The photo sharing service Instagram has become wildly popular. While they had a misstep with their change in terms recently, they appear to be correcting quickly and will continue to grow rapidly.
Instagram is popular enough that at this point, it’s a noun, a verb and practically a synonym for social photo sharing. Easily downloadable on any Android or iOS powered device, Instagram allows users to upload images and customize them by applying filters. Instagram users can follow each other’s posts, comment on photos, and share images to Facebook and Tumblr, and by e-mail. Since Facebook acquired Instagram in April of 2012, the social photo app has seen outstanding growth, and it rocketed from 860,000 daily active users to over 11 million (businessinsider.com) in just over six months. That's a whopping 1,179% increase!
Instagram’s convenient and user-friendly mobile capabilities are of a huge value to Facebook, which now boasts more than 500 million monthly active mobile users, and Instagram will only continue to grow. Additionally, with all of those active and engaged users, it wouldn’t be surprising if Facebook decided to introduce a mobile advertising plan to Instagram — Instagram is a valuable place for brands to be represented in order to connect with and grow their social communities. One way companies can do this now is to leverage the power of their Facebook page to grow their Instagram community. This can not only expand their Instagram community, but if done right, it can boost engagement on the Facebook Page for a double win.
How to Leverage Facebook to Build Your Instagram Community and Increase Facebook Engagement
An Instagram contest hosted on a Facebook page creates a powerful, synergistic campaign utilizing both social networks. Facebook page app tools empower brands with the ability to easily set up a contest in which photos submitted with an Instagram hashtag are entered into a contest where, in turn, voting is conducted on a Facebook page. That allows for a unique, cross-platform social dynamic that reflects the way people use both platforms.
Petopia, one of the largest pet retail stores in Singapore, is a good example of a brand using an Instagram contest on Facebook. The contest enables Petopia to expand its Instagram community, while also boosting fan engagement on its Facebook page. That combination creates retailer benefits on both social networks.
Petopia had a large and active existing community on Facebook — over 28,000 fans — and one key goal for the company was to leverage that audience and expand its new Instagram following. Petopia’s research had shown significant increase in mobile use by its target community, and it wanted to capitalize on that trend by strengthening its presence on mobile-focused social networks. With the Instagram contest, Petopia announced the promotion to its Facebook community and invited fans to follow them on Instagram and submit a photo for entry on that network. This made the company’s fans aware of its Instagram presence, while the contest itself took advantage of Facebook’s engagement value, as fans came to the page tab to vote. Taken all together, the promotion offered the retailer significant social synergism.
Participants upload photos via Instagram by including the brand’s specified hashtag in the Instagram photo description. Entries are then automatically populated on the Facebook page tab (see screen grab below):
A cross-platform social promotion utilizing Instagram is of great value to digital marketers. With Instagram growing rapidly in use and adoption, and visual marketing trends only becoming more powerful in social media, increasing exposure in this social platform while simultaneously strengthening existing social connections on Facebook is a potent combination. Petopia offers an example of a brand continuing to evolve and extend their social media efforts in step with the social habits of its community.
What should your business be doing to respond to shifts in social network use and to increase your Instagram brand presence?
