Instagram is a place where businesses, creators, and people constantly share what they love. It’s also where invaluable partnerships happen. Sometimes, these partnerships may be troublesome. To avoid such a scenario, Instagram defines branded content & paid partnership.
In the past few months, Instagram adopted a new e-commerce eligibility requirement and authenticity measures. The e-commerce eligibility aimed to help businesses better connect to their audience. While the authenticity measures aimed to lift global trust on the platform. Today, Instagram clearly lays down what counts as branded content and paid partnership.
Branded Content
For creators, Instagram’s branded content is anything that promotes a product or a service. That is, regardless of the creator is given a gift or paid to create or share content. The same goes for content promoting multiple products and services.
For brands and businesses, collaboration with creators or media partners to create or promote content falls as branded content. This, again, is regardless of whether you pay the creator or media partner or simply gift them.
Paid Partnership
A partnership is very important to Instagram. It’s critical to maintain trust in the community. Thus, Instagram urges businesses, brands, and creators to be transparent in disclosing partnerships. A branded content will display “paid partnership with.” Creators and media partners can simply note if it was a paid partnership or it was a gift on your feed text, Stories, or videos. Mention the collaborator’s name and be upfront in saying it’s a partnership.
Instagram defines branded content & paid partnership as of 25 November 2020.
Implications for Marketers:
As Instagram defines branded content and paid partnership, it’s clear that the platform aims to promote transparency. For marketers, this is an important step to increasing engagement. People want to connect with something human ever since. Being transparent with a partnership highlights the social nature of a human being and attracts the Instagram community.
