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Instagram Broadcast Channels
Instagram has been trying new ways to help creators strengthen relationships with their audiences, and one of the ways is through Broadcast Channels.
This is a way for creators to invite their followers and stay connected with them, through direct messaging. But how do Instagram Broadcast Channels work?
What are Broadcast Channels?
As mentioned, broadcast channels are a way for creators to communicate with their followers, via direct messaging.
Anyone who follows the creator will be able to see this broadcast and can interact with messages by adding a reaction or voting in a poll.
Creators can send text, images, and videos through these channels, as a quick and easy way to inform their audience about upcoming news, changes, or other information they think their audience will enjoy.
How Instagram Broadcast Channels work
This feature is relatively easy to access, however, you need to have access to the channel link in order to view these messages.
Read below to learn how to join a broadcast channel, as well as how to create one.
How to join an Instagram broadcast channel
To join a broadcast channel, you first need to follow the profile of the creator who has the channel. You can also find a broadcast channel from a link inside a creator’s Story sticker or from the link in their bio.
After following the account, you can simply select “Join broadcast channel” and immediately you will see all the messages sent to the channel.
This channel will be available inside your direct messaging, under the Channels tab, next to the Primary, General, and Requests sections. You will be able to see all your joined channels in this tab.
Beyond interacting with the messages, users can also share the link to broadcast channels, for their friends to join. Keep in mind that this feature is only visible inside the mobile app, and is not accessible via the desktop version.
After subscribing to a channel, you will receive a notification every time new content is added. You can choose to mute the notifications, turn off notifications completely, or leave the channel at any time.
Here is an example of a broadcast channel, from Mark Zuckerberg himself:
How to create a broadcast channel
For those creators that want to build their own channels, they first will need to request access. To do this, first head to Direct Messaging and locate the icon to create a new message, represented by a pen and paper.
Choose Create broadcast channel and from here you will enter a channel name, choose the audience for your channel, and choose if you want the channel to show on your profile.
Tap on Create broadcast channel again and you will be able to see your channel inside Direct Messaging, under the Channels tab.
How to invite others to join your channel
When you first create your channel, your followers will receive a notification, inviting them to join your channel. Broadcast channels allow a large number of people to join your channel, unlike Instagram group chats.
You can invite other people to join in a few different ways:
- Share the invite link to your channel. This can be found when clicking on the channels name, at the top of the messages. Creators can generate a new link at any time, however, this link can’t be turned off.
- Share the channel to your Stories. With this, you can add the link to your broadcast channel inside of your stories, to reach a larger audience.
- Share a message from the broadcast channel to your story. To do this, tap and hold the message and then choose Share to Story. Those that view your story can tap the image of the message and find your channel.
In the next few months, Instagram plans to add more features including inviting another creator to the channel and collecting questions from users.
Instagram broadcast channels need to follow Instagram’s Community Guidelines and any user can report the broadcast channel or creator if the content violates these terms.
What do you think about this feature? Let us know in the comments below!
For those who want to learn more about how to market themselves on the social network, here is a marketing guide to Instagram, from us here at Metricool.