Tag – Instagram’s It!
Instagram (owned by Facebook) recently added a new Facebook-like tagging feature. This new feature offers brands higher visibility on the photo-based platform – which has 100 million users. The new “Photos of You” element allows any Instagram users to tag any other Instagram account in their photos, elevating the social aspect of this visual network. This means Instagram accounts of businesses, products and services can tag regular users, celebrities, athletes, etc. Because Instagram is known for its cool, beautiful and often edgy imagery (as are many ad campaigns), it makes total sense that these photo-sharing images are organically crossing over into the advertising domain.
For example, if Jimmy Choo were to tag Beyoncé, she could choose to add the photo to her stream, exposing the ad to her 3.6 million followers. Regular users like us can now tag their favorite drink of the morning, brand of jeans, restaurant chain – you name it.
Instagram sees this as a way for consumers to interact with brands. With users now able to not just tag “who”, but the “what” (and the “where”, too), this update is a game-changer. And it’s a sure sign that businesses should rev up their Instagramming.
The photos in the “Pictures of You” section will become public to Instagram users on May 16, giving users a little time to figure out the features and privacy settings.
~ Meredith Aman, Account Supervisor & Instagrammer, The S3 Agency
