The Rabbit Feed on Instagram - 2.0

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The Rabbit Feed - The Instagram edition

(Updated April 2012)


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The Rabbitfeed onInstagram

In May 2011 we devoted the first of our'Rabbit Feed' guides to different socialnetworks, to Instagram, a then new photo-

sharing network with eight million users,that only worked on Apple'iDevices' (iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads).

Fast forward to April 2012, when the 28.7million strong network finally opened itsdoors up to the Android market. To markthis milestone, we've revisited the RabbitFeed on Instagram to give an overview toany brand that might now be thinking ofhow to use it.

1 - What is it?2 - What it looks like3 - Who is using it?4 - Why has Instagram caught on?5 - Instagram communities and sub-culture6 - What brands are using it?7 - Metrics and measurement8 - "But I'm not in fashion / travel /entertainment?"9 - As a brand marketer, what should yourfirst Instagram steps be?

What is it?

Instagram is a mobile (Apple iOS andAndroid) photo-sharing network. In itssimplest form, you can think of it as a visualTwitter.

You post updates, though those updatestake the form of pictures with a short

caption instead of a 140 character message.Just like with Twitter you use hash-tags tocategorise your post. Just like Twittermost accounts are public with only aminority of users having made them private.And the follower / following relationshipdoesn't have to be mutual. Like Facebookyou 'like' posts and can comment on them.Unlike with Twitter there is no equivalent ofthe retweet, though a third party webservice called Statigram does make itpossible in a round about way.

However, what made Instagram stand outfrom the start was a series of in-app filters.These filters can alter or enhance yourphoto in different ways. The in-built filters

have now been supplemented by a wholeseries of third party photo-apps where userscan amend their pictures before posting.

At the moment you can only post toInstagram direct via the mobile client (andmost recently via the photo-app

Hipstamatic as well) and indirect via anumber of photo apps. A number of webbased services allow you to view poststhrough a browser.

What it looks like

Both the Android and Apple iOS versions

have similar navigation and screens. Thisincludes a tab showing your feed - postsfrom people you follow. A button to uploadimages. A popular page tab (or tab in theapp), showing which posts are popular atany one time. And your own profile andnotifications tab.

Once you upload an image you can share itvia Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare (using thegeo-tagging function), Tumblr and Flickr,provided you have synced your accounts.With the exception of hipstamatic, theInstagram app is currently the only way to

directly post photos onto the network.
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Who is using it?

Started in October 2010, Instagram hit eightmillion users by May 2011 meaning it

already had a faster growth trajectory thaneither Facebook or Twitter at similardevelopment stages - and despite being anApple only network.

In December 2011 it hit fifteen millionusers, and in March 2012, Instagram founderKevin Systrom announced 27 million users atthe SXSW industry conference in Austin,Texas.

On the morning of April 2, we did a count

for a client presentation using Instagram'sAPI and estimated the network at 28.7million users. Android was announced inthe afternoon of 3 April (European time),when we did a new count at noon on 4April, numbers stood at 32.1 million,meaning it had added three million users intwo days - the vast majority of those 3+million new users will have been post theAndroid announcement

Instagram is now the biggest mobile onlysocial network worldwide (a few countryspecific networks in China have more

users). Though different android / AppleiOS user behaviour (Apple users account formost mobile web activity) means you can'tjust take Android and predict that the user

base will immediately double, 50 millionusers by year end is entirely feasible.

As well as a large user base, Instagramshows a high level of engagement. At SXSWKevin Systrom claimed that 67% of users hadlogged on the previous day. By

comparison, Twitter's active user base isaround 25% of total sign-ups.

Why has Instagramcaught on?

Instagram's huge growth is down to anumber of reasons:

1 - Everyone who owns a smartphone (now51% of UK mobile phone owners) now ownsa camera as good as the best cameras onthe market a few years ago. The topsource of photos for the giant photo sharingsite Flickr is iPhones, and recently Kodakfiled for bankruptcy protection and will nolonger be in the camera business. Mobilephotography is democratic.

2 - Related to that, it is accessible. AtSXSW Kevin Systrom mentioned that he

couldn't get his Dad on Twitter but he couldget him on Instagram. Taking photos wassomething his Father already did - he wasasking him to adapt existing behaviour andnot create totally new behaviouralpatterns.

Kevin Systrom said that Instagram wascross-generational and, being picture led,worked across languages and cultures too.Indeed, one of the first things we noticedabout Instagram was that the early adoptersweren't the usual suspects who flooded toGoogle+ when it opened up. It attracted agenuinely new audience, many of who didn'tuse any social networks outside of Facebook

3 - The filters were a huge innovation,allowing anyone to make an ordinarypicture extra-ordinary. It's added what canalmost be described as a gaming elementwith users looking at new ways of doctoringtheir pictures. An eco-system of thousandsof photography apps now work in support,allowing you to do everything from add lightflare effects to making your image lookaged. One of the most popular apps,

Camera+, had made $5 million via the AppleiTunes app store by the beginning of theyear.
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4 - There is an active community of super-fans and influencers who run everythingfrom competitions, edit challenges and realworld meet-ups. In a relatively shortperiod of time, a very distinctive sub-culture has grown among Instagram's mostdedicated users that is different to what

you find on other social networks.

Instagram communitiesand sub-culture

At SXSW, Instagram's founders talked abouttwo different types of Instagram user. Themajority who use it as a visual life streamor news feed. And the minority,representing Instagram's most committedusers, who see it as, in Kevin Systrom'swords "performance art."

The latter group manifests itself in anumber of different ways, for examplethrough:

Edit challenges. There are regular editchallenges on Instagram, where a picture isposted and users are invited to change it asthey see fit. One of the most popular edit

communities is one run by a French pastoron @applified. Every night he posts adifferent image from France and every day,people think of new and creative ways ofchanging the picture and uploading an edit.

