If someone was talking about you, you would want to know, right? That’s how brands should feel about their products, too. With over 70 million users on Instagram, the application has millions of photos uploaded and added to it each day and within these images there are brands captured being used in the everyday lives of their consumer. Can you say marketing opportunity? I think so!
Every day, new brands are recognizing this break and hopping on the Instagram train. The major benefit of creating an Instagram for a brand is to not only see how people use the brand, but also see what they are saying about it. Just like Twitter, it’s as simple as searching the company name as a hashtag. Chances are if people are using a product on a daily basis, there are photos of it on Instagram and the users are interacting with it.
So you might be thinking that it’s great for brands to see other users’ pictures, but what kinds of pictures should the company post? Although it sounds simple, there is a right and a wrong way to do this. Some companies see Instagram as an advertising medium and use the application to post pictures of their products, but who wants more ads in their life? On the other hand, successful brands such as Sharpie and Starbucks know their way around the Instagram app. They took a different approach and recognized that this was a good place to help cushion a lifestyle that their brand would like to represent. Instagram is one of the few places companies can go to give their brand a little personality.
So, even without notice a lot of the time, you could be promoting a brand. Next time you post a picture to Instagram take a moment and think, what brand am I working for?