By Elena Zanone
Instagram has rolled out a new way for users and marketers to tag people and objects in their own photos and file them in a new tab called “Photos of You.” The introduction of photo-tagging on the social platform could be a game changer for not just users but also brand. It seems to be part of parent company Facebook’s move to accelerate growth and make it more appetizing for brands to take up real estate on the platform.
“‘Photos of You’ offers a new way to share and discover stories on Instagram, as well as provides users with a great way to share and discover content that showcases the brands and products they love.” Instagram announced in their blog yesterday.
Instagram’s new feature is similar to Facebook’s own photo tagging system, where users can add a person’s name, and the image will then appear on their own profile and News Feed depending on privacy settings. Previously, users could @mention others in photo captions but there was no way to indicate who was who in a photo.
The biggest improvement is that now users will be able to tag objects, which is perfect for brands. It’s a feature that Facebook doesn’t even offer, so Instagram’s brand amplification meter just got a little more juice. The change could be a goldmine for marketers who are constantly striving to create ways to reach the platform’s 100 million users and drive more engagement.
Before “Photos of You,” brands could only curate the Instagram stream to show off the best products they sell. Users could then follow the brand’s account to see what they had to offer, and that was the end of it. (Womp. Womp.) It wasn’t much of a pull for advertisers who currently dedicate their social dollars and time to more advertising-friendly sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Now, brands have an interesting opportunity to get creative for future campaigns and other marketing initiatives on Facebook’s photo sharing darling.
Mike Isaac at AllThingsD shared insight to on what major brands could do: “‘Photos of You’ essentially gives a brand the ability to crowdsource photos of its products — likely put to use — from the millions of people who are on Instagram and taking pictures all the time. So, basically, if I’m Nike, I could potentially get tons of free content for my Photos of You tab, all courtesy of the rest of Instagram.”
Incidentally, there are currently millions of photos tagged with hashtag #Nike on Instagram that the company can use.
Another possibility — this could answer the problem of users who’ve risen against advertising on the platform. One remedy may be that brands can now ask users to share their tagged photos on Facebook, essentially getting permission to incorporate their Instagram content into a platform where they might already be running campaigns. It’s one way to get branded content out through users who might otherwise have disdain for straight-up ads in their feed. It’s also likely to drive deeper engagement by that users’ friends than traditional sponsored content.
“Photos of You” is available in Instagram’s iOS and Android versions of the app, but no talk yet of incorporating the feature into the web version. Facebook says all users will have until May 16th to test the feature before their “Photos of You” section is visible to others.
What creative ways do you foresee brands using Instagram’s “Photos of You” feature
Source: Instagram
