Good day, guys. Welcome to this week’s episode on familiarizing yourself with the digital world to empower and uplift your community.
Last week, we discuss how web2.0 came into existence and its relationship with social media. Taking us back to the evolution of the world wide web; when changes can’t be made on the web, down to the emergence of web 2.0 and social media which enable users to make changes on the web.
Many social media applications have emerged in response to users wishing to have easy-to-use, rich media applications that permit them to quickly interact with peers, anonymous like-minded temporary friends, or people in close proximity.
Most of these applications are not central to business social media plans, nor will many businesses roll out a presence on these platforms. However, it is important for business planners to realize that these virtual environments exist and may exert an influence on potential customers and on their reputations.
Popular mobile applications in this category include Instagram, Snapchat, Yik Yak, Whisper, Tinder, Vine, Meerkat, and Periscope.
Today, we will highlight how these social media application works most especially, for business users and what some businesses are doing to leverage these technologies.
Read on
Let’s start with Instagram.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, in October 2010. Instagram is a free cloud-based mobile photo and video sharing networking application. It is an easy-to-use app that allows users to quickly share pictures and videos taken with mobile devices like phones, I pad, laptops and others. Sharing can be private or public and allows posting on an Instagram feed as well as through other services including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.
Users create a profile and are provided with a news feed that displays posts from friends and other relevant sources.
As for Instagram's popularity, it has become a very popular application with more than 400 million monthly visitors. Unlike other social media services, according to its terms of services, Instagram does not claim ownership rights regarding any posted material (including photographs, music, and videos). These ads appeal to artists, musicians, and photographers who want to obtain publicity for their materials but do not wish to surrender their copyright.
Instagram use is driven by visual sharing and acquiring followers. A posted photo or video appears on the account holder’s profile. Followers will see the same post in their news feed. Users have “followers” and “following” count to display their level of popularity and potential interaction. Each user’s profile has a button that can be tapped to follow their posts.
Private profile followers’ requests need approval from the account holder. By default, accounts are set to "public" which means that anyone can find and view a user’s posted items unless that user has set the account to private. An Instagram user can double-tap a post to ‘like’ it and then if desired, add a comment. Users can apply a variety of filters to alter their photos.
Aspect ratios can be changed and colors modified to enhance interest.
Hence, Instagram videos are limited to 15 seconds.
Business interest in Instagram is rapidly increasing. This movement was motivated, in part, by several factors.
First, Instagram's audience is highly desirable. The platform reaches many females (68% of its user base), most of whom are under 35 years old. And many users fall into middle and higher income brackets, making them attractive to retailers seeking customers.
Second, Instagram has rolled out a number of attractive advertising programs.
According to instagram.com, these programs make it so businesses can share their stories with a highly engaged audience in a creative, high-quality environment and drive action with their ads.
Instagram also provides photo, video, and carousel ads (which allow a swipe function through a number of photos). The ads are designed to move a customer to a website where items can be purchased or other actions are taken. The ads are specially formulated for mobile platforms and are created with wizards (a computer utility designed to simplify the execution of lengthy or complicated tasks). Case studies and engagement statistics from Instagram indicate that its audience comprises a highly active group of users willing to make purchases and interact with advertisers.
In August 2016, Instagram introduced a new feature called ‘Stories’. With stories, Instagram users share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. People see ‘Stories’ from those that they follow and know when something new has appeared because their profile photo displays a colorful surrounding ring. Once the stories disappear, there are no likes or public comments for these postings. Instagram suggests sending private messages to communicate about "stories". Additional stories adhere to the user’s privacy setting to ensure only desired followers can view a particular post. Features enable an account holder to see who has viewed each photo and video.
By releasing stories, Instagram has intensified its rivalry with Snapchat.
Haven discussed how different social media have emerged to respond to users' wishes, and taking Instagram as our first case study on how web 2.0 has helped business, next week we will be providing value to Instagram users.
Stay frosty!
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