Meta-owned Instagram on Wednesday started rolling out a new Maps experience globally that would let people discover popularly tagged locations around them. Among other things, Instagram's maps feature could boost the discovery of local small businesses on the photo-sharing platform by allowing people to filter the locations by specific categories such as restaurants, cafes and beauty salons.
"People can also find relevant locations on the map when searching certain hashtags. The feature was launched in Japan a year ago, and has been globally rolled out today," the company said in a statement.
People are naturally in discovery mode when they open Instagram and they come to the platform to discover new places and businesses around them. For businesses, this discovery leads to more than just a connection point -- it translates into business impact and sales.
As per a Meta-commissioned online survey by GFK, 96 per cent of the surveyed people said that they discover brands and products online. Of these, 83 per cent said they typically discover them on a Meta platform. The dynamic, searchable maps help people discover popular locations and see what’s happening nearby via tagged posts, stories, and guides shared by the Instagram community.
How to use Instagram Maps?
- Discover a new place by tapping location tags in Feed or Instagram Stories content.
- Search the name of a city, neighbourhood, or place in Explore. Hashtag search is also available for local hashtags (for example #newdelhi).
- Previous stories you've posted that include a location sticker can also be viewed via maps in the Stories archive.
- Browse recent stories, top posts, and relevant guides of tagged locations to learn more.
- Filter by location categories to narrow your search.
- Save to a collection to revisit in the future.
- Share places via direct message to friends or groups.
- Use location tags or stickers in your content and it will appear on the map (if your profile is public).