Instagram is knocking other social media platforms out of the park as beauty brands utilise its growing user community to assist in e-commerce revenue.
Digital agency L2 ThinkTank has released a report that suggests beauty brands have the fastest growing Instagram communities due to its proliferating active-user base, high engagement levels, and e-commerce-encouraging format.
In just three years, Instagram has amassed 150 million active users, half the time it took Twitter to get to this number and two years faster than Facebook. It also had a year-on-year growth of 66 per cent in 2013, the strongest of all mobile platforms.
The report also shows the boom in presence of prestige brands, with 93 percent now utilising the platform compared to 63 per cent in July, 2013. This highlights the success of Instagram advertising and video, reforming it into a social media platform that could generate more revenue than Twitter.
The appeal of Instagram to brands is less about content sharing and more about using it as a means of capturing user-generated content that can be reused across a brand’s digital landscape, especially in influencing commerce,” says research lead at L2 Danielle Bailey.
If Instagram hopes to continue its love affair with brands, it will need to evolve - reducing e-commerce friction and providing analytics that will help brands identify and target influencers.”
Lancôme #BareSelfie campaign gets recognition as an example in how brands can leverage user-generated content. The campaign took advantage of the selfie, garnering 500 user images and generating 50 per cent of sales for its new product launch DreamTone serum.
The full report can be downloaded here.
