Sara-Baugh-Online Check out this amazing photo app... And see how it could help you make money from the local business marketing boom!
Check out this amazing photo app... And see how it could help you make money from the local business marketing boom!
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Last week, like everyone else in the UK, I was mostly taking photos of snow. The back garden covered in snow, the children covered in snow, the WHOLE WORLD covered in snow. Snap snap snap. The weather led to what felt like an avalanche of photographs landing on Facebook and Twitter.
Not that I’m moaning. I loved looking through them all.
In fact, sometimes (usually when flicking through 673 photos of a girl I sat next to in Science 20 years ago) I think I spend such a disproportionate amount of my life staring at photos on Facebook and that I should probably seek some form of therapy.
And I’m not alone. It’s probably not surprising to hear that of all types of content online, photos (along with videos) are the most likely to be shared.
In recent months, a new trend has emerged in online photo sharing that I wanted us to touch upon today as a place to think about opportunity...
Have you heard about the mobile app Instagram?
Instagram is a very easy to use photo sharing service.
If you don’t have an iPhone or haven’t come across the app, it is a service that allows you to take a pic using your iPhone camera and ‘stylize’ it using pre-set photo filters (they make the photos look retro, funky and to many people much more appealing than a plain snap).
You can then publish your creation directly to your choice of sites including Facebook and Twitter.
But why is this of interest to us?
Well, images are a fantastic tool for any business, and, as we said, the type of content most likely to be shared. Like me, most people naturally gravitate towards images. And it’s also much easier to evoke emotion through images.
Over the years, loads has been written on the subject of using other photo sharing services like Flickr for business (easy if you know how… and are an amazing photographer!) but Instagram is worth thinking about in a fresh light – it’s more than a bit different.
Not only does Instagram let you to give photos more personality, but can be put to practical use.
Notably, I can imagine it being used as yet another tool in the ever expanding and exciting mix of local business marketing tools.
E.g. A local barber shop can quickly and easily take some stylish and artistic snaps to share of the shop that make it look inviting and appealing to new customers and then can also take snaps of finished hairstyles, beard trimming, whatever…
Instagram’s ‘search’ facility allows people to find photos via keywords attributed to individual photos with a hashtag. I have a friend using the service who attaches over ten keywords to every one of his snaps. He then gets hundreds of ‘likes’ and shares from every one of his photos very quickly.
Photos can be tagged geographically to target users in your (or any businesses) area and the keywords used can target those individuals with some simple research in to the searches, tags and activity of the Instagram users in your area that you want to target.
Instagram is a FAST growing app in a very hot area (the most recent stats I could find were estimated many millions of uploaded photos and growing at a rate of over 15 photos a SECOND). The app’s growth has momentum behind it right now, and getting some leverage out of the popularity of this service is something to consider before everyone gets in on the act…
If you have an iPhone I urge you to take a look at Instagram today and think about how you might be able to use it to help promote a local business, or to help promote any one of your ventures.
Look at the hashtags attached to the photos listed under ‘popular’ (they will be underneath photos and be a hash followed by a word or two e.g. #internet) and think about how you could adopt similar tactics to drive people to your photos and to any business as a result.
To be sure of success on Instagram, just be sure to post interesting images - lifestyle and aspirational photos, post consistently and be sure to get any existing online community in your business or niche involved as we’d say with any social networking.
Instagram is a brilliant starting point for any business to start a content (photo) based competition. Have followers submit photos to a themed hashtag, judge them, and repost the winners.
Savvy entrepreneurs and brands are already picking up on this opportunity and coming up with all sorts of creative ideas to cash in on the new trend – I just stumbled across this rather snazzy service offering to turn Instagram snaps in to magnets: http://stickygram.com
The time to experiment is now!
If you want to chat about Instagram and how you can use it get in touch – I’m really excited about this!
by Sara Baugh
Online Opportunities Expert
Sara has several years experience at the cutting edge of Internet Marketing and is a regular contributor to Internet Income Detective. You can sign up for her free weekly eletter here:
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