What Will The Instagram Of The Future Look Like?
We look into our crystal ball...
What’s Instagram?
If you’re reading this blog, and you’re seriously wondering what Instagram is, perhaps the more important question you should actually be asking yourself is ‘have I been living under a rock for the past few years?’. Okay, so perhaps it’s not quite that dramatic. At least you know what Facebook is… right? But as Instagram is set to rise more and more, it’s actually now firmly becoming one of the major players in the game.
As a quick recap of what you (probably) already know, Instagram is a social sharing app available across a multitude of devices. Users can quickly and easily take and upload images, choosing to apply filters where required in order to change the look and feel of the same picture. For example, users can choose to change the brightness, warmth and saturation, rotate the image or even make it black and white. Much like the traditional ‘polaroid’ pictures of the print generation, Instagram crops images into a square shape. Since its launch in 2010, it has grown substantially - there are now an estimated 200million users, a figure which has grown almost 25% since 2013. That same year, in June 2013, Instagram launched a video platform to successfully rival Vine. Its 15 second video capability to Vine’s 6 seconds has really taken off.
In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1Billion. Since this high profile takeover, changes have included the aforementioned video addition, as well as Instagram Direct in late 2013, allowing people to directly communicate with others with photos shared just to the people they specify. The design has also become slicker in recent months - most of the previous models have also allowed users to add borders, but in place of this, Instagram has instead given users more control over the filters, which in turn gives more creative scope. Of course, those looking for borders, or even the ability to create collages, photo reels or additional filters can use an abundance of apps designed to complement Instagram’s sharing facilities perfectly.
Who Uses Instagram?
As of 2014, it has been reported that there are 200 million users worldwide. In terms of the demographics, the split between men and women varies greatly between countries, with men being more likely to have a very large amount of followers, and women more likely to engage with top brands.
An estimated 65% of leading brands have an account on the site, and 12% of Instagram users naturally share images as consumers of products or services per month. There’s a lot of scope for businesses. Some good examples of Instagram done right include Starbucks, who use the services to reach out to people with the good causes they support, as well as Red Bull, who intersperse contests with live action shots to really grab people’s attention. Unsurprisingly, it’s the brands with unique, or creative angles with a level of user generated content that tend to be the most successful. Just like other social networks, it helps to personalise the brand because it can literally show the face of the company. Some businesses have even taken to the network just to showcase seemingly trivial things – like the office pet. But as a visually fun network, if this works, then so be it!
Whilst the average user doesn’t necessarily have any reason to desire to amass large amounts of followers and photo likes, Instagram has arguably given rise to a certain element of narcissism which allows the average user to ‘brand’ themselves accordingly. It’s not surprising that the network can often be described as a micro-blogging platform, allowing those who use it to literally post snapshots of his or her life – from incessant ‘selfies’, to their dinner, their clothing, their friends, travel spots, their cats, and anything else they feel like sharing, usually spaced out throughout the day or week instead of all at once. Some of the more frequent users have even aspired to ‘Instafame’ – something which basically means they’ve ‘won’ a non-existent Internet popularity contest. This can be used to marketer’s advantage though, so keep this in mind!
There are many ways to grow your follower count, the most popular of which is by using relevant hashtags. These allow people outside of your direct networks to comment and like your pictures, and easily find them. Other ways to increase likes include external promotion, tags involving #FollowForFollow (tip: never use these unless you’re 15) as well as paying for followers. Community management apps like Iconosquare can also help people grow their following and understand the demographics behind their existing engagement.
Of course, it’s not only attention hungry teenagers who can exploit Instagram’s hashtag function. Brands, concerts, bands and loads of others can make the most of these to their advantage, encouraging fans and the average consumers to post. Charities have also done similar things, often started by users. A prime example was the #NoMakeUpSelfie earlier in 2014 – the campaign was started by an unknown person, and people were encouraged to post a picture of themselves with no make-up on, and then make a donation to Cancer Research UK. Despite criticism, the social campaign was actually very successful, as the images, along with the subsequent interaction raised awareness and promoted donations of £8million in just 6 days, leading the charity themselves to end up backing it.
