Using Custom Instagram Filters For Your Business
How do I make use of Instagram Effects for my Business?
We’re all familiar with the popularity of Instagram. With 2 billion monthly active users and 50% of those users scrolling through their feed each day, Instagram is the third most popular social media platform. So it comes as no surprise that many businesses choose to utilize this platform. If your business is still new to Instagram, here are a few tips to get you going.
As Instagram approaches its 10th year, you may be wondering what’s new? What features can help my business that I didn’t already know of? Custom Instagram filters!
Custom Instagram Filters
Instagram AR Effects or Instagram filters are a new way for businesses to gain a following on the platform. You may be wondering what an Instagram AR Effects is and how it differs from the Instagram filters we all know and love.
As we know, Instagrams preset filters change the quality of an image without actually adding any content to the image. This is useful for users trying to maintain certain branding throughout their feed. Custom Instagram filters are a great way to build on your brand aesthetic and provide you with an easy way to edit images right on the platform.
Instagram AR filters, AR standing for augmented reality, superimpose an interactive element into your images and are only used on Instagram stories. They work similarly to the Instagram face filters that we’re familiar with.
In order to find and use Instagrams filters, you’ll need to access the creator’s Instagram and swipe across to view and try the effect for yourself. There is also an “Effect Gallery” for you to discover new AR filters in. In the New Year, we saw the rise of two very popular AR filters, “2020 Predictions” and “What Disney Character are You?”. The creators of these AR filters saw their Instagram following increase by 93k and 620k respectively. Although this type of filter has been on Instagram for a while, it has only been available for people to custom create their own filters since August 2019. Our team have created our own custom Instagram filters which you can see an example of on the right.
How Can Instagram AR Filters Help My Business?
With one third of the most viewed Instagram stories being from businesses, there is a huge opportunity to expand your social media presence using AR filters. Many businesses have taken advantage of using the AR filters to connect with their audience in a fun and engaging new way. Like Coca Cola Poland:
Some brands even use this tool as a new way for customers to familiarise themselves with their products. For instance, a makeup brand may use a custom Instagram AR filter to show customers how their new lipstick line could look on them.
Here at Online Optimism, we have been using the AR filters tool ourselves with great success. The AR filters is called “NOLA Neighbourhoods”*. It has a rolodex of different neighborhoods here in our hometown of New Orleans, with the title “What New Orleans Neighborhood Are You?”. In just 7 days, our AR filter has reached over 700,000 impressions and over 6,600 shares. Whenever someone uses this AR filter, our name is placed at the top of the screen further promoting brand awareness.
Instagram is a highly engaging platform with highly engaged users. Users are ready and willing to engage with the creative aspect of the platform and Instagram filters is one way in which users can do so. There are a wide range of custom Instagram filters out there so ensuring that yours stick out from the crowd can be tough. Ideally there’s a level of virality that you want for your filter whether it be in your community, your industry or for a particular time of year. That is exactly how we approached the “Which NOLA Neighborhood Are You?” filter. We wanted to build a custom Instagram filter that we knew would resonate well with our local audience which is another consideration when creating an Instagram AR filter.
Custom Instagram AR Filter for Events
Utilizing a custom Instagram filter is a great way to promote an event. By including the event name and/or event details within the filter, you can begin to drum up excitement for that event. A great example is the Instagram filter on the right which is promoting the Olympics. Despite the event still being 1 year away, the Olympic committee still put out engaging filters for people to be reminded of this world-wide event. This type of marketing works on a smaller scale too.
A user who sees an AR filter will be reminded of the event and may also decide to use the same filter in their Instagram stories. This essentially causes a chain reaction and what can lead to custom Instagram filters going viral. While not every Instagram filter can and would go viral, one that is well designed and resonates well with your audience has every chance to go viral.
How Can I Create Custom Instagram Filters For My Business?
Now that Instagram has allowed for anyone to create their own custom filters, any business can create custom AR filters. Spark AR Studio is the tool used to create these filters, but does require some design and 3D modeling knowledge and familiarity with navigating the tool itself. Having already created custom Instagram filters here at Online Optimism, we’d love to help you create one for your businesses Instagram.
You can contact us here, or give us a call at 504-324-0073 to start the conversation!
