Why is Instagram a Marketing Powerhouse?
Instagram has become indispensable to many marketers for the usual reasons--it's large and it's effective in reaching and motivating attractive target audiences. Some 2018 statistics to back that up:
- It has 1 billion active monthly users as of mid-2018. Yes, that's billion with a b!
- Its growth is expected to continue, as compared to Facebook, Twitter and even Snapchat, all of whose growth in number of accounts has plateaued.
- Instagram users spend an average of 53 minutes each day on the Android version of the app.
- Of primary importance to marketers, it is the platform of choice of 18 - 34 year-old consumers worldwide, a notoriously hard to reach demographic.
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| https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/ |
- 1/3 of US mobile users are on Instagram.
- 25% of US mobile male users are on the platform.
- 40% of US mobile female users are on it. Note that worldwide slightly more men than women are on the platform,
- Their usage is formidable:
- 22% of users log in to Instagram at least once each day.
- 38% check their account multiple times each day.
- 63% of US teenagers use Instagram daily.
- 34% of US Millennials use the platform daily.
- 72% of users have purchased a product they saw on Instagram.
Instagram is a Proven Business Platform
As users have flocked to Instagram, brands have followed them there. The platform works equally well for global brands and small local businesses. And it does work. According to Hootsuite's aggregation of stats:
- 16.71% of businesses use Instagram; there are 17.25 million business profiles on the platform.
- It has 18.2 million monthly advertisers.
- 19.8% of users follow at least one business.
- 60% of users discover products there.
- 75% of users take some kind of action like visiting a product's website.
- In a single month 1/3 of Instagram users purchased a product using a mobile device making them 70% more likely to purchase from a mobile device than non-users.
- Instagram has a 2.2% interaction rate, higher than competing platforms.
- In a single month in 2017 50% of Instagram business accounts produced at least one Story.
What Are Instagram Stories?
If Instagram is a marketing powerhouse Instagram Stories is the feature that is propelling its current growth. Instagram Stories is a feature that allows users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Snapchat was the first to introduce Stories in 2013 and now Facebook offers the feature also. Instagram quickly outstripped the popularity of both Facebook and Snapchat stories among the key young adult demographics.Once the Stories feature has been activated on the app, all the content posted during a 24-hour period is shown in chronological order. Content from the user's camera roll can be included. The story appears on a bar at the top of the creator's page. Stories can be shared with other users but there are no likes or comments. Stories also offers a number of engagement features--stickers, locations, hashtags and polls appear to be the most popular. In order to access these features the user must convert to a business profile. If you are converting a personal profile to a business profile, you may need to change some of your settings to activate all the new features. Once you have Stories operational, you can create your first Story.
Because of the ephemeral nature of Stories, sharing options are limited. Instagram posts can be shared to a user's Story by using the paper plane icon. Stories can be reposted by accounts but only if they are tagged in another account's Stories. Reposting is useful for brands that use influencer marketing because they can include the influencer's post in their own highlights.
HubSpot lists other useful business features:
- Business that have over 10,000 followers can add links to their Stories, thereby driving viewers to their websites.
- The Highlights feature allows businesses to add a set of clips to their profile. Highlights do not disappear after 24 hours; they remain visible underneath the profile picture until the brand deletes them.
- Instagram Stickers can be customized to increase engagement and add a call to action. See examples here.
How Brands Use Instagram Stories
Brands use Instagram Stories to promote their products and services in many ways, as shown in this chart from marketing services firm Launch. Their report says that Instagram is the best platform for creating viewer engagement and that brands value engagement even more than they do product awareness. Makes sense--engagement has a good chance of leading to viewer action.
Brandwatch posted an infographic with compelling reasons to use Stories and links to 30 interesting case histories. Unfortunately it's just too long to post, but here's the link. Some of their statistics are already outdated. I've been careful to use the most recent ones I could find for this post. Here are some capsules of brands who are using Stories well.
Selena Gomez. Not a brand, you say? To my mind anyone who has 144 million followers on Instagram is a brand, whether she intended it or not. And I assume this former girlfriend of Justin Bieber did intend it. I've read the Vanity Fair article on how she became the top Instagram celebrity and I still don't understand it. But that's ok because I'm not part of her target audience. She does Stories, of course; this is simply her profile picture.
Nike. Always a powerhouse in digital, there are literally dozens of Nike Instagram accounts. Some are corporate accounts, some are retailer accounts and some may even be individual fans. This is from #Nike, which features user-generated content. I captured this shot from the Black Friday story because it has an interactive feature, a question sticker, I think.
It turns out to be a post from Turkey's largest retailer of sportswear. What fun![accessed November 23, 2018]
Monterrey Bay Aquarium. National Geographic is far and away the leader in this space with 94.3 million Instagram followers as I write this. It has been an internet and social media giant from the beginning with its captivating photos. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium, with 'only' 253 thousand followers, shows much smaller non-profit using Stories well. Any account that can host a #SeaSlugDay has my vote. It also has my vote for having an Instagram account just for teens to post their own content for other teens. That's a great fit with their mission "to inspire conservation of the ocean" and their program "to inspire the next wave of ocean leaders" by focusing on education and development programs for children, teens and teachers.
[accessed November 23, 2018]
Mailchimp. When you search the best B2B Instagram marketers email marketing firm Mailchimp invariably shows up. These three screens from their Small Business Saturday Story gives a good idea of why. Interactive features promote engagement and the answer, of course, is a promo for Mailchimp's services. They have 87.7 thousand followers, which is not too shabby for a marketing services firm unknown outside the email industry. They have one service that is especially relevant--the ability to create an Instagram (also Facebook) ad directly from their platform. The process is explained thoroughly without the viewer having to create a Mailchimp account. The third resource page Create Instagram Ads in Mailchimp has a 2-minute video that would work well in the classroom. Wow!
[accessed November 24, 2018]
This is more than enough to give you the idea! A word of warning, however. It's difficult to do justice to ephemeral content in a static context. Instagram Stories beg to be shown in class. You can find good sources in the Brandwatch infographic post or a more recent article in Forbes. You can also ask your students to suggest a story. Having had some embarrassing experiences with that--both intentional and unintentional, I think--I always suggest that you have a backup ready. Or do both. Your students will give you some entertaining examples; you can add the digital strategy aspects. However you choose to present Instagram Stories, I think both you and your students will enjoy it!
Related Updates
How not to do Instagram video--Dolce&Gabbana
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