What is content marketing? It’s a constantly evolving practice that now includes taking a picture with a smartphone, filtering it through a unique setting on an emerging social application and sending the information out into the world. At least that’s what new data released from New York-based analytics startup SumAll suggests.
When SumAll added the ability to track data from Instagram to its existing social media and sales data tools, the company found engagement from Instagram users is up to 10 times greater than on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This statistic comes straight from SumAll CEO Dan Atkinson, who spoke with Business Insider on the evolution of the picture-based social network.
Atkinson went on to say that engagement on the network goes beyond basic interactions with published content, often translating into sales. The study even found that Instagram users tend to contribute a higher monetary impact per engagement than what is recorded on other platforms.
As Brafton has reported, visually appealing social platforms like Pinterest drive conversions, and it seems that Instagram will follow in the digital pinboard’s footsteps. If the data compiled by SumAll reflects success other companies can achieve, content marketing professionals should bolster their social efforts and include Instagram in plans for 2013.
While recent research suggests Instagram could become an even more important component of online lead generation, creating attractive content and publishing it via Instagram requires exceptional creative talent. Posting pictures that don’t take advantage of everything the platform has to offer will be overlooked, and unfavorable images might even diminish the opinions consumers have of brands altogether. Instagram offers unique marketing capabilities, but it’s important that a social media strategy clearly defines how the platform will be used to benefit the company, and that content creators have the necessary skills to create compelling posts that drive conversions on the web.
