Instagram is Dead
Instagram is dead.
Well it is dead in how we and brands currently use it.
Just like the photo you see above, users will slowly move away from the ridiculous selfie stick photos and videos. Yes moments will still be captured, in fact that is what Snapchat and now Instagram Stories is betting on.
However, what about the overall platform of Instagram. Users continue to use it. In fact as of December 2016, you have 600 million total on the platform and, with the Stories launch, 100 million of those users joined in the last six months!
But short term growth isn’t what we are about here at Brandable.
This is a no brainer graph, and this is from 2 years ago and based on the lack of true change, outside of Stories, Instagram’s demos haven’t adjusted from this.
What is this telling us?
Instagram is different than Facebook.
Look at the numbers in that older bracket for Facebook. Astonomical, right? This means Facebook is skewing older, a lot different than the visual oriented Instagram.
Thus, the conclusion here is for Facebook to find a way to keep itself young by tapping into the Instagram demographic, but should Instagram go older?
Now, I am not saying Facebook needs to make Instagram appeal to a completely different demo than what they have (they have to compete with Snap of course). However, the content that Instagram has could get a bit of an upgrade.
Enter Foap.
Foap is a stock photo platform that has users taking general photos just like Instagram, with businesses able to search and purchase them from users, a lot cheaper for businesses to use than say a Getty Images.
Ok now the kicker for Foap is that they offer incentives. Businesses will post campaigns they have for specific images they require. Users go out and take their best photos using the campaign parameters and brands will then award those users normally at a much higher rate than normal Foap pictures, like a contest for user generated content. However in this case, the users gets paid out.
Why would an acquisition/model of Foap work for Instagram?
- Unique Content. Right now Instagram is packed full of food, selfie, inspirational quotes, etc. I mean sure we can all limit this based on who we follow but adding in the Foap incentives, you are going to be getting a lot more unique photos with subject matter.
- Unique Brand Experience. Brands right now are fairly limited in campaigns on Instagram, and many outsource to “idea farms” (Agencies) to come up with unique ways to hit their target. They are really drawing water from a stone at this point. Foap would spice up the “contest for ucg” angle that many brands take. It would not only let the brand use the content, but with the creativity of the user, you are going to get that content shared on a top platform with likely your brand in the photo/video.
- Machine learning. We all know how “weird” Facebook can be with suggestions. That is all from machine learning. Algorithms and programs “learning” and changing based on what you input. Now, instead of a plethora of selfies on Instagram, say they had a wealth of stock images or images that have brands focused in the photo. Now they can pull those tags into Facebook, suggesting photos/videos you may like from Instagram, not just based on your inputs into the Facebook platform. The division of the brands has gone on too long, it is time they integrate.
Instagram has slowly tried to steer their platform how they want, it began with Stories, now they can continue that with the Foap model.
As we have used it, Instagram is dead. It is time for a rebirth!
