As TBD’s in-house Social Media guru, I am always itching to get my hands on the latest app, or create myself a new account on the latest Social Media thing going. When I’m not at work, you’ll catch me blogging on my personal blog, or chatting to one of my 1k+ follower on various Social Networks.
I’ve had Instagram for a couple of months, because I’m obsessed with photography apps. Instagram has, to many photographers dismay, become hugely popular with people worldwide and many professional photogs arguing that it ruins the integrity of photography but realistically, Instagram isn’t causing any major worry for professional photographers anytime soon…
To give a brief explanation, you can take, or use an existing photograph and apply a range of filters – these used to be fairly limited, but Instagram released an update late last year and it was this update which really put them on the map - alongside other Social Media platforms.
For example…
Before let’s take this image from the river Thames:
After applying an Instagram filter – areas of contrast have been highlighted making this image more impactful.
Area of sharp focus –users can also select which part of the image they want in focus (ideal for highlighting brand logos, for example):
Before:
After:
The update not only gave users more filters, but also the capability to highlight certain areas of your photo and bring them into focus which soon became a hit with brands the world over.
But what the update really brought was the integration of Social Media to this app, as Instagram now offers users the ability to ‘like’ others’ photos, comment, mention other users and view most popular photos. Of course, you can keep all your content private, but as more and more people look at this as ‘Social’ media, fewer people are resisting the privacy settings
The big question is, can Instagram be beneficial to brands? Indeed, I think it can be – it’s another way to engage with your audiences and ultimately it’s a way to showcase your brands creativity and give a fun insight to behind-the-scenes. It doesn’t necessarily need to be time consuming either and not to mention it’s easily integrated with Twitter too; meaning you can create a photo, write its caption using hashtags and as soon as Instagram has posted it, it’s posted in real-time to your Twitter feed…
So far, one brand really gaining a following here is energy drink Red Bull. With their strong links to the world of sport, Red Bull’s feed is full of spectacular photography of extreme sporting events with Red Bull branding across the various equipment and settings.
The popular energy drink brand has an impressive 109k + following across this network, all of whom are eager to see what sport Red Bull is supporting next. Ultimately, their use of Instagram as an extension of their broad Social Media plan is exemplary – the only thing it is lacking in is more consumer engagement, which is key. It seems once a photo is posted, the conversation from Red Bull ends.
Understandably, with 109k+ following, this approach is understandable, but a few occasional replies certainly wouldn’t go a miss.
The evolution from photo editing app to Social Media platform has been seamless for Instagram. Users simply need to participate, engage and, most importantly, communicate – as Instagram state on their website; ‘we felt that the snapshots people were taking were kind of like telegrams in that they got sent over the wire to others – so we figured, why not combine the two?’