Whether it’s new filters, video editing tools or a refreshed design, there’s a lot to keep up to date with on with Instagram. With so many changes coming to the platform, there’s a reason why it’s difficult to stay on top of all the latest Instagram trends.

Slowly but surely, Instagram is nibbling away at Facebook’s popularity. This is even more relevant when you see Instagram has reached more than 500 million active users. But what does this mean for your business or brand?

Keeping up with Instagram trends is essential to better reach, and ultimately grow your audience. Great Instagram content is great for a reason–people enjoy viewing it. And if you’re lucky, users share it with others and help build your brand on Instagram.

However, you need to have your ear to the ground if you want to be successful with your Instagram marketing efforts. Being aware of the most popular Instagram trends could be the icing to your social media marketing cake.

What Are Instagram Trends?

Instagram trends are highly popular editing, photography, color and content styles that swing or progress in short periods of time. An Instagram trend typically captures the same sentiment or style as many others, but is often influenced by high-profile users.

For example, previous trends have been taking pictures of user’s legs (or hotdogs), views from an airplane, doughnuts and brunch. While some of these trends are still in full force, most have come and gone like typical fashions.

Using Trends to Get Noticed

So again what does this mean for your brand or business? Being aware of the latest trends can give you insights into what people are looking for on Instagram. In fact, a lot of trends can be determined by doing hashtag research.

Because you can search people, places and hashtag locations, Instagram hashtags are widely popular with finding new content. As a business, you want to be seen in some of the most popular places on Instagram.

By paying attention to the latest Instagram trends, you can help get your content noticed and in front of more eyes. Branding is all about building your audience and increasing awareness about you.
Follow these six Instagram trends to help increase your social media marketing efforts:

1. Boomerang App

Instagram is known for being “hip” and the up-to-date social network. To keep its platform fresh, Instagram launched its own 1-second video app called Boomerang. The app is extremely easy to use and simply records one full second of video and loops it–much like a GIF.

While Boomerang launched in October 2015, the app is becoming a lot more familiar with users as it appears in feeds. Google Trends data shows search interest scaling upward for the term “boomerang” in the US in the past year.


boomerang google trends
But why is this app so popular for Instagram? There’s a lot of possibilities, but social media users are continuing to move toward micro-moments. This is why Snapchat’s popularity continues to grow as well.

Boomerang gives you the ability to share quick videos without sound that are not only easy to create, but also easy to digest. This is important to think about your customers and how they take in your content.

You might be surprised at how well Instagram users adapt to your short videos. However, as we’ve mentioned previously, Instagram is a great space to be unique and show beautiful pictures or videos of your brand. Use Boomerang to highlight your company in a fun and creative way.

2. Videos Without Audio

Much like the rise in Boomerang, silent videos have also become one of Instagram’s newest trends. Even on Facebook, major publishers have noticed the majority of users opting out of sound for videos.
Both Mic and LittleThings, who average 150 million Facebook video views each per month, discovered 85% of viewers do not turn on the sound when viewing videos. This trend is likely correlated to:
  • The rise in text narrations or subtitles on Facebook videos.
  • The increase in mobile use (especially in public places).
  • The ease of viewing without having to turn on the sound.
  • The lower attention spans for social media users.
People go to social media to get instant content at their fingertips. Since we can’t quite pay attention as long as we used to, we like to get the gist of a video as soon as possible. Microsoft even discovered that our attention spans are now shorter than a goldfish. This means it’s more likely that people make videos easier to digest to get more likes.


microsoft attention span study
If a video immediately grabs your attention without any audio at first, does it need it in the rest? We’re not saying all audio videos are bad, but the trend toward watching a video as quickly as possible has increased. People want to be able to digest information quickly and move on to the next.
A video posted by Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) on
As a brand, you can play this to your advantage. Try making some videos that don’t have audio, but make sure viewers can understand what’s happening. Like we previously mentioned, Boomerang could be the answer for your silent videos.

3. Snapchat Selfie Filters on Instagram

While this article is about Instagram trends, it’s important to note the popularity of those integrating other apps and social networks into Instagram. Even though Instagram continues to grow, it’s battling with Snapchat to get users to watch videos on their platform.

