O Social Media Marketing

Marketing: Assignment 2 – Social Media Marketing

Instagram

With more than 800 millions of active users and 500 million using every day^[1], Instagram is one of the most popular social medias now days. It is a social network mainly visual, where a user can post photos and videos of short duration, apply effects to them and also interact with publications of other users, through comments and likes. In addition, one user can follow the other to be able to track their posts and activities within the network. The number of followers also contributes to profile visibility. Furthermore, in the posts we can find hashtags, which serve as a search engine for publications, and help in segmenting the audience if you have a page of your brand or product.

Talking about business, Instagram has been a useful tool for many companies. It allows people to get in touch with companies directly through phones or email. This facilitates communication between organizations and the public, as well as reinforces the importance of separating profiles for common users and brands. Going a little bit deep in the number, the platform has reached the mark of 2 million active advertisers1. More than 80% of the world's social network users are following a business, making the platform an environment conducive for companies to achieve their goals and reach an interested audience. In a month, starting from Instagram more than 180 million people visited a website, called, emailed or texted direct, looking for more information about a business.

Companies using Instagram

Virtually every large business is using Instagram,         whether to interact with consumers, advertise a product or the brand itself. In the last month, August 2017, the list of  top accounts with more followers were^[2]:

1. National Geographic (80m)
2. Nike (74m)
3. Victoria's Secret (57m)
4. Real Madrid C.F. (52m)
5. FC Barcelona (52m)
6. 9GAG (42mm)
7. Nike Football/Soccer (30m)
8. NASA (27m)
9. NBA (25m)
10. Chanel (24m)

Looking at this list, it may be noted that some facts are common among all. First of all, the importance of videos, since it generates 2 times more views than the pictures. Other fact is that pictures tend to cause happiness, haunted, surprise or admiration. It’s common to them to focus on the characters and their stories and not on the products. Also, they show backstage scenes with blatant unofficial or posed and good humor, although subtle, with characters laughing of themselves. Very professional photos are usually not the most popular because the consumer wants to feel close to the company.

Report of Success: Heineken

The Dutch beer company Heineken has always been recognized for its creative and efficient advertising. In 2013, it gave tickets to the final of the tournament US Open to all those users of the social network who were able to solve a puzzle that the brand had created and fed through 200 photos. A kind of treasure hunt in which the clues were the key to provoke interaction, impacts and benefit to the brand.

In the specific account^[3] Crack the US Open they published a panoramic photo of the public attending to the tournament but cut in 200 updates of Instagram. The user, through the application of Instagram for smartphones using landscape mode, had to search for specific people based on a series of tracks that the brand was left as small bread crumbs to get the final treasure: two tickets to the final. To get more clues and fit the puzzle the users had to interact by solving questions and posting solutions accompanied by a hashtag that Heineken was indicating at each step.

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