I’m at 30,000 feet, headed to Seattle to participate in the Champions Summit put together by Microsoft. This year, I was selected as an Office Champion. I’m headed to learn more about products and services as part of the Office boutique as well as Windows.
With the advent of Windows 8 came apps which leads nicely into today’s topic of mobile social media applications that drive business.
Twitter and Facebook, definitely. No need to discuss those, right? Two applications come to mind outside of those two: Instagram and Pinterest. While I think Pinterest definitely has seen astronomical growth since its inception, I think the advent of Instagram serves for a better discussion since this was initially a mobile application that took off to great success.
These days businesses use Instagram almost the way that they initially used the web based Pinterest. To pique the interest of consumers. But more than that, it has become a way to further connect with consumers.
Bloggers use Instagram to share posts about their lives in a different way than Pinterest which in turn allows them to grow their following and gives products and brands that they represent further exposure. The ability to seamlessly share to Facebook and Twitter when posting to Instagram is also a great functionality that allows business to further expand their reach.
While someone might not be aware that a particular brand has an Instagram account, seeing it flow through their timeline as they are perusing Twitter further exposes them to the brand and products. There are small businesses that typically have an Etsy page for all of their creations but now can (and do) post pictures on Instagram directing their followers to buy or check out a particular product or service.
This gives businesses quick hits for both brand exposure and connection to new and existing clients. Businesses also benefit when their products are photographed by their consumers. Instagram has the ability for images to be tagged and a consumer can always mention the brand either by their Twitter handle or with a hashtag.
Contests abound on Instagram. While initially this was a mobile app only, you can now manage your account from a desktop (a feature previously unavailable). With the increase popularity of Instagram, we find a site like Statigr.am which gives you some great metrics regarding the images posted. A business is able to see the impressions (likes/comments) of a particular image and can track to see what does well with regards to exposure.
The popularity and importance of Instagram is evident by the fact that it was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion.
I think any business looking to garnish more business and connect more closely to their consumer (especially if they are offering a product) should definitely look into getting an Instagram account.
Tell me, do you think Instagram can drive business as a social media application?
Disclosure: this post is part of my course project at SNHU. For more information, please go to mySNHU page.
Sili,
You have great little blog going here. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Instagram’s impact on business growth. I personally love Instagram for it’s fun way of sharing personal photos, but think that it has been instrumental in getting consumers to post pictures of products they are using via instagram and tagging the company. I agree that Instagram’s success was shown when facebook decided to purchase the online tool. Instagram is definitely helping to drive business in a fun way for users to express themselves through pictures.
Hi Sili – I loved reading your post, mostly because I love Instagram! With Facebook being in the news more about the decline in their usage, I think Instagram is still thriving. I personally don’t have a Facebook account anymore, but I do have Instagram, Twitter, and a LinkedIn. I have seen on many websites now that they have a shortcut to all there social media pages and Instagram is coming up more and more and I think that is great! Tagging and posting pictures of their products gives the consumers a fun and exciting way to interact with the company and in return creating a long lasting relationship.
I don’t think Instagram is driving a lot of business due to the fact that there are no link capabilities. It makes it very difficult for a consumer to “read more” about the product. Seeing only a picture may not move the needle for conversation.
I love Instagram, however for companies who need to choose between one of two photo apps I think Pinterest is the better bet over Instagram. As you mentioned, Instagram can be a great way to promote a contest using hashtags. The biggest feature that Pinterest has that Instagram doesn’t is the ability to link back to your website (in Instagram you have to put your website in comment or your profile). Also, I think consumers who use Instagram think of it for personal use for the most part, following their friends mostly.
Pinterest was first to market so they may remain first choice for those businesses who have already have invested in social media campaign. As you pointed out, Instagram does not have a link back to feature like Pinterest, which makes Instagram more friend and family focused because most of don’t have a us do not have a web site to link back to except Facebook. I’m wondering is this just a me too app? And how many more will we see?
Sili,
Great post about the power and trends of social media. I personal have come to love Instagram. Something they do which draws me to use their App over the others is it allows me to post content to multiple sites at once. Just last night I was at the Magic Kingdom watching the lighting of Cinderella Castle and in three clicks I had posted a picture to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account. These are the types of things that Instagram is doing so much better then other other Apps.
Nice post, great way in making statements saying it with a photo an easy way for all to understand and respond.