Will Instagram Be The Number One Platform From a Visual Content Perspective?

I have this curiosity to look for every top social network app on iOS and see where they categorize themselves in the App Store.

I’ve heard the idea that Facebook is not a social network but it’s a “media company”, but not the traditional media company, according to Mark Zuckerberg in an article from the Guardian.

Then on the opposite part, there is Snapchat (company name Snap.inc) that proclaim that is a camera company.  And let’s not forget about Pinterest that wants to be the world’s catalogue of ideas while Instagram is conquering the visual platform place.

But still, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ (exactly) and Pinterest are still in the Social Network category – while Instagram, YouTube, Musical.ly, and Snapchat are in the Photo and Video category. The one true social network that is different than the others is Twitter that found its place in the News category.

And it’s seems that they very happy about this change.

I started my little research after I saw the latest updates Instagram made on its platform and realizing that it’s very different from what we all know about this social network.

And my guess is that Instagram wants to be more than just a simple photo app on which you can upload photos and videos and make 24 hours lasting stories.

With over 800 million people worldwide using Instagram every single month and more than 500 million using Instagram stories now they made some interesting moves.

Back in the day, Instagram was well known as the place where you can upload 1:1 photos and videos. They changed that statement in the moment they gave more freedom to their users – they let them upload landscape and portrait photos and videos.

But after the big rebranding and launch of the stories, Instagram took on a different path. They upgraded the Direct Message feature and added some bold features that made the app more appealing to the 400 million daily users.

First, they launched the bookmark feature with the help of which you can add all the interesting photos and videos in a place where only you can see them. Lately they gave this feature an update and now you can add them in different albums. I found it very useful, especially for those in the creative industry or for those who are spending a lot of time on Instagram looking for ideas and inspiration.

After this, they created the archive feature with which you can archive your photos and videos, so you can create a better feed for the ones who land on your profile and scroll through your content.

Instagram is getting more attention in the marketing industry, because it got almost every ingredient for an awesome recipe:

But why do marketers must know all these things? Why is this important from a marketing perspective? Because there are tremendous opportunities with Instagram and brands, agencies are aware of this.

So if we look from the advertising perspective, you can do advertising for people to install your mobile app, to get website traffic or to get email leads.

If we look from a customer perspective you can talk easily with your customers with the direct message feature or even found how they felt using your services or products, only from a search and explore distance.

If we look from a social media marketing perspective you can engage with your customers and create quality content for them.

I’m not saying that Instagram should be your number one priority in your social media strategy or even the entire digital marketing strategy. I just want to point out a few things that maybe you missed and maybe a great opportunity for your brand.

And today is the moment when brands should jump in this ride while it’s not too late.