INSTAGRAM INTRODUCES BROADCASTING CHANNELS

Instagram is introducing a new way for content creators to communicate with followers with Broadcasting Channels, a new one-to-many messaging tool that allows creators to directly message their followers and encourage a more personal level of engagement.

Broadcasting Channels allow content creators to connect to their followers in a text-like format. So, rather than requiring followers to stay up-to-date with the latest news, events, and commentary via posts, creators can use Broadcasting Channels to send direct messages to their content base. Broadcasting Channels will support all the same features you would expect from Meta’s Facebook Messenger, enabling creators to keep their followers in-the-know via text, photo, video, voice notes, and polls. Allowing creators to send polls, photos, and messages directly to their followers in a text-like format aims to provide a more personalized feel to follower engagement and enable creators to more meaningfully connect to and receive direct feedback from their followers.

Eventually, the tool will also allow creators to invite additional collaborators into a Channel in order to discuss upcoming collabs with their shared follower bases, collect questions for Q & A segments, get feedback from fans, and more.

Broadcasting Channels is currently in the testing phase and therefore only available to select content creators, but as development of the tool progresses it will become available to all creators. Once you gain access to a Broadcasting Channel, all you would have to do is set it up from your Instagram inbox and send out the one-time notification to followers inviting them to join your Broadcasting Channel. The channel can be set to “all followers” or made available for paid subscribers only.