Instagram program zooms in on social commerce

Visual social media network Instagram is taking a new step toward becoming a platform for commerce.



Instagram has launched a new program called Instagram Partners that is designed to help companies advertise on the social network. Each certified partner must have expertise in at least one of three defined areas: ad tech (buying and selling ads at scale), community management (managing comments and gaining consumer insights), and content marketing (sourcing and delivering content at scale).



Instagram advertisers can search for partners using metrics such as specialty area and country of operation. Some major names are included among the initial partners, including Adobe for ad tech, Salesforce Marketing Cloud for community management and content marketing; and Curalate for all three.



While Instagram Partners does not directly enable retailers to conduct transactions, features like managing and analyzing commentary and delivering content at scale are crucial elements of social commerce.



In addition, retailers including Barney’s New York have enabled direct shopping from Instagram images. Pinterest is making a serious effort toward becoming a full-fledged commerce platform with features like Buyable Pins and visual search, and it seems Instagram is not ready to cede the visually-driven commerce space just yet.