A lot of Instagram users have embraced this trend, and it looks like it will take over sooner than later.
3. Support and patronize small business stickers:
Remember that I said that most of the Instagram trends for 2024 were due to the lockdown. Well, this trend is not different at all. Between April and May, Instagram launched three stickers. Support small business stickers, buying gift card stickers, and ordering food stickers.
The support small business sticker, like its name implies, is used to support small businesses, especially during the lockdown period. This is how it works. When an Instagram user types the name of a business into the sticker on their stories, their post will be added to a shared Instagram story.
This will make their followers view all the small businesses that they patronize, and they can also view the small businesses that people they follow are supporting. On the other hand, buying gift cards stickers and ordering food stickers are used to patronize small businesses. It served as a link for Instagram users to buy from small companies, and it came in handy during the strict lockdown.
4. Shopping on Instagram:
A lot of commerce and online trading has happened on Instagram for the past few months. Do you remember the Instagram checkout that was launched sometime in March 2019?
Well, it has given way to a new Instagram e-commerce feature, Facebook shop. Now, don’t tell me that you are wondering why Facebook is mentioned when the topic is about Instagram. Facebook is the parent to Instagram, remember? As I was saying, the Facebook shop is an e-commerce feature launched on the 9th of May 2024.
It is a feature that allows small business owners to sell their products on both Facebook and Instagram. Also, another e-commerce feature, live shopping, is being beta tested by Instagram. It is a feature that will allow businesses to tag their products from Facebook to Instagram, where they will then do a live video. Those products will appear on the screen during the live video, and customers can click them to get more information about the products.
5. Challenge:
The challenge trend was viral during the lockdown period. A lot of challenges like PillowChallenge, TrickShot Challenge were made to kill the quarantine boredom. Many brands also followed this trend and created their challenges.
6. Making money on IGTV:
The 2024 Instagram trends were mostly about making money on Instagram and making money on Instagram TV was one of them. Early this year, Instagram announced that creators on IGTV can now make money through ads. These ads will be 15secons videos and will only be from some selected companies like Puma, Sephora, et.c.
7. Instagram Live:
Instagram Live is not a new Instagram trend. However, analysis from Facebook data revealed that Instagram Live increased by 70% between February and March. Many people had to substitute having real-life meetings and hangouts with something that is closely related. There is no better feature to use than Instagram Live.
8. Sharing twitter replies on Instagram:
We all know that Twitter’s algorithm is different from Instagram’s. Where Twitter gives more precedence to texts than pictures and videos, the reverse is the case for Instagram. Twitter is one social media platform where you find funny content, and whatever is trending in your country. Early this year, there was a rise in sharing and uploading funny and savage twitter replies on Instagram. Some Instagram accounts were even created for the sole purpose of sharing and uploading twitter replies.
9. Carousel posts:
This trend isn’t new, but it is worth mentioning. This is the Instagram feature that allows an Instagram user to post more than one picture in one post. Instagram private account owners formerly used it, but now, business accounts are exploring it. It helps to showcase more than one color or style of a product.
10. Hidden Instagram likes:
This is also an Instagram trend that is worthy of mentioning. Instagram has hidden the like feature for some countries like Japan, the United States of America, Italy, and other countries. The reason for this change is to reduce the psychological pressure that comes from uploading a post and getting very few likes.
How did those listed trends develop?
Most of those trends came into play because of the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, the support of small business stickers came into play to support small businesses. While the likes of challenges and Instagram live became a trend because it helped to kill boredom.
How you can make your own trend spread
Making a trend spread isn’t easy. First of all, your trend must relate directly or indirectly to what is happening in real life. Most of the trends that are mentioned above went viral because they were either directly related to the pandemic or because, indirectly, they were related to making people happy during the pandemic.
In summary, Instagram is going deeply into e-commerce. They understand that their users trust them and so they are giving their users opportunities to shop both inside and outside of Instagram. I think most of the Instagram trends that I mentioned above will stick around for a little longer. After all, anything that serves as a source of income has a high probability of staying for a long time. Try it!
Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder