Instagram has taken the social media world by storm. The image sharing (and now video sharing) platform provides an artistic medium for the not so artistically inclined to share their beautiful works of art. The filter feature built in to the app makes it easy to make your oh-so-boring sushi lunch look like an important piece of contemporary art. The key to Instagram’s success is multifold, but it begins with the fact that the app is free, fun, and easy to use.
Upon Facebook’s acquisition of the company for a mere 1 Billion Dollars (cue Dr. Evil), the image based app saw a few changes. The once add-free platform saw its first native ads within users’ feeds about 10 months ago. Instagram stated that the ads were a way for the platform to become a sustainable business. The ads started slow to avoid community backlash and were designed in a way to fit in with the existing content on Instagram. They also gave control to the user, allowing Instagrammers to hide ads they don’t want to see. And the platform seems to be doing something right because Instagram users continue to love their platform to this day.
It is not a common occurrence for social platform users to gush about how much they love their social network. However, Instagram is an exception to the norm. A recent trend has popped up on Instagram where users are recreating the platform’s logo to pay homage to the social network. To Instagram, this is a major win. Any time a brand can increase the proliferation of a logo, through any means, is a win for the brand.
A brand’s logo represents your brand’s identity, and if users are embracing the logo, and even showing it love by recreating it with unique objects, that shows that users want to be engaged with the brand. And when users organically engage with the brand in a public way, their friends will see the genuine engagement with the brand, and become intrigued. The most impactful way to promote a brand is through genuine word-of-mouth from friend to friend. Friends trust one another, and will be much more open to the idea of adopting a new brand into their everyday life. The trick is keeping the brand in the forefront of the users mind.
Instagram has gone through great efforts to continue to offer value to its users. The value comes in the form of small app updates to monumental feats of technology in the form of the Hyperlapse app (only available on iPhone). The Hyperlapse app provides users the tool to create sped-up videos with stabilization functions. This easy to use app has no video time limit (unlike the other video apps on the market) and gives the user the option to speed up the video up to 12 times. From there, the user can instantly upload their video to Instagram.
There is no doubt that Instagram will continue to push the envelope and find new ways to offer value to their users. And that is the ultimate way to keep users on your side and become brand advocates. Keep it coming, Instagram!
