marketing agency winchester

Social Networks Explained – Instagram

6 April 2017

Adam Richards

Managing Director
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Instagram started life in 2010 and grew rapidly, gaining over 100 million active users less than two years later. It was so popular, that Facebook acquired the company in 2012 for a reported $1 billion. In December 2016 Instagram stated that it has over 600 million active users, a huge market for businesses to get their brand in front of.

So, what is Instagram?

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In its most simplistic sense it is a social networking app which allows users to share pictures and videos with their friends.  Whilst the basic premise of Instagram is sharing photos, it’s popularity came from its photo editing functionality. Once a user snaps a photo there is a variety of Instagram filters which can transform an ordinary photo into something much more spectacular. Users can connect their Instagram account to other social networking sites, enabling them to share uploaded photos to those sites. Whilst you can access Instagram from a computer, you can only upload and share photos or videos from your phone.

Like Facebook or Twitter, you have a profile and a news feed and when you post a photo or video it will be displayed on these. Other users who follow you will see your posts in their own feed. Likewise, you’ll see posts from other users who you choose to follow. So you might be wondering what you need a separate app for sharing photos?  One reason for Instagram’s popularity is its simplicity. Rather than focusing on a lot of different features, Instagram has only one core feature, which makes it especially easy to share photos and see photos from the people you follow.

So how does Instagram benefit businesses?

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Instagram is such a visual platform, it cuts through the clutter and lets your products speak for themselves. Instagram gives companies an ideal opportunity to build an entire visual identity around their company, helping audiences to understand and connect with you on a much deeper level. Your customers can get an insight into your business giving your business a personality and encouraging customer participation.

Take for example, Joe Wicks aka the Body Coach who joined Instagram in 2013 to get more clients for his personal training business. Rather than posting just photos of his business, he made videos of him at home cooking and showing people how easy it was to make his recipes and making people buy into his personality. He now has over 1.7million followers and gained the attention of publishers. His book “lean in 15” book was the third bestselling book of the year in 2016. Quite the success for someone just wanting to get more clients.

Waypoint is a Winchester marketing company specialising in delivering marketing strategy, content development and lead generation. For more information please get in touch at  info@waypointdigitalmarketing.com or call 01962 862760.

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