What once was a FaceBook like friendly platform many years ago has transformed into a marketplace with new features that even allow accounts to go into "business mode" and have options to link their contact information and price tags on their posts so users "can tap on a tag in a picture or a video to buy products directly from a brand's site".
Just like YouTube's algorithm that always succeed in sucking people into the vortex of procrastination, Instagram too has an algorithm where they customize the user's feed according to the posts that they have liked, and the type of posts that the people they follow post or like as well. With the popularity of the app, a lot of users has create a little fan base of themselves with the amount of people that wishes to follow them simply for content or quality of their posts. The brands on Instagram seek after these influencers in hopes of creating an even bigger market through advertising.
With how connected we are in the digital age, commenting and sharing posts can be easily done by a few clicks and taps here and there that even pop up stores or a company that is still relatively new can become successful through the help of social medias like Instagram. We can see that in reports of how "Adidas saw a 40% year-on-year growth in online sales in Q1 2019, which CEO Kasper Rorsted 'largely attributed to Instagram'" that although it is commonly used as a means of keeping in touch with friends, families and celebrities or public figures you admire; Instagram is also a great marketing place for brands from all spectrum.
Sources: Instagram Shopping
I think that it’s really impressive how Instagram was able to become so big. I definitely agree that this was because of the new features like businesses, IGTV, and stories. Instagram seems to have adapted many popular features, namely from Snapchat, like stories and sending photos that disappear or like Vine and Youtube with videos. With many apps, whenever I see an update I always doubt it, think I will never use it, and think I will always think it’s weird. However, every time these weird updates are used and I get used to them, like IG stories. Instagram finds ways to differentiate themselves compared to other apps, like many people now enjoy IG stories more because the features and texts. This can contribute to the importance of advertising and differentiation for monopolistic competition. Because Instagram followed Facebook which followed MySpace, I’m curious to see if Instagram will be able to keep up, or if it will die down. My prediction now is that if it continues to add new features, it will last for a while.
ReplyDeleteBy adding new services and features such as "business mode," Instagram is opening itself to a wider range of users and therefore generating more interest and usefulness. While this is a good marketing strategy for Instagram itself, it also seems to be incredibly helpful to those with start-up businesses, who may gain traction if people see their content/goods in their personalized feed.
ReplyDeleteNot only is business used for promoting products or a company. But I also know plenty of people that use the business platform just to analyze and evaluate their instagram followers, their likes, etc. Instagram is adapting to be more than just a "picture" social media platform. Although some may be annoyed with their "new" ads that show up in between posts, company's are profiting. Lots of times too, the ads will be relatively filtered towards you and your posts, and what you like. I am sure they won't be advertising new kitchen knives to a 13 year old girl, and the new Barbie movie that came out, will not be advertised towards a business man. Although I think Instagram is losing its "simplicity" I think it is becoming more and more useful.
ReplyDeleteInstagram is really useful to companies for more reasons than just by providing them with tools on their sites. One of the major ways that Instagram, and by extension, Facebook make their money is by selling user data and information to businesses. This is extremely helpful for marketing purposes, because it allows companies to view the interest into their products. This in part comes from the business accounts, but the data is also sold to large advertising firms, which is one of the reasons why advertisers seem to have such well targeted ads these days.
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