If your brand’s social media strategy includes only Twitter and Facebook, you’re falling behind. Newer sites, such as Pinterest and Instagram, are growing rapidly and consumers are pushing the accelerator.
Instagram, for example, has grown from 5 million users to more than 30 million since its launch in October 2010. More than 1 billion photos are uploaded daily on the site. The mobile-centric, photo sharing platform has generated so much interest, Facebook dropped $1 billion for its acquisition in April.
What’s the appeal? According to Brian Zuercher, founder of social media photo aggregation company VenueSeen, people are visual, so consumers are naturally gravitating toward the image-based platform. Simply put, he says, Instagram provides a way for a brand to share its story through a series of photos, and for customers to directly connect with a brand.
“Text is simply not engaging, and that’s why Facebook went to Timeline, to add more imagery. A photo has four times as much influence as a comment because it’s visual; it sticks in people’s minds,” he said. “Brands are using this to tell their real story through photographs in which consumers are the curators.”
Instagram, he adds, has hit a critical mass of users. Sixty-percent of restaurant photos uploaded to the site are of food or drink, and restaurants are increasingly using those images as part of their digital marketing strategies.