Brett, Kinsey, Bentley, and Corban Christensen: Instagram

As part of my social media class at BYU, I have been asked to write a blog post about Instagram. So here we go:

What is Instagram?

· Fast, beautiful photo sharing.

· Flickr meets Twitter.

· You take pictures with your iPhone, make them look cool with Instagram’s filters, and upload them to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and/or Tumblr (without having to load to each individually). Additionally, if you specify a location with your photo, you can opt to have Instagram check you in on Foursquare.

o The 11 filters can transform the color, mood, border, and tonality of your photos

· 400 million uploaded photos and 15 million users since its launch in October 2010

· Instagram users upload 60 photos per second in 2011

· President Obama’s campaign joined Instagram 2 weeks ago (Jan 4)

· Instagram has nine employees in San Francisco, and like many early-stage social startups, hasn't publicly articulated its plans for revenue (Instagram is free to use)

· Photographers, designers, and artists (not celebrities and brands) attract the most fans and followers on Instagram.

What pain points does Instagram solve?

· Mobile photos always come out looking so-so. Instagram set out to create some awesome looking filters to transform your photos into professional-looking snapshots.

· Sharing on multiple platforms is a pain - we want to take a picture once, and have it shared (instantly) on the services of our choice.

· Most uploading experiences are clumsy and take forever – Instagram has optimized the experience to be fast and efficient.

Why do companies/brands use Instagram?

· Show consumers what’s happening behind the curtain at a company

· Forge a more personal connection with customers (pictures are more emotional than text)

· Launch fun contests that help consumers engage with your company/brand

· Crowdsourcing (ask users to share photos of your event)

· Examples of how some companies/brands are using Instagram

o Levi's is currently running an open casting call for models by asking Instagram users to tag their photos with #IAmLevis for consideration

o Red Bull had a contest for cool winter photos upload with #RedBullWinter, and posts a “daily awesome” image

o Charity water asked users to raise awareness by tagging images of water with hashtag #charitywater

o Brisk Iced Tea invited fans to tag their photos with #briskpic for a chance to be featured on a can that was unveiled at a conference

o Starbucks shares photos of events at its corporate headquarters

o GE uploads pictures of technicians working in their facilities

o Tiffany and Co shows the inside of a jewelry workshop in the company’s flagship Fifth Avenue location

Why do consumers use Instagram?

· Fun way to share photos quickly to several different social media platforms

· Visual, engaging way to keep up on what friends are up to

· Fun way to engage with favorite brand, company, band, artist, etc.

· Cool photo filters, but more than that, you get to share the edited photos instantly

· Seamless integration with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and FourSqure.

· Simple – you can start using it without a tutorial

· Stylish and intuitive interface

Who else uses Instagram?

· Photographers, artists, and designers who want to show their work

· Bands who want to give fans a backstage look into a tour

Some things people don’t like about Instagram

· Only available on the iPhone or iPod touch. It is not available on iPad, Blackberry or Android (although Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom has already announced that it is coming to Android)

· You can’t view Instagram on a computer

· If you share a photo on instagram, you can’t choose to share it with only a subset of followers. By default, it goes to all your followers

· Some people think the photo filters are fake looking and cheesy, and “real” photographers shouldn’t use it

Competitors

· PicYou

· Twitpic

· YFrog

· PicPiz

· Hipstamatic

Sources

· http://adage.com/article/digital/brands-puma-ge-flocking-instagram/232121/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage

· http://instagram.com/about/