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S O C I A L M E D I A 73

your businessFrom social nnedia start-up

to coveted Facebookacquisition, photo-sharingapp Instagram celebrates

isual marketing is the trend-du-jour for 2013. This isbecause pictures appeal toemotions and strike a chord

with consumers across different languagesand cultures (on Facebook, photo posts

•4. 4.L,* A U".-i-U^ 4-U- are thought to increase interaction ratesIts third birthday this by 39 per cent), so, unless your products

month. Some of theworld's largest brands

count themselves amongits 130 million users. Now

it's time for smallerbusinesses to get

snapping. Here's how tomake it work...

Words Nick Scott

GETTING STARTEDON INSTAGRAM

platform and get your brand noticed.

SIGN UP for an Instagram account atinstagram.com or download theinstagram app to your smartphone ortablet.

CHOOSE A NAME that clearlyrepresents your brand.

ADD A PROFILE PHOTO,a biographyand link to your website.

CONNECT YOUR ACCOUNT toFacebook,Twitter, Tumblr and otherthird-party sharing sites where you havean account.

are, by their nature, visually striking -bespoke wedding dresses, for example, orperhaps highly elaborate celebrationcakes - simple product shots making upan online catalogue won't suffice. Youmust make users-come-customers feelsomething. How? Read on to find out whatour experts think...

EXPLOIT THE TRIED-AND-TESTEDThere's nothing wrong withusing new technology to

execute old tricks — one of those old tricksbeing the classic before-and-after ruse. Ifyour business has anything todo with improvement or renovation -landscape gardening, beauty therapy, carrestoration, interior design and so on -then this is a truly effective way toshowcase your work.

GET YOUR CUSTOMERSINVOLVEDYour company Instagram pageneeds to grow organically and

interaction is the key. Spanish hotel chainNH Hoteles uses the hashtag #wakeuppicto curate photos taken by users of theirhotel-room views in beautiful locations assoon as they wake up - an effective way to

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7 4 S O C I A L M E D I A

stir the travel bug in anyone. Meanwhile,luxury fashion retailer Bergdorf Goodman,using the tag #bgshoes, aggregates itsManhattan-based customers' Instagramphotos of their favourite footwear on aninteractive map, under the Shoes AboutTown campaign. In both these examples,the companies benefit from the fact thatsocial media users like to show off online.

DON'T BE SCARED OFBEING UNSEXYIt's only a lucky few businessesthat ooze cool factor, so don't

be shy about the quotidian nature of yourenterprise. Take the Copenhagen-basedshipping company Maersk Line, forexample. It shares images of its freightships in exotic locations and ports all overthe globe, as well as archive photos thatshowcase the brand heritage. "Because weare a classic B2B brand, some people justthought of us as another boring, bigcompany," says Jonathan Wichmann, whomanages the firm's Instagram account."[Instagram] has allowed us to transformour image into something much moreinteresting." Maersk now has 22,500followers, all of whom are encouraged tosubmit their own sightings of theshipping line's vessels.

DON'T STICK TO STATICInstagram has recently becomea multimedia platform, withusers now able to upload 15-

second video clips (which is over twice thelength allowed on Twitter's equivalent.Vine). Burberry has seized on this facilityby uploading highlights of fashion showsfeaturing its latest collections. You canalso consider uploading customertestimonials or behind-the-scene peeks atyour business activities or product demos,which help your customers overcometricky problems. They could even ask you

Picture this: how Instagramhelps users stylise photos. The

app offers hig potentiai for smailfirms to market products

for specific demos or explanations viayour other social-networking sites.

USE HASHTAGS EFFECTIVELYPrefixing your username withthe now ubiquitous '#' willlead relevant users, interested

in your material, straight to it with asingle photo search. Meanwhile,hashtagging key words - "Ourlatest #bridalwear range#oxford", for example -will draw users withspecific subject interests, orthose in specific places.Hashtag tools such asTagsForLikes will give you awealth of potential theme tagsto choose from and increaseyour reach.

