Why Instagram is better than Nutella
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Roughly about a year ago, I was in a conference room in the second tallest building in Milwaukee interviewing for a summer marketing internship. There I sat on the 19th floor overlooking downtown across from three members of a marketing team at one of the Top-25 Hotel Management companies in the US .
The interview went well. Conversation went smoothly and I answered the questions to the best of my ability.
I wouldn’t say the interview was exceptional, but it wasn’t terrible. It was exhilarating nonetheless.
Near the end of the interview I hit a bump in the road.
As I started asking questions and learned more about the company, a question was directed towards me.
What’s your favorite social media platform?
I froze—a moment of terror overwhelmed me and I panicked.
I made it through the toughest part of the interview and couldn’t even fathom something regularly discussed in every day conversation.
I asked for a moment to attempt gathering my thoughts.
From a marketing standpoint, selecting my favorite social media platform is similar to asking a parent who his or her favorite child is. Some professionals are obviously more opinionated and open to expressing their standpoint about the strengths and weaknesses of each platform. I’m not.
Fast forward to the present.
I ended up being offered the internship and have been happily employed for the past year, despite my lack of confidence in my ability to answer that question.
My answer still is the same today. Part of this obviously has been influenced due to my visit of the company’s headquarters last year.
Instagram is not a fad, it has shown time and time again it is here to stay.
In just a few short years, Instagram has created a massive following of over 300 million people. This feat surpasses Twitter with more users.
70 million photos are shared each day, and over 30 billion total have been shared since Instagram launched in 2010.
“Instagram can engage generations of people.”
CEO Kevin Systrom
What makes Instagram different is what the other social media platforms lack.
Instagram is a brand and application that is continuing to evolve. It isn’t content with where the product is now and the company constantly listens to what the consumers want out of the product. Instagram has added new filters, updated the discovery feature and introduced timelapse videos.
“’As Instagram gets bigger, we’re focused on helping you discover photos and videos from people who you care about, whether it’s a friend or your favorite musician.”
Instagram is a trendsetter. Although the company wasn’t the first to incorporate video into its app, Twitter soon followed Instagram’s unique feature by integrating video into the timeline. Video is part of what makes Instagram so special—users can share videos up to 15 seconds with their followers. This is just another example of Instagram evolving and tailoring the product to the consumers needs, wants and satisfactions.
Instagram allows the inside view on celebrities lives. Similar to Twitter, a fun feature for all is to follow those celebrities you love and keep up with their happenings, even if it is the Kardashians. This is something you wouldn’t normally see on other sites.
“Soon [Instagram] plans to launch verified badges for celebrities, brands, and athletes. The tactic helped Twitter boost confidence, and Facebook started verifying profiles in May 2013.”
Advertisements are rare on Instagram. Until last year, annoying advertisements weren’t seen on Instagram. As Instagram continues to evolve and grow, the longevity of the company obviously will focus on making money from ads. Yet, I don’t foresee much of an issue with ads as Instagram really values the consumers’ experience and not destroying their newsfeeds with “sponsored posts.”
“We’re doing advertising in a fairly unique way. It’s brand advertising. We’re seeing a lot of resonance with advertisers because of that. At the end of the day, we can’t just be a hedge. We have to be a profit center to really be valuable for Facebook. However, It’s far more important for us to continue the growth worldwide than it is for us to over-monetize it too quickly.”
Finding measurements and analytics on Instagram in-app isn’t possible at this moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future it rolled out its own measurement tool, similar to Facebook or Twitter’s.
For now though, outside sources and websites can analyze Instagram posts. Some include:
Instagram is a place for me to follow friends, musicians and celebrities. As an aspiring DJ, photographer and writer, I follow some of these stars in particular due to shared interests.
Zedd
Musical mastermind and one of my favorite celebrities, Zedd is a must-follow for all music lovers. Like most musicians, he includes sneak-peek videos from some of his upcoming singles.
Gavin Taylor
One of the biggest designers in the entertainment industry. He has created album artwork for Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ne-Yo & more. If you aren’t following him, I would definitely recommend checking him out.
Robert M. Drake
No, not the rapper Drake; the poet and writer commonly known as “R.M.” Drake. Celebrities like Ludacris and the Kardashians regularly share some his pieces on their Instagram feeds. R.M. Drake is a brilliant mind who used Instagram for writing to become an Amazon best-seller.
Instagram’s ride cannot be defined through certain noteworthy checkpoints, like making $xx.xx amount in the stock market or going #1 in Apple’s App Store, rather its identity is seen through its day-to-day actions. Sure, it might be making changes slowly and organically, but it’s on the rise.
Move aside society. Nutella is the past.
Instagram is the future.
Follow me on Instagram: @PhilipBatzner
