Are You A Startup Business? Here’s What You Can Learn From Instagram

Instagram in plain and simple terms is a photo sharing app. Yet, its worth is close to $1 billion. How did this happen? What made it so successful? Let’s dive right in.

Instagram advertising has made photo sharing fun. People love playing with photos, looking at them, photo shopping or writing on them. Instagram filters replaced all manual labour otherwise associated with the application. It gave it a phenomenal platform to share photos with other people. What does it do so distinctly from other popular social media apps?

If we take small business startups, the common mistake they make is to include every feature. This leads to clutter and mediocre features. You need to describe what the service does in a few short sentences; else, you might have to consider another re-launch strategy. If you have a product or service on offer, you need at least one feature that separates it from the rest of the field. For instance, Southwest Airlines is a low cost airline offering low fares and free baggage. Instagram focuses only on photos, Instagram teaches you to focus on one thing, and do it really well.

What is the core competency of your product or service? Understand this well, focus on it and promote it until the sun turns red. It may be simple, but that is okay. Oftentimes, when something is too complex it loses its appeal to begin with.

What is the one thing your business does well? This is what you need to focus on and promote.

Instagram uploading is very fast. The process has already started when the user selects the photo filter. So the caption is added, the social networks it will appear on are selected and the location is picked. In the meantime, the process is on its way to being complete. Customers expect instant gratification, and Instagram marketing provides it in a big way. This is what any customer needs, and what your startup should concentrate on. It should be a process which is so fast that it is almost effortless in its execution.

The focus of Instagram is the photo. Many times, on other apps the focus is on the clutter surrounding the image, this is not the case on Instagram. It is neat, organized and quick loading. Having a pretty product is part of the battle, there is still more to do. That product needs to be useful. Avoid giving your visitors too many choices. Stick to one good, useful and interesting product. Let this one product be the focus, much like the photo is the focus of Instagra