As we close out 2013 and enter into 2014, everyone is making their predictions for the upcoming year. Talk surrounds which social media sites will be big this year or what you should focus on for marketing. The one prediction I have and the best advice I have is to focus more on visual marketing - and Instagram!
Visual marketing gained popularity and traction throughout 2013. While blogging and content marketing was the "big thing" in 2013 (and these will still be big in 2014), visual marketing will be the other big thing in 2014. This is what everyone is talking about and focusing on for the upcoming year.
Of course, visual marketing applies to most social media sites. Facebook has made enhancements and updates to how both photos and videos are displayed on their platform. Google+ has always been a great platform to share visual content, and they continue to improve their features and platform to stay ahead of other sites. Even Twitter joined the visual marketing phenomenon by allowing Twitpics to display automatically in the feed now, rather than having to click on a link to view photos.
And of course, the upswing in the popularity of sites like Pinterest, SnapChat, and Instagram dominated the social media news sphere this year.
No matter what site you use, visual marketing is going to be very important in 2014. You need to start thinking about how to incorporate photos and videos into your posts, content, and marketing.
And while you'll need to consider using photos and videos across multiple sites, you still need to create this content first. This is just one more reason why Instagram is going to be so important in 2014.
Instagram allows you take photos (or videos), edit the images, upload the images, and easily share the images to other sites. Instagram enables you to create high quality images without all of the technology and tools necessary for professional edits. You can easily and quickly create professional looking content that will stand above your competitors and impress your customers. You can even embed your Instagram posts directly into your blog or content to enhance your content marketing with more visual content.
If you're not yet using Instagram in your social media marketing strategy, you should seriously consider adding it to your strategy for 2014.
Instagram is growing at exponential rates and gaining popularity across generations, cultures, geographic areas, and industries. People are constantly finding new ways to connect with their audiences through Instagram in ways that were previously unheard of. And as the popularity of the site continues to increase with celebrities and athletes, more and more "everyday users" are joining the site.
Whether your business is product or service based, photos and videos are paramount to marketing now. It's about connecting with your audience and sharing who you are or what your brand really is. The visual marketing component really allows this connection to be forged with your customers to develop the brand loyalty that we all strive for.
So, now, more than ever, is the time to really consider adding Instagram to your social media strategy. If you have any questions about how to incorporate Instagram or visual marketing into your social media plan for 2014, please contact me!
I agree with your perspective, Jenn! I believe that most people are visual content oriented, so incorporating visuals into your marketing is not only smart, but is almost imperative to get peoples’ interest. We all like to be easily communicated with, and with so much information bombarding us from so many directions, a visual with a short message can be the difference between getting your message seen or getting bypassed in favor of others’ messages who understand this medium.
Great point, Dave! People are visual beings and react best to visual content. If we ignore this, we risk missing key audiences.
Great article, Jenn! One thing that I heard recently about Instagram that has me intrigued, is that you can pin your Instagram images to Pinterest. Would that just be done by either manually uploading them to Pinterest – or by using Instagram on a desktop and then pinning from there? I can’t figure out how you would do it right in the Instagram app! Is that possible? Thanks so much!
I do think it would be a great strategy to tie together the two platforms for a visual brand!
Julie Lowe, Socially Aligned
That is a great idea, Julie! I definitely don’t know of any way to post directly from the Instagram app to Pinterest. However, if you’re viewing you profile on your desktop and you have the pin-it button in your browser, you should be able to pin easily enough from there. Otherwise, you could share the Instagram image from your phone’s gallery to Pinterest. Just make sure you go back and edit the pins to link to whichever site you want to direct traffic to!
OK, great, thanks! I just thought I might be missing some cool feature somehow. 🙂 Glad to hear that’s all there is to it!