Instaface

Facebook's acquisition of Instagram makes way for some interesting possibilities to reach a new audience. The 30Million users on Instagram are a different target than other social platforms like Twitter or FourSquare, but Instagram does encompass similar features. While the primary intent of Instagram is to share photography, users can also tag a location and write a brief message. It's a visually driven sharing tool for those who believe a picture speaks way more to an event than 140 characters and if we're checking in, we should see what the location looks like, too.

While adding new possibilities to Facebook's social sharing capabilities is important, we're more concerned with how a brand can use Instagram to enhance the brand-consumer relationship by delivering engaging content.

The shift to page-post advertising (using a page's post as an ad), points to Facebook's goal of creating symbiotic relationships between brand and consumer. There is pressure on brands to be creative in enhancing the quality of their page's content, spending money to get their best content in front of more users. With the ability to connect Instagram to Facebook, a brand could set a budget to advertising the "most recent eligible post" and then feed in new pictures and comments live from an event. Instagram pictures will look sharp in ads and with the proper target set, the reach and awareness of an event could significantly increase.

Facebook's move to acquire a popular content sharing network brings to light the apparent mission of blending more visual content into everyone's newsfeeds. Look out for the potential integration of Facebook Check Ins with Instagram Posts as well.

- Jon