Rabbit client, British Midland International(bmi) has over the past month been runninga weekly #bmieditchallenge featuring

different destination photos. 750 editshave been uploaded, each shared on usersfeeds, and bmi has more than tripled itsInstagram following as a result.

Instagram groups. A number of groups existwithin Instagram that mix challenges,

tutorials, community support and popsessions (see below). One of the most wellknow is 'Rebels United.' Others include'Implus' and 'Gang Family.'

Pop groups. Instagram has a popular pageor tab. Getting on there depends on havinga very large number of likes within a shortamount of time, usually 50-100 in tenminutes. As that's impossible for 99% ofusers, a number of pop groups have sprungup. These are closed accounts where youapply to follow. The groups post at a

designated time and all post together, usingsecret hash-tags to like every post in thegroup.

Most pop groups members tend to see thewhole exercise as a group challenge asopposed to a popularity contest. They alsoclaim to post high quality images with theaim of taking back the 'pop' page from theteenage and cat photos that often make anappearance there.

Instagramers. The best known Instagramcommunity is the "Instagramers" - Set up byPhil Gonzalez in Spain, Instagramers nowhas hundreds of chapters worldwide. They
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organise challenges, as well as real-worldmeet ups and photo-walks.

The London Instagramers group createdEurope's first Instagram exhibition inOctober, which Rabbit supported, andwe've been working with the groups on a

campaign for low-fares airline bmibabywhich has seen over 30,000 destinationphotos being uploaded and tagged.

What brands are usingit?

Many of the early adopter brands were asyou'd expect in fashion, the media, retailand travel. This includes Starbucks, RedBull, Burberry, Ford Fiesta, MTV and (intravel) Rabbit client bmibaby. A fewexamples of how brands used it are asfollows:

Puma - flew core Instagram and Tumblrusers to Abu Dhabi to visually document theVolvo Ocean Race, tagging them#marmostro (the name of Pumas boat)

Ford Fiesta - Ran a six week competition towin a car. This integrated Facebook andInstagram. The categories for posts included#starting #hidden #listening #entry #music

#shapes, all apparent Fiesta brandattributes. The campaign was supported byadvertising and had 16,000 responses

GE - At the end of last year GE ran acompetition for a full time instagrapherunder the tag #geinspiredme. GE also has alighting photo app, and uses its feed tovisually showcase the business.

bmibaby - myeurope. This is an goingcampaign we've been running since Augustto bring bmibaby destinations to life.

Rather than launch the competition into thewild, we worked with local Instagramergroups with the countries taken in rotation.Essentially working through Instagramers,users had to upload and tag their favouritedestination photos for each country.

The campaign has also included a series ofInstameet exchanges and a series of visualinspiration guides using the images on thebmibaby website. As of March 2012, wehad 30k+ pieces of user generated contentsubmitted

Metrics andmeasurement

There are a few Instagram web viewers thatallow you to view posts, and also manageyour account (but not post direct toInstagram). One is Statigram, which also

gives you basic metrics including topfollowers, average likes and comments perpost and best time to post.
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Statigram has also tried to solve theproblem of the lack of a repost function byallowing you to 'repost' an image in a roundabout way - you send a image with a repostlogo to yourself and then upload it viaInstagram.

"But I'm not in fashion /travel /entertainment?"

One of the most common comments we getis 'but we're not visual.' We believe every

business is not only visual, but should havea visual social media strategy pulling in theother two main image led social networks,Pinterest and Tumblr, as well.

For example, take a look at the huge rangeof objects being featured on Instagram,some truly weird and wonderful:

#powerlineporn (pictures of power lines)8143 images

#buildinglover (people who love buildings)11094 images

#foodporn (an Instagram favourite) 636,164photos

#computer 32,692 photos

#streetsign 5264 photos

#cat 1,730,793 pics - OK, no surprise there!

So what should you do?

As a brand marketer,what should your firstInstagram steps be?

1 - Create an account and get to grips withInstagram yourself. Nothing beats firsthand knowledge and the fact that many ofus at Rabbit have been enthusiastic

Instagram users and really understood thecommunities, proved key to the successeswe've had

2 - Reserve your brand ID. The samestrategy as other social networks applies,take your brand ID before someone elsedoes so. Right now there have been noexamples of brand-jacking, but it is not aquestion of if but when. Given the sayingof a picture says a 1000 words, were it tohappen it could be highly embarrassing forthe brand in question

3 - See what people are taking pictures of.As we've said, if you don't think yourbusiness is visual, you are mistaken. Therange of things people take pictures of onInstagram is huge, the chances certainly arethat some tie into your business

4 - Take a look at what other brands aredoing for best - and worst - practice.Plenty of brands are now on Instagram foryou to follow and assess what they aredoing

5 - Put together a visual strategy for yourbusiness, not only encompassing Instagrambut also Flickr Pinterest and Tumblr. Howcan your brand be brought to life, beyond


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standard photos of the CEO shaking handsto seal a deal that no one is interested in?

Finally, if you want us to advise on a visualstrategy for your business and howInstagram can work for you, email [email protected]

Rabbit Library

Looking for more resource documents andpresentations? We've grouped them all inthe Rabbit Library where you can view anddownload them.

Were a young (February 2010) agency thatthis year has already won six industryawards, and counting.

As a social media ideas agency, we look atthe different ways in which online socialtools can be integrated into organisations.

Want to know more? Visit us atwww.therabbitagency.com, follow us onTwitter, like us on Facebook or [email protected]

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The Rabbit Feed on Instagram - 2.0

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