Instagram, an online photo and video-sharing social network, claims to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million active monthly users, and those users have uploaded some 16 billion photos in just over three years. Since it was purchased by Facebook in April 2012, Instragram has continued on a fervent growth trend, nearly doubling its number of active users in the last year.
Because of this growth, you might be wondering if utilizing this social network is a smart strategy for your business and if you should be devoting the same kinds of resources that you put into your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Instagram is different than other social networks, however, and it’s not right for every business or brand.
Here are three things to consider before jumping on the photo-sharing bandwagon:
Are your customers in Instragram’s demographics?
Everyone uses Facebook. Many, many people use Twitter and LinkedIn. Instagram is still niche, even if it belongs to Facebook.
In early 2013, the Pew Research Center released the results of a survey of the web’s major social networking sites. What Pew found of Instragram was certainly interesting. Young adults aged 18-29, African-Americans, Latinos, women and urban residents were most likely to use Instragram.
Does your business provide interesting things to photograph?
Instagram is all about the photo. If you operate in an industry that doesn’t present many photo opportunities, you’ll likely find chasing Instagram “likes” a waste of resources.
Let’s say you own a retail skateboarding shop. Your shelves are filled with decks, trucks, wheels and all kinds of little goodies that are interesting to share. You have a ton of t-shirts and shoes on the racks. You even host free-skate events in the parking lot a few times a year to draw in customers.
Action shots of dudes and dudettes kick-flipping and unique inventory make for great photos. Pictures of accounting spreadsheets, Bob from HR leading the office in a company meeting on benefits updates or random portrait shots of the receptionist are not appealing to the masses, no matter how pretty the filter.
What do you hope to accomplish?
Instagram is not a great driver of traffic to your website. Users tend to spend most of their time on the app or website scrolling through and liking photos they see. Instagram is not set up to send users to external links the same way as Facebook. All of Instagram’s major features, from photo uploads to likes to comments, are meant to keep users engaged inside of the app itself.
That makes bad news for anyone hoping for mass conversions. The service, however, is perfect for businesses looking to increase brand awareness.
The bottom line is that Instagram is not for everyone, at least not yet. But if it is right for you and your business, it can be a powerful branding tool.
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