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The Instagram Graph API was announced back in 2018, but now the tool is up and running. In our article, we discover how the tool affects brands that use engaging posts on social media for business promotion.
Instagram is a photo-sharing application that within 10 years has stolen the scene and turned out to be the most well-liked app for photos dissemination. From 2016, the number of Instagram active users worldwide has doubled and in 2021 reached 1 billion, according to Statista.
With such an audience reach, Instagram today is not just an application for sharing photos of your breakfast or a funny video with cats. Instagram marketing tools allow this platform to be a real market, a place suitable for making business and money. That is why it seems a good idea to use Instagram features as a means to develop your online business.
In 2018, Instagram closed its public API to protect user privacy and replaced it with the more limited Graph API. As a result, users were faced with the need to convert Instagram to business account to use the new API to collect data. To manage a community it was also required to change Instagram account to business.
What is the new Graph API? An API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for applications to interact with Instagram, allowing them to create functions for scheduling, commenting, and analytics.
New Instagram API allows professional Instagram users (businesses and creators) to manage their accounts through your app. It lets you retrieve and post media, manage and reply to comments, find media that @mentioned a user, find media with hashtags, and get basic metadata and metrics from other Instagram Business users and Instagram contributors.
The API Instagram update brought several features that can be used as powerful social media marketing tools to promote your brand:
Getting basic data about other Instagram Business users and contributors;
Instagram Graph API allows publishing IG Media Objects on behalf of Instagram Business IG Users. Publishing media objects occurs in two stages: first, a media object container is created, and then it is used to publish the media object.
You can only publish content on IG Business accounts. The number of publications using the API is limited to 25 within 24 hours. The images can only be in JPEG format. Stories, product tags, and branded content tags are not supported.
With the Instagram Graph API, you can retrieve, reply to, delete, hide, make visible, and enable or disable comments on IG Media objects owned by app users;
Search for publicly available IG Media items tagged with specific hashtags.
You can request a maximum of 30 unique hashtags on behalf of your Instagram Business or Contributor account every seven days. Once requested, the hashtag is counted towards the limit for seven days. Subsequent requests for the same hashtag will not count towards the limit and will not change the starting point of seven days from the first request for that hashtag;
The Instagram Graph API allows you to get social interaction metrics for IG Users and their IG Media objects. The values for each metric are calculated as per API request.
Only organic interaction metrics are specified in the API. Interactions with ads containing a media object are not counted. The data is stored for 2 years and you can request stat data only for one user at a time;
Identifying captions, comments, and IG Media objects that are tagged or @mentioned with an Instagram Business account or author account name;
An access token is necessary. Group API apps without a group admin access token can still access endpoints, but they will not include user IDs or usernames.
Instagram Graph API has some limitations as well:
One of the main novelties for ecommerce business owners’ results in the necessity to use an Instagram business account vs personal one in case they want to get access to all the expanded Instagram business account features. Accordingly, one has to turn on the Instagram profile Business if it is planned to be used as a source of images displayed on the store’s website.
However, it seems useful for business development as it gives a perfect opportunity to see who is engaging with your business on Instagram and start a powerful targeted social media campaign. Besides, starting from March 02, 2020, Instagram no longer provides access to its old API that has been previously used to show feeds from Personal Instagram accounts.
It is another impulse to start benefiting from the features that can boost your ecommerce business, especially if you run a Magento-based web store.
NEKLO experts are convinced that using social media to gain new customers or improve brand awareness is the right thing to do. For Magento-based ecommerce website owners, we have created top social media extensions. Keeping in mind the Graph API peculiarities, we have created our Magento extension for Instagram Feed.
Our extension enables you to display the posts from several Instagram accounts linked to the same Facebook Business Page. Providing a rich variety of features, it functions through the latest Graph API and empowers you to feel free while integrating Instagram posts to your website.
It’s you to decide where and how to place the widget, how many posts to show and what additional information your customers will get. These extensions will live Instagram API changes, giving your business new opportunities to expand and making your clients more satisfied with your store.
Don’t forget that today content is the King, and your social networks should be filled with quality content. In our article, we suggested 7 ways to create content for social media profiles.
Instagram has long been referred to as a simpler version of the marketplace. Influencers, shops, cafes and restaurants – everyone is trying to sell something and Instagram tools for marketing make this platform a preferred one among the ecommerce business owners.
NEKLO supports the desire of online merchants to promote on social media platforms. Ask our Magento-certified specialists for consultation in case you have any questions or contact us through the form on our website and let’s overcome all ecommerce challenges together!
US-based and operating globally, NEKLO spearheads digital transformation initiatives for businesses worldwide. We deliver software solutions complying with your market and legislation.
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