How Brands Can Use Instagram
May 02 2011 by Stephanie Ryska ~ 0 CommentsInstagram is the new Polaroid. Taking pictures with Polaroid instant film is the cool thing to do when hanging out with friends, for projects, art and expression. But Polaroid pictures are in a sharp decline due to the fact that there are only to two suppliers of instant film left in the US.
Instagram is the answer to fill this void. Hipsters and cool brands can take advantage of this iPhone App that “makes sharing your life as instant and magic as those first Polaroid pictures…” The app has 11 different customer filters that transform colors, mood, borders and tonality of the photos. The platform has over 2 million users, who upload about 290,000 photos per day. Instagram makes it easy to share, “Like”, comment and search for photos. The app is so popular that is has spawned other apps and platforms that capitalize on its popularity. Here are some quick ideas that your brand can use for Instagram.
Do:
- If your brand or products are very visual (like fashion), give your users a different view and maybe a more interesting take on products
- Create artistic pictures from events that your company is involved with
- Share pictures on other networks. Instagram makes it very easy to share pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.
- Take enough Instagram pictures (and other mobile pictures) to devote to a Tumblr. But make you sure you post pictures almost every day.
- Ask users to take pictures with Instagram around subject or item. NPR challenged followers to capture #love or #hate (Instagram allows users to use hashtags) in photos.
- Think outside the box. For example Kate Spade shares screen shots of iTunes playlist.
Don’t:
- “Don’t take a picture of your breakfast and call it retro”(as Jason once said). Just because the app is cool doesn’t automatically make all of your pictures cool. Make sure you are taking pictures that are relevant to your brand and audience.
What are some other great uses for Instagram?
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