Why Do Brands Take Selfies?

In 1958, Momofuku Ando of Japan re-invented one of the greatest comfort foods of all time – Ramen. The tweak? He gave the world no fuss, economical, tasty and most importantly, Instant Ramen. Ando’s company Nissin Foods has since spearheaded a $3 billion industry that has transformed hunger and sustenance. With something as trivial as Cup Noodles, Ando recognized and appeased people’s acute need for ease and immediacy.

Ando’s story is the best analogy for the human appeal of ‘Instant’. In 2010, Instagram came along and in a strikingly similar fashion, revolutionized cameras on phones. Instagram gave millions of hurried snapshots rhyme and reason with a ridiculously easy app. In the perfect storm that was social media, the app also gave them a singular purpose – as the reason we whip out our smartphones to capture moments of our daily lives. Along the way, Instagram images have evolved into their own parlance, from food to duck face and not just with millenials.

That said, at Unmetric there is exciting news. Very soon, we will launch Instagram analytics on our platform. With the addition of Instagram, Unmetric will now provide competitive intelligence on a whopping 6 social media networks!

What’s In It For Brands?

We think there are a few different reasons why Instagram is great for brands, or as we like to think of it – why brands should be taking selfies:

1) Real-Time #FOMO: With news zooming through the interwebs at breathtaking speeds, a brand can no longer wait for the local press or TV to cover its events, launches or campaigns. Enter Instagram. With a few clicks, a brand has a live feed with pictures and updates that can be shared with millions of folks across social networks.

2) Hey, Good Looking: Remember how back in the day just to get an errant streak of color on a photo one had to use a Diana or Lomo camera from yesteryear? Nowadays Instagram’s filters replicate this same effect and many others with a great degree of accuracy. For brands, images of products in action have long been their favorite currency with consumers for the emotions they inspire. Instagram’s filters makes brands look great. Instantly.

3) The Conversationalist: “Markets are conversations”, says The Cluetrain Manifesto. A wise statement – for conversations give brands the ability to assert their empathy and connect with the consumer on a human level. Instagram with its interactions (such as Likes and Comments) is a way for brands to say, “Hey, let’s talk here – a place you like, about things we both like to share.”

We’ll have more on brand selfies and our roll out of Instagram analytics very soon! Follow our ‘Continuing Innovation’ series for more updates on industry developments and at Unmetric. If you’d like to give our social media intelligence platform a spin, sign up for a free 6-day trial here.