Internet Marketing Strategies: A Look at Instagram

Although for several years I have been offering some insights, thoughts and experiences on a wide range of topics regarding Internet Marketing, many readers are aware that Instagram has never been in my toolbox. The reasons why are simple:

I never used Instagram

Readers know I will try just about anything trending online to see what the result is. If I see a good return on the investment, I’ll certainly share that experience. Likewise if the time and effort resulted in little to no benefit for generating leads and sales I would share that opinion. What I will not do is pull an opinion out of thin air and offer my clients and readers advice based on some sort of guess.

I felt it had an unwanted limitation

Instagram has been on my radar, and being 100% honest I never used it because it was limited to a mobile app. Plain and simple. While much of today’s population spends hours on end with their faces stuck in the screens of their mobile devices, my device stays on the desk. Usually with a dead battery due to not having been used for days.

Desktop for Instagram users finally arrives

Recently the launch of Gramblr caught my attention, and now I am exploring the pro’s and cons of Instagram from the comfort of my laptop and desktop machines. Gramblr is a desktop application that allows you to upload pictures or videos on Instagram without the need for the smartphone or mobile device, a much anticipated tool in my particular world of tools.

I’ve found that it is easy to use, and has one of my favorite features: timed posts. Any social media tool that will let me spend a half an hour teeing up posts to run on auto pilot for a month gets a check in the plus column on my clipboard.

Instagram can be beneficial in many ways. Image search comes to mind right away, as well as the nature of an image driven social media landscape that offers a great way to let your products and services grab the users attention. Hashtag strategies come into play, and you can quickly and easily follow communities and users while gathering a following of your own.

There are a few concerns I have. Instagram reports a staggering 500+ million users, which tells me getting on board is a necessity. However, they also report that 80% of those users are outside of the United States, which is disappointing. It also indicates that the 18 to 29 year old demographic represents the majority of users, further watering down the pool of potential reach for marketing purposes depending on your business and target audience.

As of this post I have been diving into Instagram for about two weeks, I am going to keep following through and tracking results. More to come after the holiday shopping season. In the meantime, for those of you who have been neglecting Instagram for the same reasons I have, take a look at Gramblr and see if Instagram might fit in your Internet Marketing toolbox.