I am going to use the facts and statistics I have discovered in order to back up the points I make throughout the essay about Instagram being very successful in terms of impacting audience outreach. before discussing this , I am going to be discussing Instagram as a general platform so these facts will also help me to discuss Instagram and the scale it is actually on. I have found out information on Instagram demographics , Instagram for business and also just some general fun facts about the platform.
Influencer marketing is a very lucrative field however , although it is a sucessful field , there are some people who can scam you. Sometimes , spotting a fake influencer is easy however sometimes it can be a case of picking apart somebodys profile bit by bit. I have retrieved this information from another podcast within a series of podcasts called ‘Under the influence’.
One of the first ways to spot a fake instagram influencer is their followers to following ratio. Influencers typically follower 1-5% of their following , so if the ratio is much higher than that , this could be down to following growth hacks. If someone on Instagram is following for example 7’000 people and only have around 9 posts , this probably isn’t a good person to have as an influencer for your brand and won’t drive a lot of traffic.
Another way is looking at somebody’s quality of followers. Influencers with fake followers will have a bot heavy followers list full of people who are private and who don’t have any profile pictures. The chances are , that these accounts are from a paid service in order to boost an accounts following without the accounts actually being real. This is bad for brands due to the fact that the products wont be being advertised to real accounts therefor , brand awareness won’t increase.
It is also important to look at the content to following ratio. Any account with a few posts and a ton of instagram followers is probably fake , as it takes building up a good feed with good content in order to gain a loyal , true following. Influencers especially have been posting on a specific schedule for several months or even years in order to get their following to where it has become , therfor it is easy to tell when somebodys profile is fake if this is the case.
The account life span is also massivley important when spotting a fake influencer. If an account is brand new (unless an already existing well known celebrity) and it has a large following base , this should be enough to warn you that the ‘influencer’ is definetly fake. Over night sucesses with influencer are rare and the difference between real and fake influencers , is that they have taken the time and dedication to establish a large following.
The fifth reason is the engagement to follower research. You can select a variety of posts on an influencers posts , and check the engagement on each of the posts through the amount of likes and followers they have. Ideally there should be an engagement rate of 1-3% of their total following.
Here is an online copy of a book I found on google scholar. It has spoken about marketing on social media as a whole and why it is important to use it. As swedowsky stated in 2007 “businesses can not afford to ignore the benefits of using social media”. In the past , when traditional marketing methods were used , consumers often just had the opinions of a few friends before making a significant purchase. However the use of social media has increased the number of those opinions , starting from just a few hundred . to thousands and this is continuing to grow. Online acess for brands is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This reitirates how important social media (instagram specifically) is in terms of gaining audience outreach.
Businesses have also started to realise that consumers use social media because it is fun. It is an easy way of people sharing thoughts and opinions with one another. Furthermore , businesses have realised as well that it is important to have increased interaction with consumers and retailers. The use of social media gives brands the opportunity to meet the demands of their customers. With this in mind , social media is present in the majority of brands marketing schemes.
Traditional marketing is of course the first form of marketing and advertising before social media became so big and digital marketing started to take over. We have all been exposed to it at one point and it is a conventional mode of marketing that helps to reach out to a semi targeted audience with various offline advertising and promotional methods. Since it is the kind of marketing that we encounter on a daily basis , there isnt really any way of us avoiding it however , that doesn’t necessarily mean it is sucessful in comparison to digital marketing which has become a lot more apparent within our society today. The main types of advertising that fall within this category are print , broadcast , direct mail , telephone and outdoor billboards / flyers.
I think it will be good in my essay , when discussing marketing as a whole , to start by speaking about the traditional methods of advertising and how this has developed into what we call digital marketing. Following on from this , I am going to speak about Instagram being the most prominent and popular way of engaging with an audience and advertising a product.
I have also looked into how and when digital marketing began. It was first used on the 1990’s when the internet came in a commercial sense. This took of course over a decade for it to become the main platform for marketing activities and has now exploded. Tim Berners- Lee launched the World Wide Web project in 1991 however everything properly triggered three years later when market browser Netscape was released. Two years later, the number of people using the web raised to 70million. This number started to constantly grow and the internet eveolved through some of todays biggest names. For example google in 1997 , Amazon in 1994 and Ebay in 1995.
Although social media has definetley taken over , traditional marketing is still an important way to market certain business. However digital marketing is a increasingly important revenue driver. This is supported by the fact that businesses reported half of their revenue is influenced through sales on social media. In a recent survey 50% of marketers said that they believe digital marketing has an edge over traditional marketing because of the interaction and engagement digital marketing opens with customers. Through marketing online , businesses can have full controll of their audience growth and see real time results.
