WHAT IS INSTAGRAM

My name is Alex Copeland and I work with Richard Fairbairn and the online success model team. And this is section one of our INSTAGRAM marketing video training.

INSTAGRAM MARKETING BASICS

In this section we talk about what INSTAGRAM is all about and what can INSTAGRAM do for your business. We also talk about shocking INSTAGRAM marketing facts to consider and then INSTAGRAM walkthrough.

What is INSTAGRAM all about?

INSTAGRAM is a photo sharing social network. It’s a visual discovery platform focused on user generated content and it has predominantly social media orientated features.

Unlike most other social networks, INSTAGRAM was designed from the ground up for mobile devices. It started out in 2010 when it was launched as a free photo sharing app for IOS devices. It was then followed up by an Android version as well as a feature limited desktop interface two years later.

Much like all of the social networks, INSTAGRAM allows you to set up a user profile and from here you can upload and share visual media such as photos and short form videos to other users.

The idea behind INSTAGRAM is definitely simple but very elegant. So much so that Facebook saw it and acquired it in 2012 for $1 billion.

What can you find on INSTAGRAM?

Well, INSTAGRAM is mostly famous because it allows its users to share awesome visual content and because of that you can basically find any type of content on this platform. So it’s great for finding different content.

The first thing that you are going to find when you join INSTAGRAM is probably your friends and then you can discover that you can find all of your favourite things on INSTAGRAM. You can find your favourite brands, your favourite musicians, your favourite actors, your favourite fictional characters and you can even find your favourite food. This is why INSTAGRAM is so popular on social media. And it’s also the reason why it’s so easily monetized because it’s focused towards creating engagement.

Brands of all sizes and industries use INSTAGRAM to their advantage. And a new breed of marketing known as influencers have been able to make six figure living and thanks to INSTAGRAM.

What can you do on INSTAGRAM?

INSTAGRAM allows you to easily upload and share photos and videos. You can follow other users and you can even geo-tag your images with the name of the location where the photos were taken so that they can be grouped together with similar ones.

You can connect INSTAGRAM to your other social networking accounts to share on those too and you can use what’s called hash-tags. These are there to make your content easier to find.

Besides these basic features INSTAGRAM also allows you to use an explore feature where you can find visual content according to either popular locations or your search criteria or more. You can also apply filters on your posted images to make them more stylized and you can upload 15 second videos.

You have the ability to directly connect with other users via a private message. Now there are more advanced features such as stories on monetization but we will discuss them in the following videos.

Let’s continue on this course and tell you some more of the awesome benefits that INSTAGRAM has to offer your business.