Is Instagram the Next Big Marketing Thing?
If you’re a social media nerd, you’ve probably heard by now that Instagram has more monthly active users than Twitter. And if you’re a social media nerd, you also know this is pretty huge news.
If you’re a small business owner, it might 
mean that it’s time to consider including Instagram in your social media marketing strategy. Instagram may or may not be right for you and your small business, but at the very least, it is worth considering.
Some facts and figures to get you hungry over “the Insta”:
- Instagram earned over 300 million monthly active users by December 2014, with an epic 50% increase in just 9 months.
- Intended for use on a mobile device, Instagram is a ridiculously simple, streamlined and easy-to-use app for sharing photos and videos. It allows the user to share visual content – complete with captions and hashtags – quickly and easily on not only Instagram itself, but on Facebook and Twitter as well.
- Instagram’s unstoppable growing popularity can be credited to the growing power of visual content on social media and all things Internet. According to a recent study by Cisco, video is predicted to account for 84% of all Internet traffic by 2018. Read more about the study on ReelSEO here.
- While most of its users are teens, Instagram is now the second most popular social app among millennials (18-34 year-olds), according to a recent report by comScore. According to the report, Instagram has 43.1% penetration on millennial users’ mobile phones, second only to Facebook (which has 75.6%).
- It’s not just the number of users that is important to note here; as always, engagement is what is truly important. And apparently, Instagram is more engaging than Facebook and Twitter combined. While stats vary from study to study (thank you, Internet), the overall message seems to be that users are paying more attention on Instagram and that’s where your brand stands a better chance of getting noticed. According to a report from Forrester:
“Our study found that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.” – Forrester
What do these nerd numbers mean in practical terms? Well, according to the Forrester study…
“…Red Bull posted a video of a unique snowboarding half-pipe on both Facebook and Instagram. A few days later, we noted that the brand’s 43 million Facebook fans had liked the video just 2,600 times (a 0.006% likes-per-fan rate), while its 1.2 million Instagram followers had liked the video more than 36,000 times (a 3% likes-per-follower rate).” – Forrester
Don’t believe Forrester? Well, according to The New York Times…
“Instagram users are highly engaged with the service, with users interacting with posts at 18 times the rate they do with Facebook posts, according to a report issued last month by the research firm L2.” – The New York Times
Still don’t believe Forrester or the New York Times? Then you HAVE to believe Gary Vaynerchuk (see what he says about Instagram at 2:42 on an episode of his always insightful, always entertaining podcast The #AskGaryVee Show here:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du6ZsyyN50U]
Personally, I’ve decided to give my Instagram account more serious attention in the near future. How about you? Are you using Instagram for business? Do you think you will use it more often in your small business social media strategy in the upcoming months?
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