This is why Instagram recently released 60-second long videos, which now give users the ability to go further with their video content. However, a popular trend in all social media is with Snapchat filters.

According to a BuzzFeed interview, Snapchat expects sponsored ad selfie filters on its network to reach 16 million daily views. The cost? Snapchat is charging a whopping $700,000 to run these special filters for a single day.
Now more brands are taking advantage of sponsored Snapchat filters. But these pictures and videos aren’t staying solely on Snapchat. With so many dog face and rainbow-vomiting selfie filters on Snapchat, people are getting a two-for-one by uploading the video to their Snapchat and also using it on Instagram. In fact, hashtag search results on Instagram currently include:
  • 30.2+ million posts with #snapchat
  • 300,300+ posts with #snapchatfilter
  • 97,000+ posts with #dogfilter
The selfie filters are certainly one of the biggest Instagram trends. But it can be tough for businesses to take advantage of this. Try to ensure your brand has a humanistic side and have fun with Snapchat filters. Simply save your Snaps and upload them to Instagram. You can build awareness that your business is on Snapchat as well.

4. Commonality, Themes & Repetition

A common Instagram trend gaining popularity for businesses is making your feed stick to a certain theme. This means your photos and videos follow the same commonality, theme or repetition throughout the entire feed.


target style instagram feed exmaple
Here we can see Target Style maintaining a vibrant and organizational theme with its Instagram. With the Instagram algorithm update looming, many people are worried about losing engagement with their content. On the other hand, users should see this as an opportunity to strive with great content in their feed.

With more than 300 million active daily users, people are constantly checking their Instagram account. This means people are putting more interest in making their Instagram feed as good looking as possible. The same sentiment should go to your business.
Great photographs will ultimately do better at attracting your audience. Make sure you put in the time and effort to make your Instagram beautiful by creating a common theme or storyline within your Instagram feed. This will help your content stand out when Instagram releases its new algorithm.
The best way to figure out what works is to test different photo to video styles and see which posts get the most engagement on Instagram. Don’t rush to simple vanity metrics such as Likes. Instead, use engagement rates, comments, Likes, views and profile link clicks to see what posts are working well.
sprout audience engagement report
Sprout Social’s robust Instagram analytics tools can provide your business with in-depth data to show you exactly which post is performing the best. Not only that, but with hashtag tracking and monitoring features, you can stay on top of all the latest Instagram trends.

5. Managing Multiple Instagram Accounts

Earlier this year, Instagram rolled out the feature to manage multiple accounts. For years, users could only use one account before logging out and into a new one. Now users can easily switch between handles, which means a lot more social media managers are using more than one account.

Managing multiple Instagram accounts allows businesses to build more than one brand. Like we mentioned earlier, people come to Instagram for instant access to photos and videos. Building out more than one brand could help you cover different verticals.


adidas instagram example
For example, if you’re as large as Adidas, you will want to have multiple Instagram accounts so users can find exactly what they want whether they are simply following you or making a purchasing decision.

Luckily with Sprout Social, you can manage comments, hashtags and posts from multiple Instagram accounts in one feed. This cuts down the back-and-forth that still comes with the native platform when you want to manage conversations on Instagram.

6. Using Instagram as Your Business Site

Another Instagram trend gaining ground is using your feed as a website. More businesses are posting images of all their products and simply giving instructions with the link in their bio to make the purchasing decision.
This trend makes it easy for potential buyers to share and repost something to their own feed or @mention to their friends who might be interested. Suddenly, each purchasing page is its own post where people can send others or repost to their own feeds.
A photo posted by Stance (@stancesocks) on
Small businesses are finding success in this tactic. And by pairing social media efforts with an Instagram management tool like Sprout Social, business owners can see which hashtags or posts are receiving the most engagement.

Additionally, Instagram comments can be sent to your single-stream inbox with all your other social accounts so you can keep track, monitor and quickly respond to anyone who has a question.


demo of sprout smart inbox

Onward Trendsetters

No matter which trend you want to use, it’s smart to stay current with what your audience is doing on social media. Marketers are constantly looking for ways to reach their audience more effectively and by following these Instagram trends, you’ll have a leg up in the race to get your content seen.
Have any Instagram trends you’re seeing on the platform? Feel free to leave a comment below!