GO CROSS-PLATFORMThe programmers atInstagram have clearly

worked hard to make integrating yourcampaigns on Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr, Google+ and the like extremelyintuitive and easy. You want to reachyour entire online community, and themajority of them haven't got around toInstagram - at least, not yet.

EMBRACE THE "THREE Ps"That's "pilfer", "pinch" and"plagiarise". How Instagramcan be used effectively for

marketing purposes is not intellectualproperty. Take a look at the brandpage Instagram has provided(business.instagram.com/blog),particularly at the endeavours ofbusinesses similar to yours, and try outapproaches that you think will work foryour enterprise.

INSTAGRAM: A LIFE OF PICTURES2006

Instagram co-founder KevinSystrom graduatesfrom Stanford

University. He was an intern forthe summer at Odeo (laterTwitter) and went on to work forGoogle and Nextstop.

2009Mike Krieger

• graduates fromStanford and joins

I instant-messagingfirm Meebo. That year he meetsSystrom, who was building aLocation-based photo and notesapp calLed Burbn.

6 Oct. 2010Systrom andKriegerlaunch theInstagramiPhone app.

D I R E C T O R OCTOBER 2 0 1 3

Dec 2010Within twomonthsInstagram hasone milLionregisteredusers.

Jan 2011Hashtags areadded to helpusers findphotos andinteract.

Feb 2011Instagramannounces ithas raised$7m in first-round venturefunding.Thecompany stillhas just fouremployees.

June 2011The numberof userspasses fivemillion. Thatnumberdoubles bySeptember.

75

IN5TA-BRANDER5How top brands have put Instagram at the heart of their marketing campaigns

ANALYSE, ANALYSE, ANALYSENaturally you will want totrack how your brand isperforming on the platform

and how it resonates with existing andpotential customers. "Tracking anaccount's Instagram stats is the best wayto know that it's sharing the right contentand that it's reaching and engaging withthe right audience. With that in mind,knowing more about an account'sfollowers is the first step to effectivecommunication through Instagram,"Gabriel Hubert, co-founder and chiefexecutive at Nitrogram, told media agencyOur Social Times.

Nitrogram is an Instagram analyticsand marketing platform. It allows itscustomers to track specific accounts andhashtags through a browser-baseddashboard. "Followers' stats should becoupled with analysing the interactionsgenerated by the account's shared photos.Brands can use a trial-and-error approachto their sharing on Instagram, aiming topost more engaging photos while avoidingposts that followers would judge to bedull," Hubert continued.

MEASURE UP"In order to measuretheir community'sactivity, brands can

track Instagram hashtags: thevolume of photos shared, and the

number of likes and comments theygenerated," says Hubert. The same

principle is used to track campaignactivity and provide information

on how many users entered acompetition and their location.

For more information visit

www.instagrann.com

www.oursodaltimes.com

www.nitrogr.am

Aug 2011instagramsees its 150millionthphotouploaded.

Dec 2011Apple namesinstagramiPhone app ofthe year.

3 Apr 2012in the weei<instagramlaunches onAndroid, itraises $50mfrom venturecapitalists ata $500mvaluation.

9 Apr 2012Facebooi<makes anoffer to buyinstagram for$ lbn in cashand stock.

23 Apr 2012Facebookpays $300min cash and23 millionshares forInstagram.

Dec 2012Controversy asinstagramgrants itselfthe right tosell users'photos to thirdparties, itquickly retractsthe terms.

Feb 2013The socialnetworkingplatformannounces ithas 100million activeusers.

June 2013Video isadded,

allowing usersto record andshare videosfor up to 15seconds.

Sept 2013instagram'sdirector ofbusiness EmilyWhite revealsthat theplatformplans to selladvertisingwithin a year.

OCTOBER 2 0 1 3 D I R E C T O R

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