What will the Future of Instagram Look Like?
Because there are so many people affected by Instagram, this is a question and subject that we cannot help discussing.
The impact Instagram has on people’s everyday lives is simply too great for us to ignore this question.
For many people, questions like ”what will my life look like without Instagram?” and ”Where will I be able to share my food pics?” are questions that are awakened when the future of Instagram is discussed.
We all know that nothing last forever. So we can’t help to ask when Instagram will lose its glory days and slowly die out in exchange for other new platforms.
For those of you that are worried that Instagram will die out shortly, you can be calm.
Today, Instagram is growing faster than ever. On April 17th, Instagram reported 700 million users. Up from 600 million in December 2016. In just 4 months, Instagram has added 100 million users to their platform and it doesn’t look like the growth is slowing down anytime soon.
Here’s how Instagram has grown since their launch:
- October 6, 2010 – Launch
- February 26, 2013 – 100 million; 28 months
- March 25, 2014 – 200 million; 13 months
- December 10, 2014 – 300 million; 9 months
- September 22, 2015 – 400 million; 9 months
- June 21, 2016 – 500 million; 9 months
- December 15, 2016 – 600 million; 6 months
- April 26, 2017 – 700 million; 4 months
Future of Instagram
Many experts are expecting at least 3 more years where Instagram is at its peak and based on other facts, that sounds like a very reasonable estimation.
Because social media is an ever-changing world, looking into the future more than three years is very difficult. After all, with technology, nothing is impossible. At least it seems like it.
From what we know, the close future of Instagram will not look too different from now.
However, we can not exclude any major updates like ones we have seen earlier. Two of them being the Instagram algorithm and “Stories” that was released not too long ago (August 2nd).
While updates like the ones mentioned above can have a big impact on the way the platform is being used, the main idea and principle of sharing images right at the spot still remains and have done so since the launch of Instagram on October 6th, 2010.
(Image credit: IMore)
Something we can say with almost 100 percent certainty is that the use of Instagram influencers will continue to grow at a very high pace.
As older marketing sources such as display ads are losing efficiency, marketers are turning to other marketing sources. There have been reports of something called ”ad blind” which is unconscious ad ignoring when visiting websites or looking at Television ads, for example. Simply on places where ads normally are placed. The result of the ”ad blindness” is that just seconds after people see an ad, they can’t even say what that ad was for or what it was they’ve just seen.
Why does this matter?
The reason to this is because the brain is being taught to ignore irrelevant things.
This is where marketers are forced to use more effective marketing strategies. Influencer marketing is one of them.
3% of users are making 90% of the impact online
Nicolas Chabot, VP EMEA of Traackr says: “But the key insight is that very, very few people drive conversations and engagement. We estimate that only 3% of individuals in a conversation create around 90% of the impact. That means that focusing on those few individuals enables brands to concentrate resource, build deeper relationships and optimize the ROI of their social media investment”
This shows how big of an impact and reach social media influencers have.
Over the years, more and more influencers have popped up and on top of that, more and more people are starting to live and make an income with Instagram.
An important part of that is because more brands have realised the true potential of influencer marketing and what results it’s able to generate.
Instagram and business
When discussing the future of Instagram, another subject we can’t help but bring up is Instagram and businesses.
As more brands have realised the marketing potential and brand exposure opportunity Instagram has, Instagram has been improved and optimised for brands. Not long ago, the platform added Instagram insights and business profile and for large brands and verified brands, Instagram is trying out the so-called ”shop feature” where brands can tag what products their followers are seeing in the content the brand is posting, add a price tag and link to shop.
All of this to make for a better brand experience on the platform.
With the knowledge of all of the things mentioned above, it is very clear that Instagram is working hard to make their platform more attractive for brands to use as a marketing source.
Conclusion
From that, we can draw the conclusion that when it comes to Instagram and businesses, Instagram will continue to improve their platform to help brands reach their audience. The insights tool was an update that gave brands a ton of information on their reach on Instagram that could only be seen previously partially with the help of third-party apps. In conclusion, we can say that Instagram will most likely continue to optimise their platform for brands in the future but also most likely drop some revolutionising updates that means a big change on Instagram.
