How Businesses Are Using Instagram
On it’s website, Instagram claims to be “photo sharing reinvented” and, in our opinion, it is living up to its claims. It is doing this by changing the way people approach photography from their mobile phones and by encouraging social connections between users at Instagram Meetups. Now, businesses are catching on to Instagram’s potential use as a marketing tool.
Besides its photography capabilities, one of the best things about Instagram is that it is inherently social. Users can connect with friends not only within the application but also on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. As a result, users and businesses alike are able to easily share their work (including product images) with their entire audience.
Many people use Instagram for purely personal purposes to capture moments in their lives and share them with friends. Naturally, some of these moments involve the brands they love. Whether the photo subjects involve drinking a certain beverage, standing outside of a store, or wearing an article of clothing, brands are often prevalent in these photos. Companies such as Levi’s and Kate Spade are using this aspect of Instagram to highlight the ways that their products are used in everyday life.
Combining Facebook’s tag feature and Twitter’s hashtag, Instagram launched its hashtag feature in January. Businesses are using this feature to their advantage by creating hashtag campaigns that enable users to identify their Instagram photos with a hashtag. The use of hashtags creates an RSS feed of all the photos tagged similarly. For example, the energy drink Red Bull has developed an Instagram campaign revolving around the use of the hashtag #redbullwinter. When photos are posted with this hashtag, Red Bull reviews them and chooses a winning image for each day.
Instagram brand campaigns don’t tend to follow a specific formula, simply because there isn’t yet one to follow. As businesses continue to explore and develop their Instagram campaigns, we will no doubt see some interesting uses of this application.