Brands and creators work hard to stand out on Instagram and build their follower count. Even then, it can be a struggle to compete with the algorithm and make sure that your followers are actually seeing the content you post.
Instagram Broadcast Channels are an easy solution, allowing brands and creators to carve out a dedicated space where they can share messages and updates to their most engaged followers.
This post covers all the things you need to know about Instagram Broadcast Channels:
- What are Broadcast Channels on Instagram?
- How to create a Broadcast Channel
- How brands can use Broadcast Channels
- Tips for successful Broadcast Channels
Let's get started with some quick takeaways about how Broadcast Channels work.
What are Broadcast Channels on Instagram?
Instagram Broadcast Channels are a public, one-to-many messaging tool designed to engage directly your followers. In Instagram’s words, they're a great way "to share messages like announcements, behind-the-scenes content and event details, or upcoming collaborations with others on Instagram."
Unlike Instagram notes, which is more of a personal tool for interacting with friends and connections, Broadcast Channels were designed specifically with creators in mind — but that doesn’t mean the tool isn’t valuable for brands and organizations as well.
To get you quickly up to speed, here are the most important things to know about Instagram Broadcast Channels:
- Availability: Broadcast Channels were originally available only to creators with 10K+ followers, but it looks like Instagram is slowly rolling out the tool to professional accounts in general, which includes businesses. It’s likely the 10K+ followers rule also applies to businesses. As of September 2024, some business accounts have access and some do not.
- Message types: Broadcast Channels support text-based messages, photos, videos, question cards and polls, and audio notes. You can also share your other Instagram content, like posts and Reels, or external links.
- Notifications: Channel subscribers will be notified of new messages via their Messenger inbox and a push notification (if they have them enabled).
- Audiences: You can create multiple Broadcast Channels under one Instagram account, allowing you to speak to different audiences on different topics. If you’re a creator with Subscriptions you can also create a channel for your paid subscribers only.
- Sharing: You can share your channel via a story, and pin a link in your Instagram bio.
- Collaborators: You can add collaborators to your channel, who can post content and moderate the community. Use this to facilitate "guest appearances" from influencers, creators, or other brands.
- Visibility: Unless you have a paid subscribers channel (only available to creators), any users can see the contents of your channel, but only those who join will be able to interact within the channel and get notifications about updates.
- Time limits: You can set time limits for your channel so that they only exist for a certain period. This is useful is you want to create content around a time-limited topic, such as seasonal content or the launch of a new product.
- Devices: Broadcast Channels are only available on the Instagram app. They will not appear on desktop.
How to create a Broadcast Channel
- Make sure you have an Instagram professional account. Right now, Broadcast Channels are limited to professional accounts and even then the feature is not available to everyone.
- Open Instagram and click the Messenger icon in the top right corner to open your DMs.
- Select the New message icon (pencil icon) in the top right corner.
- Tap Create broadcast channel.
- From here you can enter a name for your channel, choose an audience for your channel (if applicable), and choose when your channel will end (if applicable).
- Choose whether to pin your channel on your Instagram bio.
- Tap Create.
Your account’s followers will receive a one-time notification inviting them to join the channel. Only those who do join the channel will receive notifications for new messages, but all users (not just those who are invited) can view your channel’s content even without joining.
How brands can benefit from Broadcast Channels
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has said over and over again that a bulk of engagement on Instagram is happening inside of Messenger — Instagram's direct messaging feature. But brands have a hard time learning from and leveraging this engagement because it's happening behind closed doors. It's dark social.
Enter Broadcast Channels — aka how brands can slide into their followers' DMs.
Adoption is growing now that the feature is expanding to to Instagram business accounts. Here’s how some brands are using Broadcast Channels in their social media marketing strategy:
1. Build brand loyalty
Not all of your followers will join your channel, but those that do are likely highly engaged. This lets you identify your mega-fans — the people who are more likely to purchase and repurchase from your brand.
HR software brand Gusto rewards its channel subscribers with a monthly community contest.
