A brief history of social media
We all know that social media has changed. Back in the day social media was, well social. Social networks were a place to exchange information, meet new people, and even establish yourself as a subject matter expert.
For brands that were creative and savvy enough to take advantage of it, social media was a place to really talk and listen to their customers.
Then came social media advertising. Newsfeeds started being jammed up with ads and information didn’t flow quite as freely. Then came Facebook’s super complex algorithm, supposedly designed for a better user experience, but ultimately meant you only saw a portion of the things you wanted.
The shining light emerged as Instagram.
The emergence of Instagram
People flocked to Instagram as a cleaner network to share images and chat with friends without being bogged down by ads.
With more than 400 million users Instagram has surpassed Twitter to become the #2 social network and is even competing with YouTube on video consumption.
Instagram has also proven to be a huge hit with the younger crowd, specifically teens 32% whom use Instagram compared to only 14% using Facebook*.
When Instagram first opened up advertising they did in a smart way. Accounts had to reached a certain level of popularity before they were allowed access to adds. Sadly that has changed and Instagram is now a pay-to-play model.
Instragram has opened up their advertising and now taps into Facebook’s advertising technology, offering ads to business of all sizes in 30 countries around the world.
Why are Instagram ads a problem?
Think it’s odd that as a digital brand strategist I’m bemoaning the expansion of an ad platform? The truth is that I do use social media advertising and I will very likely use Instagram ads. But I dislike the way that social media has transformed, due in a large part because of advertising.
Social media advertising has allowed brands to skip the part of social media that made it so special – establishing connections and having genuine conversations.
Since Instagram doesn’t require a lot of conversion, my hope is that advertisers will focus on creating great visual content and allow Instagram to keep its integrity. Advertising has changed many other networks and it will be interesting to see what it does to Instagram.
But whether I like it or not, Instagram ads are here. If you plan to have a strong presence on social media, you should definitely know the tools of the trade so here’s a tutorial to creating Instagram ads platform.
*AmigoBulls.com: Instagram Surpasses Twitter In User Growth
