Participating in social media is a must for building brands these days, and while Facebook and Twitter are the common platforms to partake in, Instagram is on the rise as a major tool for where social media users spend a significant portion of their time.
People don’t access the internet the same way they used to 10 years ago. With mobile media surpassing online media consumption for the first time, most mobile media activity comes through an application. And the data specifically surrounding the Instagram app is staggering.
According to an article in Fast Company, there are over 100 million active users, 1.6 billion likes, 40 million uploaded photos and 20 billion shared photos per day on Instagram. If your business is targeting millennials, the numbers are even better since Generation Y smartphone users spend an astonishing 439 minutes per month on the photo app.
So the question is why is Instagram so popular? The answer is simple: Instagram is an easy and convenient way to share stories, reactions and experiences through photos. For businesses, it’s a way for consumers to window shop—to get a taste of your brand—and easily share your products and services with others. In other words, Instagram is unique to other types of content because it visually highlights storytelling. Not to mention, Instagram has a newsfeed similar to Facebook’s, but the photo app’s is even better since 100% of Instagram posts appear on a consumer’s newsfeed whereas Facebook’s feed doesn’t necessarily show all the posts on a page a fan follows. Instagram also has the benefits of Twitter with the use of hashtags to target brands to people who are interested in your specific market instead of wasting efforts on those who are indifferent.
As Instagram continues to rapidly grow—there were 50 million new members in the app’s first six months, 200 million users in 2013 and 300 million users in 2014—the key lesson to take away is if you’re not on Instagram, you’re missing out on a valuable marketing opportunity.
