Instagram which is owned by Facebook, is one of the leading social media networks around the world. Over a billion people use the app, to share and connect with others. Instagram was founded in 2010. And when Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, they were perfectly positioned to become the platform of inspirational content. While Facebook centered around connecting with others. Instagram's mission is to bring you closer to the people and things you love. Instagram does that by letting you share photos and videos, accompanied by a short text caption. You can follow friends, family, interesting people, brands, and businesses you want to hear from. You can also chat via direct message conversations. Instagram is widely used around the world. According to Hootsuite, 89% of the users are outside of the US. The countries that follow the US with the highest number of Instagram users includes. Brazil with 70 million, India with 69 million, Indonesia with 59 million, Russia with 40 million. In terms of gender, Instagram usage is pretty much evenly split with 52% women, and 48% male users worldwide according to Hootsuite. Instagram is especially popular with younger users. And the Pew Research Center survey conducted in early 2019, 72% of teens from the ages 13 to 17 say they use Instagram. Compared to 69% for Snapchat, and 51% for Facebook. This is especially relevant for companies or businesses looking to reach a younger audience. In an e-marketer survey conducted in 2019, 73% of US teens report that Instagram is the best way for brands to reach them. About new products or promotions. Instagram usage keeps growing. Two months after Instagram launched in 2010, the app had 1 million registered users. And that number grew to 10 million in the first year. In June of 2018, Instagram reported that they reached 1 billion monthly users worldwide. And usage has kept growing since. Let's explore how people use Instagram, and what the platform could mean for marketers. To start using Instagram, you simply download the app on your phone and you create an account. All you need to sign up is an email or a phone number. Then you create your profile with a picture, and a short bio where you introduce yourself. And you're ready to start sharing and connecting. You can upload photos, or videos, and share them with your community. You can edit your photos and videos directly from the app with the embedded filters. You can add captions, and tag people, and location if you like. Then your image is ready to share, and other users can see it in their feed. They can then like, comment, and share the post. With your privacy settings, you can restrict who can follow you and see the photos and videos you've shared. You can also share images and videos to your Instagram story. Stories appear at the top of the feed, and the content you share in your story disappears after 24 hours. Unlike posts shared in feed, Instagram Stories make use of the full mobile experience. You can add filters, stickers, and other fun interactive elements to create an immersive experience. If you want to share longer videos than 60 seconds on Instagram, you can use IGTV. You can access IGTV through its separate app, or from within Instagram. If you use the separate app, you will see videos from the accounts you follow. IGTV videos are shown in vertical format, as it is a mobile first application. Live is a way you can share a live video on Instagram. When you live on Instagram, you can connect with your followers in real time. People can tap your profile picture from their feed, or go to your profile to join your live video. Once people are viewing your live video, they can leave comments, like, donate to a cause, and share it. After you end your life video, you can add it to your IGTV where people can watch longer in fullscreen videos on your profile. Here we see an Instagram feed which consists of photos and videos from people, businesses, and hashtags you follow. When you go to your Instagram profile or click on the Home button, you will see your feed. If you just signed up for Instagram, your feeds will be pretty empty as you explore the app. You can add friends, family and businesses, as well as other people you're passionate about. To find the accounts you want to follow on Instagram, you can search by specific topics, or hashtags, location, and account names. When you post on Instagram, you can accompany your posts with text including a hashtag. Adding a hashtag categorizes your post as related to the topic that follows the hashtag. For instance, if I post this funny cat picture and I add a hashtag, hashtag funny cats. This picture may come up in searches for funny cats. Another way to discover accounts to follow is to explore. Explore surfaces trends as they emerge in real time, connecting you to events and conversations. Both near you and around the globe. Explore will also update depending on your activity on Instagram. Posts are selected automatically based on things like the people you follow, or the posts you like. Now, that you understand a little better who's using Instagram. Let's dive a bit deeper into how businesses can use Instagram for their marketing. People on Instagram want to dive deeper into their interests, and discover new ones. They're eager to learn more, connect with the community, and hear from the people and businesses that inspire them. In fact, in a survey commissioned by Facebook in November 2018. 