Instagram: The power of insta-images to sell lifestyles and increase brand-engagement

Instagram has passed from being a simple photo-sharing app among friends to become a global community of consumers and brands. The social platform has been growing in the last two years at fast speed, exceeding the 400 million members and the most high-end brands are investing in reinforcing this powerful social engagement tool.

The saying “A picture is worth a thousands words” applies totally in Instagram. The social platform lets users play with images, short videos, and catchy descriptions or questions increasing each follower’s engagement, beating Facebook and Twitter.

With such record figures, it is not surprising that Instagram nowadays is playing not only a big role in the most reputable brands’ social media strategies but also in small businesses because it provides the appealing ingredients to have a call effect among consumers. This post of Redbull it is a clear example:

In the same line, this platform facilitates participation around a visual post, which normally causes emotions and reactions. For this reason, already 14% of prestigious brands integrate Instagram user generated content (UGC) on their brand sites. However, the promotion of UGC depends on the purpose of every post.
For instance, according to latergram blog the best way to increase conversion rates is using longer captions (no questions) to bring out a well-thoughout response. However, it is preferable to include questions or quizzes like Nike does here when brands aim to enhance engagement:

Engagement tools such as Instagram are becoming crucial within social media campaigns in a customer-centric environment. Unsurprisingly, not everything is worth the same. Creativity and measuring play an important role.

The top 5 brands: Nike, Starbucks, Adidas, GoPro and Zara stand out the crowd because they are taking advantage of the visual nature of the platform, understanding that not only Instagram helps as a showcase but selling a lifestyle.

In this infographic made by kissmetrics, you can discover the trends behind the big-brand Instagram sharing some valuable insights to conquer new horizons and attract more hearts.

However, despite the Instagram fever, brands should consider the different platforms carefully and use those that are more adaptable to their target group, objectives, and principles, without forgetting what performs best: authenticity.

Handelskraft Trendbuch

If you would like to discover more insights and trends to success in digital commerce, dont miss out our Trend Book 2016: “Day one in digital life”! You can download your free copy (in German)here.