17 August 2018
Making Your Social Media ‘Shoppable’, Part 2: Tagging Products in Instagram
A couple of weeks ago I introduced you to Madeit’s new export feature, and how to use this in conjunction with Facebook Catalogs to
create a Facebook shop that makes use of the Madeit checkout create a Facebook shop that makes use of the Madeit checkout. Now that you’ve got your catalog all set up, and you know how to keep it current, let’s look at some of the other fabulous things you can do with it…. like making your Instagram posts shoppable!
Why is this exciting? As Instagram only allows you to have one live link in your profile, converting followers into buyers has always been a bit of a challenge.
If someone saw one of your products in a post and wanted it, they’d have to click on your profile, click on the link to your store, and navigate to the right product.
Or you had to constantly update your profile link to direct followers to the appropriate store page, but what about people who want to buy something from an older post?
Now, with shoppable Instagram posts, anyone who sees one of your products in an image on Instagram can see the little shopping bag icon that tells them straight away, yes, they can buy this awesome handmade creation.
With just one tap of the image they can see pricing information for every tagged product in the image, and a second tap on one of these price hotspots will direct them to a full product description with a Call To Action that links them straight through to the product page in your store. From there, they just add to cart and pay for their order.
So, now for the nuts and bolts about how to get this happening in your Instagram account!
Setting Up Shoppable Posts on Instagram
1. Use the Madeit Export feature to create a Facebook Catalog with all your current listings (see my previous blog post for instructions on how to do this)
2. Ensure you're using the latest version of Instagram, and if you're still using a personal account, upgrade your Instagram account to a Business account:
a. In your Instagram profile, click on the three dots in the top right corner to view your settings.
b. Click on Account
c. Select ‘Switch to business account’
3. Once you’ve done steps 1 and 2, Instagram will process your account and in a few days you’ll see a notification message at the top of your Instagram account like the one below. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button.
5. Click the button to continue
6. On the Products page you’ll see a list of all your current Facebook catalogs. Link your catalog to your Instagram account by selecting the one you created from your Madeit export file and click ‘Done’ in the top right corner.
Tagging Products in Instagram
Now that your Instagram is all set up to create shoppable posts, you can start tagging your products in images.
You can tag product in existing posts, however you can’t tag people and products in the same image (but you can still tag other accounts in your post captions and still tag products in the image).
To start tagging your products in your existing posts,
1. Edit your post as you normally would to make caption changes:
a. Click on the post.
b. Click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Edit.
2. In the bottom left corner of the image, select the ‘+ Tag’ icon
3. Select ‘Tag Products’
4. Tap on a product in the image that you want to tag (click where you want the product information to display).
5. Type the Madeit item number, or the product title into the search bar. As you type, the list of products from your Facebook Catalog will update to show you only relevant products.
6. Click on the product in the list that corresponds with the product in the image.
7. Now you’ll be able to see your product tag as it will appear in your post. If you’re not happy with it, you can click on it once, then click the cross icon in the top right of the tag to remove the tag.
8. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for any other products in the same image.
9. Click ‘Done’ in the top right corner to finish tagging the image.
10. Click ‘Done’ again to save your changes and finish editing your post.
To tag products in your posts as you create them, simply create the post as usual, and when you reach the screen where you type your caption, just below the normal ‘Tag people’ option, you’ll see that there’s a new option to ‘Tag products’.
Click on this and then follow steps 4 to 9 above and then continue as normal to complete your post.
Your Instagram Shop
Once you’ve made 9 of your Instagram images shoppable, you’ll see a new Shop heading just above your Instagram feed.
Clicking on this link will show users all your shoppable posts in a separate feed, like your very own Instagram shop.
If you’re using a post scheduling tool, I haven’t found one yet that allows you to schedule posts with tagged products (probably because the scheduling tools would need to get access to your Facebook Catalogs). If your scheduler gives you an option to schedule posts for manual posting, select that option for product posts so you can tag your products as you share them to Instagram. Alternatively, you can let them auto-post and regularly go back over your feed to tag your products.
And that’s it. You’ve got shoppable Instagram!
Words by:
Editor,
Louise (a.k.a. “Mrs Madeit”)
Wordsmith, art & craft enthusiast, and grand-visionary.
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This was great and very easy to follow but was just wondering is there a waiting period for Instagram to connect to the catalogue before you can start tagging your products. I have set everything up but still not able to tag.
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