User-Brand Interaction through Photo Sharing
The Rise of Instagram as a Powerful Advertising Tool
Instagram users like and comment on 40 million photographs every day at a rate of over 8,500 and 1,000 respectively. While the vast majority of Instagram users are simply normal people sharing photos from their daily lives, there is a rising trend of businesses using Instagram to improve their social media management. Brands are more active on Instagram, with some now publishing 20 or more posts per month to drive interaction and grow their fan base.
Instagram’s Advantages for Businesses
Instagram is a widely used program, and if a person’s feed includes a photo representing a brand, that user will continue to think about that brand long after they’ve scrolled through their page. If the consumer likes what they see, they may decide to follow the business’s Instagram account and interact with the brand further.
Prompt to Act
The ability to easily integrate a Call to Action (CTA) into several posts is a major perk of using Instagram as a brand. Brands are capitalising on this by spreading the word about discounts, coupon codes, new items, contests, events, and the like, and their fans are responding positively. Some have speculated that offering discounts in conjunction with Instagram posts is a smart method for brands to get new fans and keep the ones they already have.
Put a face to a brand.
Instagram, like other social media platforms, may greatly help humanise a company’s brand. Brands have started cutting through the concept that brands are unapproachable or objectified by sharing photos from “behind the scenes” at their offices, studios, and on the road.
Instagrammers may learn more about a business and its values this way. Companies of all sizes are getting in on the bandwagon, with many now posting behind-the-scenes images of their offices and fashion events. This demonstrates to Instagram users that the companies they follow are human and approachable, rather than faceless corporations.
Adopting a Social Media Approach
Instagram’s built-in social sharing features are being used by marketers to spread their messages across other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare.Social sharing has become one of Instagram’s strongest perks for marketers, despite Twitter’s diminished support for the service.
Methods for Promoting Your Brand on Instagram
Brands may benefit from a wide variety of marketing approaches while utilising Instagram. The usage of filters, hashtags, games, and social media are all examples.
Image Optimisation
The retro vibe of Instagram’s various filters is a major selling point for the app. There are presently 20 photo filters available in the app, each of which may be used to give a photo a retro or analogue look. The programme also has a blur function and a contrast slider. Brands that employ filters on their photographs are twice as likely as those that don’t, according to data tracking the prevalence of such practises. L0-fi3 is the most widely used filter for brand photographs.
Hashtags
As was previously said, hashtags are a prefix of the # sign followed by a word or phrase. They serve the same function on Instagram that hashtags do on Twitter. Brands, product lines, and even random words and phrases may all be labelled using hashtags. Search terms like “#nature,” “#happyhour,” and “#style” are just few of the categories that may be found with this feature. Popular user-generated hashtags like “#instagood” are used often on the app. Brands may participate in this movement most effectively by coming up with their own hashtag and providing incentives for their customers to utilise it. Both Red Bull and BMW promote their products with the hashtags #GivesYouWings and #SheerDrivingPleasure, respectively. Anyone may use these hashtags on any photo, but a contest is the most effective approach to increase participation.
Contests
Having a contest is a great way to interact with your audience and attract new followers. The brand usually comes up with its own unique hashtag for each competition. Some businesses give weekly rewards in addition to a big prize at the end of the contest period, while others just offer the final prize. The #RAShoutOut promotion by RA Sushi is a current contest.
The RA Sushi
Instagram newcomer RA Sushi (http://instagram.com/rasushi) has just launched a contest. Users need to share a photo taken at any RA restaurant with the hashtag #RAShoutOut and follow @RAsushi on Instagram to be entered. One lucky winner receives a $25 RA gift voucher every week.