It is said that Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels. However, one would probably want to know what is Instagram (as if most don’t, ha). Instagram is on a long list of social networking sites. A social networking site or as some simply say social media is a platform that is online and used by countless people daily to form social relationships with others who have things in common such as backgrounds, career interests or various activities and activities. If you like Instagram then you should check our Profile Mate Review here.
These social platforms have a variety of formats and features that are great in number. And, instagram happens to be one of them. Like many others, Instagram enables users to share their lives through posts, digital photographs and videos. Using this platform allows connections among many be it near or far as the connections can be in another town, city or state and even around the world. It is definitely networking as it can be someone connected to the specific platform with followers or subsequently anyone who makes a contact.
More specifically in regards to Instagram, it is owned by Facebook and was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. They launched it in 2010 on iOS (apple operating system) originally. In 2012 an android version was released. Of course, they moved on to Desktops to cover as many devices as possible. It’s all about networking as one can start with uploading media be it a post, photos, videos, etc. that can be edited and organized.
Filters are used at times to edit and organization is by geographical tagging and/or hashtags. Post can actually be private with a pre-approved following or it can be publicly shared. Browsing can be done by others using tags and locations or by viewing trending content. Users can “like” photos or videos and can actually add their content to a feed by following other users. Originally everything was small and framed in a square which somewhat distinguished it by using 640 pixels to fit with the iphone display at that particular time; however, later in 2015 the pixels increased to 1080 and added features to enable messaging.
Also, in order to compete with Snapchat, Instagram added multiple images or videos to be in a single post and included the addition of a stories feature. The stories feature, as of January 2019, has 500 million daily users.
Instagram from the start grew popular rather quickly. After the initial launch, within two months it had 1 million users registered and was up to 10 million within the year. And, that 1 million was at 1 billion by May 2019. Over 40 billion of traffic of photographs have been uploaded as of October 2015.
It makes it hard to believe that Instagram started as a “check in” app but the developers simply changed course and decided to change course and focus on photo sharing which was on the rise in being popular at the time. Thoughts of photo sharing along with the words instant camera and a telegram; hence, Instagram.
The first ever Post was of a photo on Instagram and it was by Mike Krieger. It was on July 16, 2010 and the picture was at Pier 38 of South Beach Harbor. Then later Krieger’s co-developer, Kevin Systrom shared his first Post of a picture of a dog and his girlfriend’s foot. Since then, Instagram has hit high numbers and has notables in numbers such as Cristiano Ronaldo, a footballer, being the most followed person. He has over 233 million followers as of July 2020. The most “likes” honor goes to an egg believe it or not as of January 2019, the egg photo has 54 million “likes”.
Most recent research shows that Instagram is not only one of the most popular social media channels but is preferred. Most businesses actually prefer Instagram when trying to reach their target audience as research shows that instagram is the one that trends the most. Social media is massive and online businesses consider it a world of its own. There are more than 3.5 billion social media users and it is constantly growing. Obviously, social media has enormous giants in the social networking world that include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn along with Snapchat and many others. However, again as mentioned before Instagram seems to be outshining the rest when it comes to promoting brands online in this Social networking universe. If one is not using Instagram then opportunities could simply be passing one totally by without a doubt.
Here are some things that are being missed.
First, the traffic on instagram is unbelievably high reaching numbers well over 800 million each month. Think of the audience you can get from that monthly traffic because research shows that 80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one business brand. Also, on a monthly basis Instagram obtains 2 million or more advertisers. When asked and surveyed about 59 percent of micro-influencers give credence to Instagram as the best engagement. With these numbers, there is no wonder that Instagram is where the largest brands want to be promoted. Instagram plays an integral part in helping brands advance their products and services.
Furthermore, the brands have even more reasons to prefer Instagram over other networking platforms. All the platforms, ie Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc… have gone mobile; however, a study showed that as of November 2017 Instagram was second only to Facebook when it came to mobile use. More studies have shown that the brands favor Instagram when trying to engage mobile customers and potential clients.
Moreover, because Instagram is basically a visual site it has an advantage because eye catching photos and videos almost guarantee at the very least glance or even a more detailed look at a brand’s product or service. Increased traffic leads to an increase towards potential clients and customers which leads to more sales which leads to more brand profits; not to mention, the word of mouth so to speak, or better yet “more followers”. It has been stated as far as visuals, Instagram, wins without a second glance hands down.
Research found that a BuzzSumo study revealed that there is more engagement on images that are posted on Facebook when the images are posted by way of Instagram than when images are posted directly to Facebook. Instagram is definitely the way to go if one is wanting their brand’s product or service to get that extra boost. Instagram can help a brand be showcased to the world according to Social Media Today because it is the fastest growing networking platform around the world.
Hashtags are a must to use on Instagram as hashtags actually help your posts of photos and videos get noticed by users via searches. This way one’s brand can get the highest visibility. Moreover, along with the hashtags be sure to use Instagram stories. Instagram stories can give even more focus to that special brand’s product or service emphasizing more information for possible curious potential clients when presented to a large audience.
This has been a lot to digest about Instagram. There have been a lot of statistics and numbers discussed but the bottom line is that Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels and should be used!