To summarise , Instagram has over 700 million users worldwide , making it one of the most highly engaged social media networks in existence. Brands certainly use this to thei advantage with it being so many users. Research has shown that 92% of individuals turn to people that they know for reccomendations and reviews which makes it clear as to why people are using Instagram Influencers into their marketing strategies and content. Research has also shown that word of mouth is one of the most valuable forms of marketing. If an influencer has something , they say its good and it looks good, you tell your friend about it, they tell theirs etc.
This is another lot of research I could potentially use when discussing influencer marketing generally to introduce my contextual awareness.
In terms of using Influencers to market a product , all a brand has to do is find one suitable Influencer which will then allow them to gain access to thousands of the influencers followers. De Vierman , Cauberge and Hudders in 2017 , found that Influencers with more followers were deemed more likeable because of their popularity. This network of followers is the primary benfit of influencer marketing , as long as you choose the right influencer , the right content and you are putting the right message across , just one post on Instagram can have a massive impact on audience outreach , answering the question how has Instagram impacted audience outreach ? Influencers are a key reason for this.
Summarising this research , I can take from this that Instagram advertisements allow your business to include clickable links as part of promoted posts. This is a good enough reason to consider advertising on Instagram and having the ability to click a link within an advertised post is immensely helpful when it comes to driving traffic to a businesses website. Posts that are not boosted as advertisment don’t have this ability.
Due to the fact that Instagram adverts drive traffic to a website , this also increases visibility of a post and the brand as a whole.
The biggest struggle for any business or any brand who is using social media as a marketig tool , is breaking through the millions of other posts that are circling social media daily. Pay to play is something I have mentioned in previous research , however this method is appearing in various different sources therefor this backs up the fact that it is the quickets and most effective way to achieve maximum views. It is crucial to produce and create compelling Instagram posts that will make people want to follow you and engage with your content , therefor you need a lot of commitment to get your feed looking good. Paying for an advertisment is that little push a brand sometimes to get a post out there to a wider group of people.
From this research I have found that over 90% of people said they would trust an influencers word over a brands own advertising. Influencer marketing is taking over traditional forms of advertisement. This form of advertising has made such a large impact on consumers, on Instagram. Overall the growth in influencer marketing is definitely a positive and it will continue to make a good impression on consumers. This research shows that it Is partly because Instagram has experienced phenomenal progression over the last few years and there are no signs of it slowing down.
I am going to use this information within my contextual awareness paragraph , discussing Instagram influencers and some case studies.
Social media has become an integrated part of our lives and since this has happened it has given influencer marketing has exploded. People definetley turn to and rely on Instagram models and twitter personalities for advice and recommendations on purchasing decisions. Influencers are trusted by millions of consumers and it is clear that marketers are paying attention. This is backed up by the fact that 86% of marketers have used influencer marketing since last year. Also budgets for influencer marketing are definitley increasing. It is clear that social media has certianly given normal people an opportunity to build their own brand through stimulating content and engagement. Influencers are seen as more normal and relatable than traditional , A-list celebrities and since more and more people use social media on a daily basis , companies have hit realisation that they cana leverage platforms , especially Instagram for marketing products.
This information can be used for 2 aspects of my essay. Firstly to incorporate knowledge on Social media generally , discussing the fact that it is an integrated part of ourlives. This has therefor allowed Influencer marketing to explode which is something I will discuss in the third part of my essay , giving some background as to what my contextual awareness will be about which is Instagram influencers and potentially other successful marketing campaigns.
For my final major project I am going to be producing my own Fashion Campaign , using Instagram as my main platform to promote it on. Therefor I thought it would be interesting to invorporate research into fashion campaigns and influencer marketing as well since they rely heavily on it as organic growth. Interestingly within this sector , 57% of companies use influencers use this as part of their marketing mix whilst another 21% are planning on using it within the next year.
One of the best parts of using Instagram for your business is that Instagram gives you the opportunity to have an actual business profile that you can utilize. When signing up to Instagram there is a personal Instagram option and a Business Instagram option. Interestingly there are 25 million business profiles on Instagram. This is proof that in order to be competitive within the market, it is essential that you have an Instagram business profile. The difference between having a business profile in comparison to a personal Instagram account is that it allows you access to analytics which means you can see statistics and demographics from your following. This helps as a brand, being able to understand who your target audience is and what they actually like. As talked about previously, Instagram also allows you to promote your Instagram posts at a minimal cost which is something that you can’t do with a personal Instagram account.
A lot of people may think, why pay to promote your Instagram posts? However people do this because the chances of all your followers seeing your Instagram posts is very slim therefor promoting a post boosts it that extra bit.
In comparison to Facebook or Twitter for example, Instagram definitely allows you to build a brand Image through pictures and videos a lot better. Instagram despite having a website is generally used through the official mobile app by 700 million users all over the world. Due to the fact that that it is completely clutter free and as a social media marketer, you enjoy better customer engagement. This is where Instagram stands out against any other social media. A statistic to back this up is a study has shown that Instagram users are 58 times more likely to comment, like or share a picture compared to Facebook. This is the ultimate level of engagement. The more your content gets shared and the more comments you get, the better it is for your business. People use Instagram simply because they love it as a social media networking app, therefor this makes gaining audience outreach easier.
