The rise of Instagram.
Why?
Since 2010, Instagram has proven to be the fastest growing social media platform. It has a user base of around 300 million and is set to grow even more. So why is this seemingly simple app growing so fast? Well it really all comes down to creativity, Instagram has found new ways to share content on its platform and make the user experience more seamless. For example, Instagram stories were launched to rival Snapchats, allowing users to provide disappearing images or videos.
Sounds simple, right? Well, that’s because it is. Instagram now has more leverage over all of its users who may have been using Snapchat alongside its own app, reducing the need to use both and funneling these users to its own services.
This aggressive tactic has paid off as Instagram has overtaken Snapchat in users. Instagram stories also encourage more content sharing and give your app a chat element, allowing it to compete with all other direct messaging platforms. Innovation like this is the reason for the sudden growth of Instagram.
What is all this fuss?
Instagram is the perfect app for sharing content through visual images. Its audience is young, educated and very fond of shopping. This makes content creative, exciting, and fast. It has a different feel to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, with a focus on images rather than words. However, studies have shown that, like Facebook, it is used on a daily basis, leading to a highly active and loyal user base.
This ability to capture a younger, more creative audience is ringing alarm bells for major companies looking to advertise on social media. With high usage, there is sure to be a higher interest in in-app advertising. However, the competition will be ripe, and companies will have to find creative ways to compete with their rivals in the visual world of social media.
How can it be used for marketing?
Of course, if you want to use this to market your business or a product, you need to consider how. This is a visual platform and therefore products are generally easier to market than services. But services are not impossible to promote on the app, finding exciting ways to bring your service to life will catch the attention of the Instagram user.
Hashtags are used frequently on Instagram and staying on top of trends or even starting one of your own is a sure way to attract an audience, similar to Twitter. However, one must be careful to match the hashtag to the visual content it provides, so it is not as simple as other apps that use this technique.
Instagram is predominantly a mobile app, so content needs to be easy to read and continually updated for a mobile data hungry demographic. Only new and fresh content will attract attention.
Finally, Instagram stories are a great way to personally engage with your audience and are only 24 hours long. Stories should be used to keep potential customers updated daily about your business and reveal behind-the-scenes content so the user feels like they’re a part of the business.
Instagram can be used to market just about anything, with a creative mind and a committed team, you can create quite a buzz around your brand!
The future
With a young and educated audience using the app on their mobiles every day, sustained growth and user loyalty can only be predicted. There will be more and more opportunities to use this app for commercial purposes and this writer’s advice is to jump in while it’s hot. It’s only going to get bigger, so get in on the market before it gets even more crowded.