Industry News


Instagram Allows Nearly Anyone to Tag Products Featured in Posted Photos

April 20, 2022

By Hillary K. Grigonis

Courtesy of Instagram

A new rollout on an Instagram tagging feature will allow more photos in feed posts to be tagged with products for sale. Instagram recently announced that public accounts in the U.S. can now tag products in their photos. The move gives the average Instagram user the ability to tag products in their posts, a feature that was previously only available to businesses with an Instagram Shop and creator accounts. The update is one of several recent changes that the platform has made to grow Instagram Shopping, which allows consumers to purchase products without leaving the Instagram app.

The ability to tag products is available to only public accounts in the U.S.—users with their account privacy set to private will not see these options. Users outside the U.S. also do not yet have the feature.

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But, the change brings the ability to tag products to the average Instagram user that wants to share a product with friends, family and followers. The announcement does not come with any sort of affiliate program that would allow the user sharing the product to earn money from any sales, however.

Tagging a product on Instagram works much like tagging a person. To start, users will tap the tag people option when creating a post. Then, in the search bar, type the brand of the product and tap the brand name under the products option rather than under the people option. Instagram will then direct users back to the photo, where they can tap on the product that’s in the photo then use the search to find the appropriate product to tag.

[Read: Instagram Subscriptions Could Be Paid Boost Photographers Need]

Preciously, only brands with an active online store and creator accounts could tag products. Product tags are popular in industries such as fashion, where influencers can share what they are wearing with their followers.

The announcement has generated concern, especially among photographers, that the feature will help turn more photos into advertisements, allowing the average user and not just the company themselves to share products in the news feed. Instagram’s newest features have focused on video and shopping tools as the social network expands increasingly beyond just photo sharing.

But, for users with an Instagram shop, the feature could get more eyes on products. While Instagram’s terms doesn’t allow the sale of services, some photographers and artists use Instagram Shopping to sell prints. There are a number of requirements, including having an existing shop outside of Instagram. For photographers that sell with Instagram Shopping, the update allows happy customers to a share a photo that can potentially get more views on that item.