What Are The Problems Instagram Faces?
Instagram’s current privacy settings at present come in only two default standards – private and public. There is no way to specify that you would like one post to be seen by everyone, and others only by some (unless you count Instagram Direct). This is a bit like Twitter, but unlike Facebook.
People have also voted the network as the ‘most depressing’. It’s understandable – the majority of people only want to share their happiest moments, and so they can smugly collate these into one place for others to be envious! It’s often a distorted perception of a person that’s being beamed out, though – a picture doesn’t really say a thousand words, after all. There’s often not a lot of context. However, yet again, this can also be made use of by brands, who of course, only want their products reflected in a positive light!
On another note, Instagram has come under fire a few times in the past, often accused of ‘double standards’. For example, several accounts have been closed by the company, often for ‘violating standards’ when more popular accounts have been allowed to publish similar content without retribution. This has of course lead to criticism. Instagram also has a seedier side – whilst is doesn’t allow explicit or dangerous material to be posted (and so related hashtags will not work), many slip through the net. Images of self-harm have plagued the site in the past, and whilst the network can’t be blamed, it definitely created a space for a minority of less-than-healthy communities in addition to those just there for a bit of fun. The inevitable rise in self-esteem issues from all the posts of impossibly beautiful people can, however, be combatted with some clever branding – Dove’s ‘Love Your Body’ campaign springs to mind!
Fortunately, none of these issues can really be said to affect the way brands market themselves on the platform in a negative manner.
How Can Brands Manipulate Or Take Advantage Of Instagram?
This one’s a bit more of a tricky one than with say, Facebook. For example, on Facebook, we know that we need to design an actual strategy, to increase engagement with our posts. Buying likes is a huge no-no, because they will never engage, and therefore Facebook’s algorithm will bury your updates to people it may actually have been of interest to. But when it comes to brands paying for Instagram followers, the risks are far less clear cut. It’s a risky business – right now, it may not make that much difference, but as Instagram and Facebook alike will be undoubtedly looking for ways to monetise the network, it could come back to haunt you – no doubt engagement on these platforms is also a high indicator of how many of your followers can actually reach, in some respects. After all, the Facebook algorithm was designed by their parent company – Facebook themselves – after all.
In terms of how Instagram will most likely move to make money and advertise, it has always been difficult to say. Speculation had implied that by using the ‘explore’ function, which currently highlights popular images or accounts, brands could sponsor a prime position in this section of their target customers, much like on Twitter for sponsored posts. However, in late 2013, Instagram introduced advertising to their American market, albeit on a small scale to start off. As this represents only about 35 million of their 200million users, it’s not surprising that this will soon also come to the UK, Australia and Canada. At present, only selected brands can advertise anywhere, some huge examples being Ben & Jerry’s and Levi’s, both of whom have reported successes both in reach and brand awareness. Instagram says that you can hide ads they feel aren’t relevant to you, but will be using targeting much like on other platforms based on what you already follow. Speaking directly about this relatively recent move, they said: “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands”.
How Should My Brand Manage Our Community In The Meantime?
One thing you should do, is invest in some form of Instagram Analytics programme. Currently, this is not an integral feature of the application, and so you’ll have to visit an external source (such as Simply Measured) for a range of statistics such as performance, activity, engagement and audience. You’ll see which posts worked best, and you can benchmark your brand against competitors.
As you can’t currently promote an individual post like you can elsewhere, you’ll have to work extra hard to ensure relevance. Do the legwork, find out when the best times to post are, run a competitor analysis and increase your presence elsewhere. Post interesting stuff, and work hard to make the feed an interesting one that people will want to follow. Hashtags aren’t only used to promote yourselves – remember, your community will also use hashtags and you should take time to search any relevant ones to increase your awareness. For example, people may already be talking about you on there – interact with them! Something as basic as some good customer service can be enough to bring in repeat buyers.
Britain’s rollout is coming, though. Just this month, Instagram was quoted in speaking of the success of the US trial, which gave brands “in some cases, well above the ad industry’s average for performance.” They followed up by saying they wanted to introduce the same level of consideration and care to the global community, and “build on this momentum”. The future of Instagram is near.