The move is the latest step by Instagram to bolster its Snapchat-like Instagram Stories feature.

Look out, there’s yet another way for retailers and brands to share live videos via social media.

Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram today rolled out a new update to its Snapchat-like Instagram Stories feature, which let users and brands post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

To “go live” a retailer swipes right from his feed to open the camera, taps the Start Live Video button and then can share the video for up to an hour. When the feed is live, the merchant can pin a comment for everyone to see or turn comments off altogether. When a brand a consumer follows starts a live story, the consumer will see “Live” under the merchant’s profile photo in the stories bar.

Instagram says it plans to roll out the live video feature in the next few weeks.

The move is in line with Facebook’s growing focus on video—and live video in particular. A number of retailers, including Birchbox and Jewelry TV use Facebook’s live video tool, which is called Facebook Live. Birchbox is No. 202 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide and JTV is No. 207. For more on how e-retailers are using Facebook Live, see this story from the November issue of Internet Retailer magazine.

advertisement
Favorite