Popular image sharing app, Instagram, has become one of the greatest mediums to build a brand. Most people got the wrong notion that Instagram is used only by photographers, but the fact is that it can be used by the common people too who focus more on building their online presence.
Instagram is not just an image sharing app, but the option to add filters and retro style graphics adds the real fun on presenting the subject. And that’s what makes this app more unique and easy to use. Instagram can be used for several purposes. Whether it’s about sharing your new pieces of stuff, your travel experiences or about your company events, Instagram can post it all with a unique outlook.
Instagram is a mobile-only app which is available in popular OS platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. To use this app, you need to sign up using your email id and create a unique Instagram handle with a password. You can edit and modify your profile information and add a display image which would be publicly visible.
Next to stay updated with your friend’s pictures, you can add them to your list and can also add your Facebook friends to find what they are sharing in the app. Now you can start uploading and share your images on Instagram by adding cool retro effects.
Choosing your Instagram handle
The Instagram handle is a simple and unique username which will help you build your online presence. Few of the popular Instagram handles are, CuteSugar, AngelDoll, Romeo, Genius-General, etc. You can also add your name in your handle to make people recognise your account. Some of the Instagram handles sound similar to each other, so it’s very important to choose a unique username that makes you recognisable and helps others remember it easily.
Who uses Instagram?
As I said, Instagram can be used by anyone, and it’s not necessary that he/she should be experienced in photography or similar other stuff to use it. Instagram can rectify and enhance any image even if it is not properly shot. A number of people from various industries use this app.
Authors
Instagram can help build an author’s profile in the most exceptional way. An author can take a shot of his/her latest publication and share in on Instagram along with the discounts and offers they are offering with the copy. It may generate more fan followers and readers who’d take an interest in the publication.
Bloggers
Bloggers can use Instagram as a medium to promote and market their blogs. They can take a screenshot of their latest post title and add a relevant image to it to boost its productivity and reach. For reviewers, you can shoot the product that you’re reviewing next and upload it in the app, and this would bring the enthusiastic readers to your blog.
Celebrities
Celebrities have already joined this league and gained massive fan followers. They shoot their event pictures, movie promotions and upload them to their followers to obtain a high reach. For example, if they are a movie star, they influence their fans to look forward to their next releases. In this way, Instagram helps them to get more popular and hence more followers.
Why Celebrities like Instagram?
The greatest personalities love Instagram due to its friendliness and the openness it provides to interact with fans.
Build a relationship with followers
Instagram help celebrities build a strong relationship with their followers. It can be done by commenting and liking each other’s images and creating interactive sessions with fans.
Allows a sneak peek into their personal lives
Where in news and media, followers can just have a peek into the personal lives of their favourite celebrities, Instagram allows them to question and learn a lot more about them. Celebrities can optionally share what’s going on their private lives and lets followers have a look at them.
Get unlimited fans
Celebrities can obtain unlimited fan followers for their Instagram account which is mostly restricted to the other social networking platforms. This way celebrities can build a huge fan following and reach out the broader audience.
Easy to reach out to fans
Nothing else benefits the superstars to reach out to their fans like Instagram provides. With the exclusive interacting and communicating sessions, personalities can speak to their fans and share their thoughts. They can also collect feedbacks on their latest releases and promotions.
Helps broadcast themselves
Celebrities are much fascinated to the platforms those allow to broadcast or show off themselves, and Instagram does the same in an audio-visual way. Celebrities can showcase their pictures and videos through the app and can easily highlight themselves to their fans. It is, in fact, a faster way to promote them.
A marketing and promoting medium
Instagram has become one of the greatest marketing tools for personalities. It helps them in organising surveys and feedbacks on their promotions. Instagram helps celebrities in powerfully building their brands and make themselves more and more popular.
Directly interact with fans
No other media allows direct contact with fans like Instagram does. You can build personal conversations and interactive groups to chat with your fan and ask for their opinions.
Popular Celebrities and Personalities who use Instagram
In this section, I am listing down the top celebrities with their Instagram handles who actively use Instagram for marketing themselves.
Naomi Campbell
Halle Berry
Serena Williams
Sarah Jessica Parker
David Beckham
Mandy Moore
Michelle Obama
Justin Bieber
Shakira
Ryan Seacrest
Beyonce
Selena Gomez
The Rock
Jesse Williams
Madonna
Katy Perry
Adriana Lima
Taylor Swift
Britney Spears
Bob Harper
Rihanna
Jennifer Lopez
Christiano Ronaldo
Miley Cyrus
Kim Kardashian
Few Indian Celebrities on Instagram
Deepika Padukone
Priyanka Chopra
Alia Bhatt
Amitabh Bachchan
Madhuri Dixit Nene
How Instagram help you build your online presence?
Helps highlighting your content
Instagram brings the subject right in the spotlight so that viewers get easily attracted to it and help you get recognised. It is a platform that showcases and promotes a brand or person and allows you to speak out to people about it. For example, GoPro showcases their activities with great camera clicks and tell people how exciting their adventures are. It makes the audience go crazy about the brand, and they seek for opportunities to work with them.
Keeps your presence intact
It’s important to maintain consistency in the network to stand until a greater time. A balanced maintenance is crucial to run a network steadily with the same or a greater fan following. Since Instagram provides a visual representation of your work, viewers will carry the same interest as they were taking earlier. Only the journey needs to be maintained by you.