I am probably going to use some of this information in the second part of my essay when discussing Instagram as a platform, linking in specifically how it is good for a business.
One of the many reasons why Instagram is essential for a business is because of its visual nature. From this research, I can clarify that photos are the most engaging form of content on the internet and social media. Visual posts actually produce 650% higher engagement than text only posts. This is evidence that photos are the most engaging content. Following on from this it shows how great of a platform Instagram actually is in terms of engaging an audience and using it helps to develop your brand.
Summarising this research , although there are lots of other different social media platforms , Instagram is considered to be the best form of social media platform to promote your business , gain engagement , brand awareness and it also allows you to connect with your followers on a more personal level. The reason why it is so widely used and so popular is because its visual, simple, easy to use and its appealing to a younger demographic. It has so many opportunities and goes beyond visuals. This is because it allows you to create a social media platform that highlights a brands voice and goals. Furthermore It is a way of showcasing a product and driving sales in a way that allows the audience to engage therfor having a positive impact on audience outreach. Its an extremley powerful tool that every business should be using wether you are large or small and just beginning.
I am going to use this information in the second paragraph of my essay which leads into discussing Instagram as a platform in general and explaining hy businesses should be using to promote and market their brand.
Instagram is also perfect to use due to the fact it is available to use via mobile. A fact to back this up is that 80% of social media browsing takes place on mobile devices therefor , building a platform on Instagram is perfect as atleast 80% will have access too it. The way people shop online has changed ever since the smart phone hs become more apparent in society due to the fact they are quick and convenient because they are small and compact. A key part of marketing is keeping up with the trends and its fast paced nature.
Again , this information is going to be used when discussing Instagram as a platform and the reasons why people use it and why people who don’t, should.
Instagram also gives businesses access to so many amazing features. Here is a screenshot just one out of the variety that Instagram have to offer. IGTV is a great way of demonstrating tutorials etc. . These days , people watch less TV and more digital video. This is backed through the fact that by 2021 mobile video will account for 78% of mobile data traffic. IGTV is built for how people actually use their phone which is vertical and upright. Longer , vertical videos on Instagram make it a lot easier for people to engage with an audience. This therefor affects audience outreach in a massive way.
In conclusion , if you want to launch a successful social media campaign or want to promote your brand / business further , then Instagram is definetly the way forward. This is all down to the amount of engagement it recieves. This is supported by the fact everyday users share 95million photos and videos amassing 4.2 billion likes in just 24hours. This amount of activity daily gives Instagram the highest ranking out of the three major social media networks (Twitter , Facebook , Instagram ). Facebook lags behind with only 0.59% of the total audience actually engaging even though there are more users. This is because of the features Instagram has , as talked about previously. In order to reach more people , Facebook makes you pay however Instagram is the opposite. Although Instagrams algorithm makes it that little bit harder for your posts to be seen , you definetley dont need to pay in order to get them seen as there are plenty of free options. There is also the option to promote your post if you want to push it that bit further without spending a lot of money. This puts your post into the category of the 1 billion highly engaged users.
From this research I have understood that influencers are a great way to drive traffic to a brand in order to impact audience outreach in a positive way. Celebrity influencers online are often paid to promote a brand however , a lot of influencers can be misleading and not necessarily sincere with what they are promoting. When influencing is done correctly it can give your brand access to a large number of people.
This research has shown me the importance of influencers on a smaller scale within the next 10 years , due to the fact that they hold a unique value and can reach a niche audience who are clearly very engaged with the posts that they put out. Brands have certainly began to understand the impact influencers can have on audience out reach. Instagram are currently getting rid of the amount of likes on a picture which means that there will be more emphasis on a quality of content. Instagram has given people the opportunity to distribute short and sweet updates . The app has undoubtedly propelled the influencer movement, and turned some personalities into social celebrities.
This section of my research is going to be used when I am discussing specifically the methods instagram use in order to get more engagement and exceed audience outreach.
Brands have definetley started to increase their usage of instagram in order to promote a product and engage an audience. Some people have started up brands that are solely based on instagram. The brand Daniel Wellington is a perfect example of this as they have by passed traditional advertising all together making them europes fastest growing company between 2013-2015. I will use this research in my essay to justify the fact that brands can grow on instagram
Summarising this part of my research , once building a good relationship with Influencers , it allows your brand to reach their followers as well as your own , therefor generating brand awareness. There is a very high chance that the followers your brand has , won’t be the same as the ones they have even if you are in the same industry. Influencers tend to have a strong, loyal following so if you have a good relationship with them , it allows you the chance to promote your brand as an ad through them uploading a post dedicated to a product you are trying to sell , market or campaign for.
year 2 media blog 