Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Insta-Market-Gramming

As you may know, I've been following a lot of interesting tidbits about how social websites make money off of their users and how companies are using social media to their benefit.

One kind of interesting wrinkle in this has been corporations finding people who are very active in social media and having them become sort of brand ambassadors. Not by wearing their logo, but by giving "insider access" to these people and having them use their social media presence and prowess to show a new side of the company. I wrote about this how this was done for the US Open last summer.

I think this is a pretty cool way for companies to provide unique access and reward people who really love their products or to take nascent individual talent and apply it to their brand.

Well, Business Insider has written an article about 15 Instagrammers who have taken their talents and converted them into some pretty cool work for big companies. The companies range from Nike and Volvo to Johnnie Walker and Samsung. (The article is a bit difficult to follow to be honest since it mixes photos of the individuals with photos they've Instagrammed for the companies)

I see this not just as corporations taking advantage of a potential new marketing stream, I see it as recognition of the way in which media itself has changed to a much more two-way, grassroots thing. Just like the internet has allowed people to connect in so many different ways, I think companies across the world have recognized that their marketing and connections with the customers needs to change.


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