This post was written before the coronavirus pandemic.
The globe has shifted to social networking. Social websites are now the most visited places around the web, with Instagram becoming one of the main interaction points for millions of users across the globe.
The main advantage of the platform over other social networks is the prevalence of visual content. We all heard an expression “seeing is believing”, visual content is much better for perception, and it sounds much louder than any words. Photos build trust; people want images, and Instagram hits the spot.
Pictures provoke an instant emotional reaction; thus, visual content can be used to stimulate powerful emotions, get a desired responding, and build emotional connections. This dramatically increases engagement and influence.
For the past five years, the number of Instagram users has grown by more than 300 percent, and it has currently more than 800 million subscribers. The website has become the largest platform for influencers. Creating your own network of such influencers can turn the platform into a powerful, effective, and cost-efficient tool for running a business. Just have a look at these numbers: half of the platform users follow at least one brand, around 60 percent of members find out the information about a product or service on the website, while 75 percent of Instagrammers take action after looking through a post.
The influence of Instagram is not limited to some groups of users or audiences, it’s much bigger. The latest statistical data show that the platform has already affected whole industries. In this post, we are going to give a brief overview of the main industries where Instagram has the greatest impact. If your one is on the list, then you can easily use this info to work out your own Instagram business strategy in order to keep pace with your competitors.
Restaurant business
Instagram plays an important role in the restaurant industry, influencing and even pushing to making changes. Without exaggeration, Insta has already turned this business industry on its head. Most restaurateurs today monitor and analyze Instagrammers’ posts and images in order to shape their business to be in correspondence with clients’ expectations. Providing detailed feedback with photos and comments, Instagrammers almost suggest restaurant-keepers how to organize their business process, how and what to cook, how to plan and design a restaurant hall, and even the way to serve. Instagram users’ activity has an invaluable impact on the whole industry, it can be proven by statistics, as the numbers tell their own tale. Just imagine, the majority of people use Insta to choose where to eat, about 60 percent of youths tend to review menus online, and around 70 percent of young folks say they take photos of their food and post them on Instagram. Today, due to increasing Instagrammers’ activity, restaurant owners pay attention to and alter such things as entire hall decoration, lighting, dishes, etc., considering also to make them all look well in the shot.
Selling industry
As opposed to the recent past, when consumers addressed to a company itself, today, customers tend to look at fellow customers in the buying decision process. Around 80 percent of millennials don’t trust traditional ads. More than 70 percent of platform members say their purchase decisions much depend on something that they find while browsing the app. Moreover, there is no need to have celebrities for influencing shopping behavior, as Insta users report that current customers’ feedback is the most authoritative. Therefore, both B2C and B2B companies use their current clients as “advertisers” on the platform. As stats show, about 70 percent of top brands use Instagram as an influencer marketing strategy.
Tourist industry
Being a perfect vacation planning tool, Instagram is one of the first preferred platforms among travelers. According to research data, about 70 percent of tourists use the app to share their travel plans, and more than 60 percent – to get some inspirations for new trips. Instagrammers report that the platform is a part of their decision-making process in searching for locations. One in three people books a hotel that was recommended by the peers on Insta. The growth of Instagram influencers in the tourism sector made those that are involved rethink their strategies. Although the platform’s presence in this industry shows positive effects and a significant increase in tourism in some countries, the network’s impact also has a negative side – over-tourism. As far as you know, the platform’s service allows users to make hidden places widely known. Such places are surrounded by nature worth protecting, due to their promotion on Instagram, they are becoming too overcrowded that it can result in conflicts with locals and even destroy nature.
Fashion industry
Instagram is all about showing, it influences the way we look at the world, and it alters how designers create things. Every minute Instagrammers browse the latest fashions and trends to find out what celebrities and influencers are wearing. About 50 percent of Instagram members follow fashion accounts to search for inspiration for their outfits. Fashion brands know that now people don’t trust advertising, as they did in the past, and rely on social media. That’s why brand companies focus their marketing efforts on Instagram and cooperate with the network’s models to promote their products. But the platform not only shapes our views on fashion but also transforms how brands and customers interact with each other. For example, now the platform enables users to purchase clothes in one click straight from the app.
Insta is a world connected by photos, which can change and shape the mindset of people, affect and manage various activities, change business directions and trends.
If you haven’t gotten on this bandwagon yet, but want to, then keep in mind that anything you are going to carry out by using the platform must be Instagrammable.
Read in source: di-engine.com