Instagram Adds New Option to Pin Posts to Profile
As the battle of social media behemoths continues to rage on, we are seeing more updates being made across the board in an attempt to improve user experience, increase time on the platform and help influencers and every-day-users alike to engage their audience more.
Nowhere is this approach more apparent than on Instagram. This is clear in several recent updates ranging from a brand refresh to a complete change of focus from an image-first to a video-first platform.
Amongst these updates, we have seen a seemingly small change to how feeds can be managed, with the platform now allowing you to pin a limited number of posts to the top of your feed.
Although small, this update has the potential to drastically change users’ experiences on the platform and support those that want to consistently communicate key messages to those that visit their profile.
In this article, we will explore what this update means and tell you exactly how you can pin posts on your profile.
Pinning Posts: To Date
Until recently Instagram has not allowed users to manually manage their on-profile Instagram feed in any way. Instead, feeds were ordered in chronological order by default.
This has been a different approach to many other leading social platforms that allow a level of feed management via pinning. For example:
- TikTok allows you to pin your top three videos to the top of your feed
- Twitter allows you to pin a Tweet to the top of your profile
- Facebook allows you to pin posts to the top of your page
- Even LinkedIn allows you to pin posts to the top of groups
So, it is no big surprise that this is a feature that Instagram started testing in the past few months and have now rolled out across all users in a recent update.
Pinning Posts: New Approach
The recent update by Instagram that allows users to pin three of their favourite posts to the top of their feed is one which closely replicates the same functionality on TikTok. This is likely due to Instagram’s recent move to be more like TikTok by shifting focus from being a primarily photo-sharing app to being a video-first application.
Pinning functionality will be available both in your usual Instagram feed as well as in your dedicated Reels feed. This will offer users a great level of flexibility when it comes to arranging their feeds in a way that they believe most appeals to their target audience.
How to Pin Posts on Instagram
Pinning a post is a simple process. Just find the photo you want to pin in your feed, select the three dots in the top right-hand corner of that image and finally tap ‘Pin to Your Profile’.
You can only pin three pieces of content to your feed. When you try and select a further piece of content to pin after this you will be asked whether you want to replace the oldest pin with the new pin.
Instagram Pinnable Posts: Summary
Instagram is serious about improving its users’ experiences and making it easier for creators to organise their feeds to make them more engaging to their followers. As the platform continues to compete with TikTok’s explosive growth we will likely have more developments in the coming months.