There is so much to learn from this super-community, and if you reward them via your channel you can build major brand loyalty points.
2. Get product and audience insights
Polls are a core feature of Broadcast Channels, and they can act as so much more than engagement tools. With them you can survey your audience to learn more about their wants and needs, how they interact with your content, how they interact with your product and service, and more.
Beauty brand Supergoop gets audience insights with question cards on its channel.
This is a fast and easy way to generate feedback and insights that you can integrate into your content strategy and product development.
3. Run more effective promotional campaigns
Email is a crowded space, and open rates can plunge quickly during high-competition times like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That means your customers might be missing out on promotions.
Beauty brand Truly alerts its channels subscribers to upcoming sales (and shares all hard to find details).
Because Instagram DMs are such a popular messaging tool, Broadcast Channels help you promote sales, deals, and launches to a less saturated channel.
4. Test new content and strategy shifts
The direct nature of Broadcast Channels lets you test and validate tactics in your social media strategy, like new content types or campaigns. You can get a read on audience approval before spending time and money on a big rollout.
Beauty brand Clean Skin Club asks its channel subscribers what they want to learn about next — info they can plug into their upcoming content calendar!
4 Instagram Broadcast Channel strategies for brands
Once you’ve created your Broadcast Channel, you can leverage dedicated strategies to keep your subscribers engaged. Let’s look at the best strategies to help brands get the most out of this feature.
1. Reward your subscribers
If you want people to stick around and stay excited about your channel, give them something special! Share exclusive content that they can't find anywhere else, like bonus tips, early access to sales, or sneak peeks of what’s coming next. You can also run giveaways or offer discounts just for them.
Knotably Creative House, an online platform for creatives, shares guides and other goodies to its channel subscribers
The idea is to make your subscribers feel like VIPs who get extra value from being part of your channel — it’s a great way to keep them engaged and coming back for more. Plus, more people are likely to join your channel if there’s a clear benefit.
2. Use polls and other engagement features
Even though Broadcast Channels are a one-way messaging tool, there’s still plenty of room for interaction! Polls and question stickers are an easy way to get your audience involved. Not only does it make things more fun for them, but you can also use these tools to learn what they’re into, get feedback, and find out what they want to see from you.
Clothing brand Anthroplogie, toy company Lovevery, and nail polish brand Olive & June engage their channels with frequent polls and question cards.
It’s a win-win: they get to share their thoughts, and you get valuable insights. Plus, it helps build a sense of community and makes everyone feel more connected.
3. Add value to your existing content
Don’t just use your channel as a place to repost the same stuff you’re sharing on your feed.
While it’s a great idea to share your existing content to maximize its reach, make sure to add a little something extra that keeps your subscribers feeling engaged. That could mean expanding on a topic with more tips, sharing behind-the-scenes moments, or even creating content based on specific questions or requests from your followers.
The goal is to make your channel feel like a special space where people can get even more value than they would just scrolling through your feed.
4. Customize your channel
You can add a custom theme to your channel — a great opportunity to match the channel to your brand identity. Changing the background to something on-brand helps your followers recognize your channel and makes the experience a little memorable.
National Parks Guide customized their broadcast channel with an on-brand background that also makes their content focus unmistakeable.
You can also customize the pre-set emojis that subscribers can react to content with.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of content can you share in a broadcast channel?
Channel creators can share photos, text-based messages, audio notes, and polls and question cards, shared posts, along with sharing Instagram posts and Reels or external links.
Can members post in broadcast channels?
Only channel creators can post in broadcast channels. Members can read content shared by the creator, and they can react to individual messages. However, the channel creator can select collaborators to add content and moderate the channel.
What happens when users join a broadcast channel?
Users may be invited to join broadcast channels; they can also search for different broadcast channels to join, as they’re all public. Once you join, the broadcast channel will be added to your Instagram inbox, and you’ll see when new updates are shared. You can react, reply to polls, and share replies to response stickers. Other users may be able to see that you’ve joined the channel, even if they aren’t members.
