Instagram’s Digital Influence on Big Businesses

Key takeaways

• Trying to embody authenticity and show the human side of a brand will continue to be a big focus

• Influencers and other social media personalities will play an increasingly prominent role in marketing

• Smaller businesses will be able to compete with established brands due to the low cost of Instagram’s advertising platform

The importance of visuals

Social media is a visual place. Gone are days when the act of sharing thoughts was limited to people who had a way with words. The rise of Facebook and, most recently, Instagram has changed the way people interact in the online world. 

Today’s audiences today take great interest in images, and well-crafted images and videos have become the name of the game. This in turn has paved the way for businesses to create more visually oriented advertising. 

Big businesses and Instagram

The rise of Instagram 

Instagram launched in 2010 and gained one million users in only a few months. The app’s strong focus on sharing photos and interacting through comments helped it spread by word of mouth and grow organically. As IG has continued to grow, its owner, Meta, has only added more features to the app. 

Ways of engagement and what it means for businesses 

The fact that big companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and iconic brands like Dr. Martens advertise on Instagram is not a coincidence. Instagram has become more and more engaging over the years, and one of the ways it has done this, other than through advertisements, is via influencers.

Whether through producing clever adverts or story posts, influencers are great at helping businesses engage their core audiences and reach out to new customers. But this also raises the question of relatability and how brands can humanize themselves in the eyes of their customers.

Instagram’s status as a fast-paced platform and the shifting of brands to exhibit their creative side in order to showcase their authenticity is a sign of changing tactics for marketers. 

The rise of influencers and other forms of social media interactions means that brands will be focusing much of their attention on the internet. For the foreseeable future, differentiating yourself from the competition with an emphasis on authenticity will be one of the biggest factors that businesses will focus on. 

Targeted marketing and the human factor

Instagram’s way of targeting users is made possible by Meta and the large number of users that the company can draw data from. As mentioned earlier, the role of the influencer has become more important in the age of Instagram and Facebook, with many brands collaborating with the platform’s most prominent social media stars in order to extend their reach. 

This also raises the question of how businesses try to attract customers. In an effort to make a lasting impression on those loyal to their brand and those whom they hope will become loyal to their brand, businesses are inviting influencers to play a part and even serve as the face of a new product or service.

Further boosting these efforts are Meta’s advertising tools, which log how users interact with ads and react accordingly to show them more appropriate ones based on their activity on the platform. Thus, showing users familiar faces alongside familiar content makes reaching out to potential customers that much easier. 

Small businesses and fighting chances

One of the most profound marks that Instagram has left on the social media landscape is the low cost of entry for smaller businesses that want to spread awareness of their brand.

Through the use of Instagram’s powerful Ads Manager tool, businesses of all sizes are able to tap into a crucial resource: audience insights. Instagram ads are relatively inexpensive and marketers can tweak them to find out how people interact with their online posts.

A simple like, comment or share can say a lot about how people feel about an ad, which in turn has helped companies keep ads as relevant as possible.  This has helped companies better understand how they can better retain, maintain, and even grow their current target audience, regardless of size. 

Thus, the low barrier of entry in terms of cost and the high yield that a carefully managed Instagram Ads campaign can bring has enabled smaller businesses to compete with larger brands to some extent.

Instagram is a powerful tool that has left a mark in the world of marketing. As the brand grows and its owner, Meta, continues to add more features to the platform, we can only expect it to continue paving the way for brands to find more ways to engage with the wider world.