Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched four years ago It is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking platform that enables its users to take pictures and videos and share them. As well as photo sharing capabilities, users are also able to record and share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.
In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. This is typical behaviour from the Social giant but also gives a lot of credibility to the platform. Over 90% of the 200 million on Instagram are under the age of 35, which makes it an attractive platform for many fashion, entertainment, and media brands focused on that age bracket. If your potential clients fall into this category then it is a must have in your Social Toolbox.
As the platform is entirely tablet and smart phone based (at least for creation purposes) it makes it a stand out site compared to say Twitter, there is also no limit on the number of caption characters.If you want to use Instagram for commercial purposes you can access your account from a desktop or Laptop.
My view is it’s a good marketing opportunity for certain brands but it definitely requires time and effort in order to build a following. There is still huge growth in this social network as younger users continue to adopt to it and there are definite opportunities to be had on Instagram in getting your business noticed and as a result build a loyal customer base, drive traffic to a website etc.
As with any company investment into building a presence on a social platform, it is vital that the return on investment is tracked and measured. Good website analytics will be the acid test.
We are happy to advise on how you could use Instagram.
