In today’s day and age, social media has completely reinvented the marketing game. There are more than one billion people who have accounts on Instagram. This is important for companies because it means their customers are on one platform, and it is easy to reach them.
By creating a business profile, companies make it extremely easy to buy their products. There are settings that allow companies to direct you to their website simply by tapping on a post. Instagram is also great for reaching new customers. Features like hashtags and the explore page enable many more people to see your posts, instead of just your following.
Because Instagram is such a huge platform, small businesses know that their competition is also on the site. This makes it a necessity to use Instagram to promote your products in order to gain the most profit. Instagram is also beneficial to companies because of its free advertising. It doesn’t cost anything to post a picture! Another strategy many companies use is sending their products to “influencers” in order to increase sales. Many celebrities have brand deals with several companies, and by posting to their followers, companies are able to expand their audience. Many influencers on Instagram have huge followings with many people idolizing them so it is great for businesses when they know that many young kids want to do whatever they can to be most like their favorite celebrity.
https://www.hubspot.com/instagram-marketing
It is interesting how social media has made advertisements more interactive. For example, on snapchat, there are filters that come on and and sponsored by different companies. These filters either have the company's name somewhere on it or more directly advertise a certain product. Methods like this push the consumer to engage with advertisements in a different way that make them stand out from the "clutter" of ads.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the stark contrast in marketing strategies over the years. As we saw in the documentary, companies in the 1990s sent out individuals to interview and survey members of the population. Now, this has completely shifted to analyzing data from various social media platforms. I think it's interesting to think about how this marketing strategy will continue to change in the future. What role will technology play in all of this? And will there be any more significant changes?
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to see how the new age of technology and social media has directly related to marketing. Instagram makes it so easy for anyone to advertise their products on Instagram, with the accessibility of posting and the option to advertise posts for a few bucks. The influencers you talked about are similar to the people that were "cool hunted" in the "Marketing" documentary. In my personal experience, I would not buy most products from their marketing and advertising on television, but when I see someone "real" use a product and promote it, someone who I've respected and followed, I am more inclined to buy a product. I wonder what the future of marketing will look like as technology progresses.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years, Instagram has also introduced advertising in various features in the app. For example, I remember when I started using Instagram, maybe in 2012 or 2013, I never saw any promoted posts or clear advertisements on the app. At some point Instagram began to allow companies or even regular users to pay to have an ad or post promoted. This means it shows up in some users' home feed. As a user scrolls through their feed, they'll see a few posts of people they follow, and then a promoted post. Instagram also does the same thing within Instagram stories. After viewing a couple, or even just one, Instagram story, you may have to click through an ad to view the next one. This totally changed Instagram marketing in my opinion. So even though there are ways to have "free" advertising on the app, they also introduced a different style of marketing as well. I agree that the feature where you can tap on a post and see links for the products in the image is very significant and makes purchasing easier.
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting how marketing has changed over the years. This article further highlights how marketing has changed in its approach and scope.
ReplyDeleteBtw, the "influencers" are now the people making huge money. Many of them are celebrities, but some are relative unknowns who have become well-known through Youtube and other social media sites.
I'd sure love to be an influencer, to have contracts with large companies pushing their products!