Instagram now lets all US users apply product tagging

Instagram is a place where users commonly flaunt their beautiful possessions, from makeup to clothes and more. This gave its parent company Meta the perfect opportunity to develop its e-commerce section, and it just keeps on improving. And while only influencers or creators could only tag business products in the post in the past, Instagram will now expand the function to all US users over the next few months.

“Scored a new pair of earrings from a small business you love? Tag the product in your Feed post so your friends and followers can learn more about the earrings and shop them,” Instagram told TechCrunch in an email. “People come to Instagram to share and discover trends and inspiration. Product tagging will make it possible for anyone to support their favorite small businesses, share how they styled their looks along with the products they used and more.”

According to Instagram, there are already 1.6 million people tagging at least one product per week on the platform even before this announcement. Making it accessible for all US users will mean a huge benefit for businesses who want exposure for their products without paying for advertisements. Even more, it will allow regular Instagram users to discover products effortlessly by simply following anyone.

For users who are new to product tagging, the process is quite simple. You only need to start with making a regular post with your photo featuring the product you want to tag. Click the “Next” button and select the “Tag people” option. From here, you need to tag the business first before proceeding to the “Tag Products” options. Once you’re there, you can now search for the specific product of the company you want to tag. You can do it on more than one product in each post, making your post a perfect marketing catalog-like image.

If you are one of the business owners tagged in one of the posts, you will receive a notification in the business tagged tab on your profile. You will also have the option to turn it on or off using your account settings. 

Instagram said that users and influencers who will do this won’t receive any commission from their product tagging posts. Nonetheless, select creators will probably be able to do so in the future as the company is currently testing an affiliate program.