Adweek reported in the beginning of this month that Instagram will start rolling out its first ads in the form of promoted posts within members’ feeds. However, the platform is still far from using its full potential of revenues as it still doesn’t allow individual users monetize their own posts.

While bloggers can already easily monetize their posts in their own sites, many are waiting this to be possible also through Instagram. Though Instagram lacks its potential in terms of collecting revenues, it’s hard to tell if the regular users are happy to see the change. Other social media channels such as facebook has transformed hugely in terms of advertising since its earlier years. Many are saying that facebook has become too commercial. Has it? At least the number of users is growing, so it doesn’t seem to have done any harm.

While trying to create content for our project client’s instagram profile, we also came to realize the limitations that Instagram still holds for sales purposes. When posting photos of sellable items, inability to add links to the posts definitely seemed to lose the whole point. Wouldn’t the customers also want an easy access to the product they’d like to buy? What harm would a simple link do?

Since Instagram as a platform has remained quite the same since the beginning, the unwillingness to change the usability of the application must be strategic. Even the poor usability of the application could be easily fixed but maybe it’s been strategic to maintain it as it is and emphasize its hipster-like old-fashion feel.

Either way, I’d say it’s just a matter of time until the platform will give up and allow more advertising into this platform. As it has already become popular platform for companies’ social media strategy, the next step is to allow them to leverage the platform in other ways.

Whether added advertisements will be a discomfort or actually increase the satisfaction of the users is still unknown. Perhaps being able to purchase your favorite product with less effort will be taken positively, despite all the odds. Only time will tell.

References:

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/fashion-bloggers-see-missed-opportunity-monetize-instagram-posts-153576

Instagram, a social media platform where users can post pictures about their lives and share them with friends and their followers, is popular especially amongst teenagers. Typical #selfie photos, where users snap a photo of themselves showing their clothes and outfits are often used as inspirations among other users. However, the new ideas and fashion tips also have its downsides.

According to The Daily Mail, Instagram has created a new social media phenomenon among the teenagers called “Insta-envy”. Based on a survey by Vinspired, nearly half of the young instagram users envy other users’ fancy outfits and spend about $ 150 per month to be able to copy their idols’ looks. Alexa Chung, Cheryl Cole and Kim Kardashian were considered as the most popular fashion icons among the female users.

This interesting study and a phenomenon can be used as a great example about the power of the social media and the possibilities it can offer for companies. As discussed in class, in order to create and increase brand awareness, most brands use “influencers” who then act as brand ambassadors. So getting Kim Kardashian to wear your newest fashion piece and share it on Instagram would mean reaching a wide audience and therefore increasing your brand awareness.

However, targeting the most popular celebrities in your start-up’s social media strategy would perhaps not be the wisest thing to do, or even necessary. The key is to identify the influencers in your target market and try to benefit from them. Finally, I believe that Instagram show great potential for many companies – both large and small. With more than 30 million users (2012), and a fast growing user base, the audience and the opportunities are out there – we just have to learn how to capture them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2513133/The-Instagram-envy-epidemic-Youngsters-spend-100-month-copying-celebrity-style-chiefly-Alexa-Chung-David-Beckham-Prince-Harry-Kim-Kardashian.html#ixzz2lyKpVN3B

In this October Lululemon started a campaign called “One more time” where they asked customers which favorite piece they would like to see in production again. After logging in to the game, customers could shout their favorite gear and then make their friends vote for it. At the end of the game, all the favorite designs could be voted on and the one with most votes would be brought back to production – one more time.

Here are the faces of the campaign:

Phase One – Nominations (now to Oct 18^th)

Phase Two – The Final Showdown (Oct 21^st to Nov 24^th)

Phase Three – Sketchpad to ‘Shelf’ (Nov 25^th to March)

This campaign provides a great example of using crowsourcing as part of Lululemon’s marketing. With almost 3 months now, Lululemon has been able to engage and attract their customers to join to active discussion. Not only have they been able to create a positive buzz around listening to customers and bringing back a beloved design, they are also securing future sales. After having received all those final votes as the winner product, it won’t be a surprise that this product will be an instant hit in the stores.

I would argue that using crowdsourcing and social media for creating these campaigns is cost effective and should be leveraged more. Why companies are not using them more often is probably due to lack of understanding of social media and the opportunities that it holds. Lululemon had a successful campaign that could be easily benchmarked by other clothing companies.

Can’t wait to see the campaign through and see the day when “one more time”- product finally hit the shells of the Lululemon stores across country. Will it be a hit? I would count on it.

More information on:

http://blog.lululemon.com/hey-one-more-time/

It’s no secret anymore that social media has changed drastically the traditional one-way communications that companies were accustomed in the past. Not only is social media opening possibilities for two-way communication but customers now have conversations even without addressing the company. The fear of losing control over what gets written or said in social media platforms is still one of the main reasons why companies hesitate about having a social media presence. Beyond that even companies who have a presence struggle in the hopes of controlling their communications.

But can the conversations in social media be controlled? Should they even be? Based on my personal experience and what I’ve learnt so far I would say no. I think companies should lose the fear of being able to control everything and accept the fact that social media opens new communication channels whether the company wants it or not. Companies should act as active listeners and monitor what gets said and if it needs some action from the company’s side.

This quote puts it nicely: “Social ability starts with being able to listen. Without listening your strategy becomes pointless. “

Furthermore, I think companies should take negative conversations in social media as a threat but as an opportunity. Not only can the conversations provide valuable information to the companies for things to improve but  also when reacted proactively it can turned as positive attention to the company.

An example of this happened last year with a big Finnish confectionary company Fazer, who got a lot of negative media attention after an unsuccessful CSR campaign. After all the negative publicity, the company was able to turn the conversations into positive and gain finally lot of good attention towards the campaign they were having.

Time has shown that customers want to have open and active conversation with companies and social media provides an excellent platform for this. So it’s not about being afraid about negative attention or being able to have full control over the conversations – it’s more about putting yourself (company) out there and start to listen to what your customers have to say and reacting in the right way.

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