To start the new year on a good note, we will explore today the universe of social photo messaging, a booming niche market in the social media sphere, and we will discuss if these tools are relevant for your business. 2013 has seen the rise of new entrants in the social media sphere, such as Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat. The common denominator between these networks is their focus on the graphic part of social sharing, using pictures as the main data shared. Two of them, Snapchat and Instagram, are fighting for the lead of the social niche of photo messaging, and we will be focusing on them.
Instagram is not a new player on the social media scene, but its latest evolution makes it a challenger in photo messaging. A little bit of history first:
Instagram is the social media that allows the user to take pictures, add effects to them (and hashtags), and then share the pictures on other Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. They were the pioneer of photo messaging by being the first application to allow people to share pictures directly from camera to social media, without having to upload the picture. The success of Instagram was so important that Facebook purchased the company in April 2012, making it part of its strategy. But Instagram was not the only one contributing to the success of image sharing. A company created in September 2011 by two students of Stanford University will push the concept further. Snapchat was created as a social media with instant photo sharing. Instead of posting your pictures on your social media, Snapchat allows you to send a photo, a picture or a drawing directly to a selected list of users, creating the first direct photo sharing social network. At the end of 2013, Snapchat claimed more than $50M profit and Google made an unsuccessful offer in November to buy the company. This success of direct photo sharing pushed Instagram to launch Instagram Direct in December 2013, entering at the same time the arena of instant photo sharing.
But where does the success of these networks comes from? The first answer lays in our society's habits. The increasing amount of smartphones equipped with camera makes it easier to take a picture, and the constant access to internet opens the door to social sharing. The second component of this success is the trend of the "selfies". A "selfie" is a self portrait of somebody taken with a smartphone and shared on social media. The trend was so important that the neologism "selfie" was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2013. The picture sharing networks are perfect to share this kind of content, and you can even add some effects or drawings, and send it to a selected list of people. 2013 has been the year of the "selfie", and a lot of famous personalities have used the digital self portrait, such as Pope Francis and President Obama.
But can we use these photo messaging networks to promote a business? The answer is yes. These networks are a golden opportunity to create the buzz around your products. But some major details needs to stay in your mind while developing your Snapchat or Instagram campaign:
- The audience is young. Most Snapchat users are between 13 and 23 years old. Your campaign will be accurate if you target this kind of market. Other social media may be more relevant if your products target an older population.
- These social media are very graphic. A good Snapchat or Instagram campaign will rely on a new design or a new product that provides visuals that can be used and shared. The message needs to be short and striking. Acura gave us a good example of promotional message on Snapchat by releasing a short video about the new NSX .
To summarize, photo sharing is the new trend on social media, and this trends takes roots in the evolution of our society, the evolution of our habits. A new generation has full access to Internet through a smartphone with camera and is looking for something else than Facebook and Twitter. Photo sharing networks like Instagram and Snapchat are benefiting from it. There are a lot of possibilities for businesses on these networks that are not as big as Facebook or Twitter (yet?) but offer a new experience, and maybe a more personal experience than other social media. So be young, integrate photo sharing into your strategy, even take selfies, and take it EZ .
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