Don’t Underestimate the Power of Instagram

I love Instagram. When I first joined four years ago, I mainly thought of the app as a simple tool to upgrade my photos into pretty, artsy ones. I never considered that it would eventually become a fast-growing and popular social network. I now check Instagram multiple times a day and follow many different accounts from fashion bloggers/editors to my favorite brands to National Geographic. I not only use it to curate my pictures, but it’s how I can share my life experiences or find fashion/travel inspiration or learn about different people.

Instagram is beginning to shake things up in many different industries such as art, fashion and entertainment. Artists are using the platform to sell their work directly to interested buyers, without having to go through a middleman. Do you love something you see from Lucky editor-in-chief, Eva Chen’s #OOTD (outfit of the day)? You can click on the Lucky Shops link in her profile and immediately purchase it for yourself. Many retail websites now include an Instagram feed with images of their products from real customers, allowing potential ones to see how the product looks like in real life. Beyond the many ways Instagram is contributing to e-commerce, the platform allows actors and actresses to connect with their fans and promote information about their TV shows or movies. I learned about Orange is the New Black’s season 3 premiere through my Instagram feed (it’s June 12^th, by the way).

However, it seems that mainly apparel/retail brands have successfully incorporated Instagram into their marketing mix. Of the top ten brands on Instagram (based on number of followers and posts using their hashtag), only three are non-apparel or retail. In a survey of marketers by Socialbakers, only 19% of marketers said they would give a high priority to Instagram in 2014. It’s time for brands from all industries to take note and invest more of their efforts in Instagram. Here’s why:

• Number of active users: 300 million
• In 2014 alone, Instagram’s active user base grew by 50%
• Instagram has large global reach with 60% of its users coming from outside the U.S.
• 90% of Instagram users are under 35 years old, making it the ideal social platform to target Millennials
• Engagement on Instagram is 15x that of Facebook
• 57% use it on a daily basis and 35% visit multiple times a day

These impressive stats make it difficult to ignore Instagram’s potential marketing power and it’s time that all marketers begin to think of ways to incorporate the platform into their future strategy.