TechCrunch: Instagram is Testing a New Way for Celebrities and Influencers to Identify Their Sponsored Posts

Instagram announced it is working on a new feature that will change the way influencers tag their advertisements on the platform this week. According to a recent TechCrunch article , the photo sharing app is creating a standardized format that will make it clearer when a user is posting something that is paid for by an advertiser.

Not to be confused with Instagram ads created by businesses, influencer marketing is most commonly known for celebrities being paid to post content promoting products for brands. While brands and businesses are big fans of this approach, it creates blurred lines for transparency and how users must disclose they are posting an ad.

With the new feature, users can tag a brand as the sponsor of the post. This will show at the very top of the post where usually a location appears.

“People are building amazing businesses on Instagram all over the world, at all sorts of scale,” Porch said. And those users are “looking for ways to be super transparent with their followers when they have a partnership.”