83% of people surveyed said that they discovered new products and services in Instagram. In addition to being a discovery engine for brands, Instagram can also drive sales and advocacy. 81% of people surveyed said that they research products or services on Instagram. And 80% use Instagram to decide whether to buy a product or service. People discover products and services on Instagram, while they browse their feeds. Businesses can share photos and videos on Instagram, and does generate awareness and interests for their products. By sharing photos and videos showing the behind the scenes of a business. Or announcing new products or services, or sharing customer testimonials. Businesses can tell their story on Instagram. Instagram's of visual nature allows businesses to be creative, and showcase their personality. Instagram stories offers a unique way of sharing photos and videos. And another great opportunity for businesses, to share more about their products or services with the Instagram community. The interactive features in Instagram stories, allow the community to directly engage with the business. By using stickers, businesses can encourage people to engage with them directly. Like prompt them for questions, pull them on their preferences, and let them send messages. Instagram also has features, that are accessible only to business accounts. With the business account, you can include more information about your business, and encourage people to get in touch. You can add a link to your business's website, and include your business's phone number, location, and email. From there, you can start accessing features that can help keep customers informed. Manage direct messages more easily, learn how people interact with your content and be discovered by more people. Let's look at an example. Here is the Instagram account of classyclaw, a nail salon in Vancouver. They specialize in funky nails, and they use their Instagram account to showcase the nails they've been working on. They give a behind the scenes look of their business, while also celebrating their employees. They let people book appointments and message the salon through the app. Let's listen to what Bee Lalli owner of the salon has to say about that. >> One of the things that's helped me build the brand that I've built is relatability. And responding back to your direct messages on Instagram, it's such a strong community. The people that you respond to start messaging you all the time. And the amount of people that relate to my brand come through to my salon. I'm marketing myself through Instagram, helped my business evolved from a table in the corner of my kitchen. To a studio in Vancouver. Without Instagram I would not have gained the attraction, being the clientele gain to respect around the brand that I built. [MUSIC] >> Here's another example, this time a much bigger company restaurant chain Chipotle. They use their Instagram account, to share a mix of content related to their food with a funny twist. Many of the posts relate to their customers law for their burritos, and taco plates. Posts include news about promotions like this post on National Burrito Day. And some posts encourage people, to tag a friend for a chance to have a free meal delivered to that friend. Chipotle also used Instagram life during the lockdown, for a guacamole making class with their executive chef When you have a business account on Instagram, you can also start advertising. Advertising on Instagram makes it possible to reach audiences, who might otherwise not see your posts. If you have a business account, you will see a promote button appear on your posts, to turn your posts into an ad. When you promote a post, it will appear as a sponsored post in other people's Instagram stories or feed. In addition to creating ads on Instagram, you can also use Facebook tools to create ads that appear on Instagram. For instance, you can create ad campaigns in ads manager. Ads manager provides comprehensive tools to create ads on Facebook and on Instagram. When businesses use ads manager, they get access to a large suite of creative options and opportunities. To select the audience to reach with our advertising message. It also comes with rich insights and optimization opportunities. We'll learn all about that later in this program. Let's look at an example of an ad campaign on Instagram by Clif Bar. Focused on generating awareness for the new Cliff Nut Butter Filled, and Fruit Smoothie Filled products. Clif Bar use a series of 15 second ads and Instagram stories, with a message high end taste appeal like this one. The team showed these ads to people whose interests aligned with the characteristics of its core customers. Health conscious, active, and adventure seeking. The campaign resulted in significant lift in brand awareness, and purchase intent. The visual nature of the Instagram platform, and its users interest in discovery. Makes Instagram a very attractive platform for marketers. In this program, we'll explore in a lot more depth how instagram can feature in your social media marketing. Now, let's first look at another large, but very different social media platform, LinkedIn.