Hashtags broadens your reach
Hashtags (#) are the key substance to expand your posts and reach the widest audience. When you add a particular hashtag to a post, it spreads widely. When any user searches the network with that particular hashtag, he/she shall be able to view your update even if they are not in your contact list. Hashtags keeps a track of your mentions and assist you better in promoting and marketing your brand.
Highlight your skills
Instagram is an exciting platform to highlight and showcase your talent in the form of a picture or video. Basically, photographers take a huge advantage of this feature because everything is related to image clicking here. Even if you are not a professional person who’d like to show off your work, but would rather share something that you created out of excitement, then Instagram is the right place to bring it into the spotlight.
Spread user content to multiple social networks
Sharing content on Instagram, not only keeps it limited to the same network, but you can also share the same on Facebook and Twitter. Like Instagram, these two social networks also perform efficiently and help their users in marketing and promoting their brands. So, optionally, you can share the same Instagram post on these networks to find a greater number of audience and followers. Sharing an image on Facebook and Twitter is an integrated option which is available to users in Instagram.
Conclusion
Since the daily marketing and publishing trend is changing, people don’t prefer using the old ways promote a product. Social media has become the king of marketing nowadays, and so the visual recognition of products turned out to be a big necessity. Instagram has encouraged people to promote their brands with a visual representation that captivated maximum users towards it. And so today it is preferred as one of the best marketing and promoting apps.
Image courtesy:Screenshots from the corresponding social media profiles on Instagram.
Image courtesy:Pixabay
©2016Digitaldimensions4u.com The content is copyrighted to Reji Stephenson and may not be reproduced on other websites.
Hi Priyanka,
Instagram is one of my favorite image sharing website and I have it installed on my Android phone. It helps to share images and also follow interesting people around.
Yes it does. Thanks Marty 🙂
Hi Marty,
Thanks for the visit and the comment. Hoping to see you again.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
In today’s world images and pics of the products are the ones which provide the accurate deception of any product. if any business doesn’t have their presence on Instagram then it might be a pitfall for its progress. As the Instagram is used by millions of customers around the globe, it’s a huge platform to enhance sales by doing effective internet marketing.
Hi Mark,
Glad to see your comments and I totally agree with you the fact that Instagram is a one of the best platforms to enhance sales using internet marketing methods.
Keep Sharing.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
That’s right Mark, images effectively work in marketing and so this step has been taken up by the majority of online marketers. Thank you for your feedback 🙂
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Priyanka,
I used to be on Instagram and it’s a great place to share photos, but they recently change their algorithm and very disappointed with that.
Louis
Hi Louis,
Thank you very much for the visit and the comment.Hoping to see your insights again.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
Then may be you need to change your image posting strategies. Hope you find an effective way to gain profit out of it. Thanks Louis for sharing this.
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Reji
Just finished a boot camp with Robin. Instagram is a social platform that should not be ignored. It is a platform that is trending and it is no wonder that it is been loved by celebrities. Thanks for sharing this post. Have a wonderful weekend. Take Care
Hi Ikechi,
Thank you for your visit and the comment. Have a great time blogging.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
Thanks Ikechi 🙂
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Reji,
I have never used Instagram. I guess I cannot see the value of sharing images and what it might do for my own online business. I may have to look into this further, thanks for sharing.
Enjoy the journey!
Hi Mandy,
Glad to see your comments again. Instgram is the one of the best social media platforms in terms of building a personal brand. Branding ourselves will make a good impact on our online business.
Thanks and regards
Reji Stephenson
I know you are probably right, I really should get a handle on this. Of course I could always outsource…
Enjoy the journey!
Thanks Mandy 🙂
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Priyanka,
Instagram is one of the popular social media. You come up with an amazing topic that we can create a good reputation using Instagram.
I just wanted to thank for writing this amazing post.
Robin Khokhar
Robin Khokhar recently posted…12 Awesome Free Blogging Platforms To Start a New Blog
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the visit and the comment. Have a great time blogging.
Regards
Reji Stephenson
Glad you like it Robin 🙂
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Reji,
Excellent post my friend! Instagram has been very beneficial to my list building efforts. The optin rate on IG has been much better than on any other social media platform in 2016. Instagram makes it easier to connect with people than on FB. Glad to find your blog, Mike
Hi Mike,
Glad to connect with you and thank you very much for the visit and the comment.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
Thanks for your kind feedback Mike 🙂
Priyanka recently posted…Improve your writing skills with Ginger Grammar Checker
Hi Priyanka ,
You did write a comprehensive article about Instagram
and I see it is getting more and more popular . Images
and beautiful pictures make it attractive and many love it.
I did not use it yet ,but it may be interesting in the future for me.
Thank you for all the great explaining about Instagram.
Erika
Hi Reji and Priyanka
Very true. Instagram is banging and internet marketing on instagram on its utmost extent right now. Not all bloggers but serious one’s are using instagram to gain popularity, audience engagement and blog traffic. Celibrities are very active and that’s why people are sticking to instagram. Nice to read your detailed article.
Hi Nisha,
Glad to see your comments again and thank you for the same. I agree with your point that those who consider blogging serioulsy are very much interested in promoting themselves or their brands through Instagram.
Hoping to see your valuable insights again.
Have a great time blogging.
Best regards
Reji
Interesting post about Instagram, Reji.
Don’t you find it interesting that celebrities hardly follow anyone? If you look at Beyonce, she doesn’t follow anyone at all.
What do you think that says about their mindset? Social media for them isn’t social?
As a business, I’m just getting started with Instagram. But, I can tell, when I have something people like, it spreads very quickly. It’s fast paced.
I’m looking forward to seeing where I’ll be in a year! 🙂
Deborah