Instagram helping entrepreneurs to run their businesses

Instagram is a photo-sharing app bought by Facebook at the beginning of the year, but its users seem to have found it, though it hasn't found a way to generate revenue.

The founders found thatInstagram could help them with their own enterprise operations, and achieved a good expected result. They have joined a long, innovative team in the hope of creating new services on a variety of existing platforms in innovative ways, and this Instagram, with 1 billion users, is naturally the best choice.

For example, a service like Prinstagram can print pictures of users on Instagram and even make calendars and stickers. And many designers are designing digital frames for Instagram photos. Some early adopters used their expertise and large fans to create consultancies to teach Instagram skills to big brands.

Others use this channel directly to publish photos of items for sale. Ranzhe, a 26-year-old Jenn who lives in Irvine, Calif., has 8,300 fans on Instagram, often publishes pictures of fashion girls wearing false lashes from Ranzhe brands.

"When we put up a new photo of someone wearing our false lashes, we immediately see sales." "she said.

Ranzhe, a member of the Instagram entrepreneurial army, has turned its homepage into a virtual display of handmade jewellery, popular glasses, high-end sneakers, beautiful baking devices, vintage costumes and custom artwork.

Means of the original

Surprisingly, people who sell things on Instagram have to rely on more primitive means. Instagram does not allow users to add links to photos, so businesses must use their phone numbers to order orders, or expect fans to manually enter their online web site in a browser.

Shoppers do not seem to resist this cumbersome procedure. Ranzhe said she had offered 65 percent coupons to Instagram fans during a recent shopping season sale. On that day, she received 100 orders, totaling 4000 dollars, much higher than the usual 500 dollars. She will mention her shop in the picture description, and will deliberately focus on the new shelves and upcoming products sold out.

Most people use this mode of sales are small entrepreneurs and artists, they are also looking for other ways to attract customers for their own shop. There are as many as hundreds of big companies and big brands that set up accounts on Instagram, but rarely sell products directly. Luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman has added a storefront phone to women's shoes and jewellery.

Mobile Media Lab is a digital agency dedicated to helping companies develop Instagram strategies, says Liz Eswein, the company's founder, Lize Isvien Instagram is an attractive medium, "because photos can be translated into any language." "It's easier to get lost in other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Before the joint venture in March of this year, Isvien, Blaine Diver (Brian DiFeo) and Anthony Daniel (Anthony Danielle) found that the total of their three followers in Instagram amounted to 850,000, and felt that the service was for Nike, US Airways, Samsung and Marc Jacobs are good for brands that want to touch their fans. These brands are now customers of Mobile Media Lab, using the company's customized promotional and promotional strategy.

"We don't say ' click here to buy goods '--they focus on putting photos in their minds and then introducing them to the service." "Isvien said. This model is closer to the traditional advertising approach. "This is the classic marketing approach," Diver said. In the past, you saw ads on billboards, buses, and TV, and now you see them in Instagram. ”

Rapid growth

These mini industries, which rely on Instagram, have benefited from the explosive growth of the service. In April this year, Instagram 25 million users, 8 months later grew three times times, a total of more than 5 billion photos accumulated. According to comscore, the service reached 7.8 million active users in October, surpassing Twitter's 6.6 million.

Facebook and Instagram declined to talk about Instagram's direct earnings. But analysts say Facebook will sooner or later integrate ads into Instagram, similar to Facebook's own application.

"We see photos in a variety of content marketing strategies in a significant proportion of the increase." "Marketers are abandoning text and turning to pictures and videos," Ribecca Lieb, a consultancy altimeter researcher, said Rebecca Lieb. ”

Some companies may also be paying to highlight their own images to make sure they are visible, Loeb said. "We've seen this pattern on Facebook and Twitter," he said. "she said.

From an early age, Instagram has invited a number of developers and entrepreneurs to develop their own applications based on the company's technology, such as viewing the Instagram gallery directly from a Web page without resorting to a mobile phone. The company has so far not charged for such use.

Risk remaining

Kartik Hosanagar, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, Cardick Hossennagh that a new trend is emerging in the social sector, where companies can lease their big opportunities to opportunists and creative entrepreneurs, but that also carries risks.

"Small businesses are at risk, and if they find some potential business, big companies will seize the opportunity to get a slice of it." It is hard to predict ahead, but there are opportunities, so many companies rely on other platforms to do business. "he said.

But other internet companies have begun to switch patterns and stop attracting users through third-party services. Twitter is the latest example. The company initially welcomed external innovators to develop a variety of search and image tools based on Twitter, but now they feel the pressure to generate income from investors, thus starting to limit the level of openness of the platform.

Kevin Systrom, founder and CEO of Instagram, has said he will consider E-commerce as a possible source of revenue for the service, but has not yet taken any action. Systrom said by e-mail that the company would not limit the Instagram platform's Third-party services anytime soon, provided they did not violate the company's policies.

Benjamin Lothain, a 27-year-old Benjamin Lotan, runs a company called Social Print Studio in Berkeley, Calif., to help people print their favorite Instagram photos or inkjet them on other products. He says his company will not take any chances, especially given the growing pressure on Facebook to make a profit.

Luotan founded the company in early 2011, with a current annual income of about 1.5 million dollars. Although he is now not worried about the survival of the enterprise, but began to introduce some products not entirely dependent on Instagram.

"We are not worrying. But it's hard to tell. ”