GAP, Nordstrom Monitor Customer Engagement Via Instagram
By Brianna Ahearn, contributing writer
On August 21, Instagram announced via press release the introduction of three new business tools. The new arrivals will help brands monitor their engagement with consumers. In February 2014, Forbes spoke about how Instagram is quickly shaping up to be one of the most powerful selling tools in the world. The article noted how 91% of retailers now currently use Instagram in their social media strategies. Now with the new business tools, brands can further harness the power of the social media site. The new options available to brands will be Account Insights, Ad Insights, and Ad Staging.
“The new tools will help brands monitor their posts and campaigns by providing information on reach, impressions and engagement,” says the Instagram press release. Instagram worked with advertising partners to develop and modify the tools till they could release them to companies. “We've heard from brands that having more insight into how people engage with and respond to their photos and videos is an important part of evolving creatively.”
Recent news in the retail industry highlights how seriously brands take Instagram. This month GAP Inc and Nordstrom both expanded their marketing efforts through Instagram, with the latter integrating shopping experiences with the social photo website. Account insights will allow companies to monitor their brand awareness. For paid advertisements, Ad Insights will let brands see the performance of the campaigns including their impressions, reach and frequency for each advertisement, individually. Finally, Ad Staging will let advertisers control and create their upcoming campaigns effectively. With this powerful trio of tools, companies can now see how consumers are responding to their photographs and make adjustments to achieve higher results. “Brand marketers will be able to better understand the best time of day to post a photo or video,” Instagram's announcement says.
Instagram is growing quickly, and has gained over 150 million users in three years. The app is expanding quicker than Twitter. Forbes reports Micheal Kors saw its follower number increase by 34,000 new followers in 18 hours after running a sponsored ad, while Coach engaged with its followers to post Instagram photos of their shoes, which gave the Coach campaign a boost in conversion of 5% to 7%. Instagram operates as a photo sharing app and social network, and there's no doubting the power of it in business. The app recently rolled out sponsored ads and direct messages, two features the business world is already taking full advantage of in their campaigns.