This document provides a 3-sentence summary of the key points about Instagram from April 2012: Instagram had grown to over 28 million users by April 2012 and opened up to Android users, expanding its potential user base. The platform allowed users to share photos with filters and engage through likes and comments. Many brands were starting to use Instagram visually showcase products and run competitions/challenges to engage new audiences.

1. The Rabbit Feed - The Instagram edition
(Updated April 2012)

2. The Rabbitfeed on have now been supplemented by a whole
series of third party photo-apps where users
Instagram can amend their pictures before posting.
In May 2011 we devoted the first of our At the moment you can only post to
'Rabbit Feed' guides to different social Instagram direct via the mobile client (and
networks, to Instagram, a then new photo- most recently via the photo-app
sharing network with eight million users, Hipstamatic as well) and indirect via a
that only worked on Apple number of photo apps. A number of web
'iDevices' (iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads). based services allow you to view posts
through a browser.
Fast forward to April 2012, when the 28.7
million strong network finally opened its
doors up to the Android market. To mark
this milestone, we've revisited the Rabbit
Feed on Instagram to give an overview to What it looks like
any brand that might now be thinking of
how to use it.
1 - What is it?
2 - What it looks like
3 - Who is using it?
4 - Why has Instagram caught on?
5 - Instagram communities and sub-
culture
6 - What brands are using it?
7 - Metrics and measurement
8 - "But I'm not in fashion / travel /
entertainment?"
9 - As a brand marketer, what should your
first Instagram steps be?
What is it?
Instagram is a mobile (Apple iOS and
Android) photo-sharing network. In its
simplest form, you can think of it as a visual
Twitter.
You post updates, though those updates
take the form of pictures with a short Both the Android and Apple iOS versions
caption instead of a 140 character message. have similar navigation and screens. This
includes a tab showing your feed - posts
Just like with Twitter you use hash-tags to from people you follow. A button to upload
categorise your post. Just like Twitter images. A popular page tab (or tab in the
most accounts are public with only a app), showing which posts are popular at
minority of users having made them private. any one time. And your own profile and
And the follower / following relationship notifications tab.
doesn't have to be mutual. Like Facebook
you 'like' posts and can comment on them. Once you upload an image you can share it
Unlike with Twitter there is no equivalent of via Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare (using the
the retweet, though a third party web geo-tagging function), Tumblr and Flickr,
service called Statigram does make it provided you have synced your accounts.
possible in a round about way. With the exception of hipstamatic, the
Instagram app is currently the only way to
However, what made Instagram stand out directly post photos onto the network.
from the start was a series of in-app filters.
These filters can alter or enhance your
photo in different ways. The in-built filters

3. base will immediately double, 50 million
Who is using it? users by year end is entirely feasible.
As well as a large user base, Instagram
shows a high level of engagement. At SXSW
Started in October 2010, Instagram hit eight Kevin Systrom claimed that 67% of users had
million users by May 2011 meaning it logged on the previous day. By
already had a faster growth trajectory than comparison, Twitter's active user base is
either Facebook or Twitter at similar around 25% of total sign-ups.
development stages - and despite being an
Apple only network.
Why has Instagram
caught on?
Instagram's huge growth is down to a
number of reasons:
1 - Everyone who owns a smartphone (now
51% of UK mobile phone owners) now owns
a camera as good as the best cameras on
the market a few years ago. The top
source of photos for the giant photo sharing
site Flickr is iPhones, and recently Kodak
filed for bankruptcy protection and will no
longer be in the camera business. Mobile
photography is democratic.
2 - Related to that, it is accessible. At
SXSW Kevin Systrom mentioned that he
couldn't get his Dad on Twitter but he could
get him on Instagram. Taking photos was
something his Father already did - he was
asking him to adapt existing behaviour and
not create totally new behavioural
patterns.
In December 2011 it hit fifteen million
users, and in March 2012, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom said that Instagram was
Kevin Systrom announced 27 million users at cross-generational and, being picture led,
the SXSW industry conference in Austin, worked across languages and cultures too.
Texas. Indeed, one of the first things we noticed
about Instagram was that the early adopters
On the morning of April 2, we did a count weren't the usual suspects who flooded to
for a client presentation using Instagram's Google+ when it opened up. It attracted a
API and estimated the network at 28.7 genuinely new audience, many of who didn't
million users. Android was announced in use any social networks outside of Facebook
the afternoon of 3 April (European time),
when we did a new count at noon on 4 3 - The filters were a huge innovation,
April, numbers stood at 32.1 million, allowing anyone to make an ordinary
meaning it had added three million users in picture extra-ordinary. It's added what can
two days - the vast majority of those 3+ almost be described as a gaming element
million new users will have been post the with users looking at new ways of doctoring
Android announcement their pictures. An eco-system of thousands
of photography apps now work in support,
Instagram is now the biggest mobile only allowing you to do everything from add light
social network worldwide (a few country flare effects to making your image look
specific networks in China have more aged. One of the most popular apps,
users). Though different android / Apple Camera+, had made $5 million via the Apple
iOS user behaviour (Apple users account for iTunes app store by the beginning of the
most mobile web activity) means you can't year.
just take Android and predict that the user

4. 4 - There is an active community of super- different destination photos. 750 edits
fans and influencers who run everything have been uploaded, each shared on users’
from competitions, edit challenges and real feeds, and bmi has more than tripled its
world meet-ups. In a relatively short Instagram following as a result.
period of time, a very distinctive sub-
culture has grown among Instagram's most Instagram groups. A number of groups exist
dedicated users that is different to what within Instagram that mix challenges,
you find on other social networks. tutorials, community support and pop
sessions (see below). One of the most well
know is 'Rebels United.' Others include
'Implus' and 'Gang Family.'
Instagram communities Pop groups. Instagram has a popular page
and sub-culture or tab. Getting on there depends on having
a very large number of likes within a short
amount of time, usually 50-100 in ten
minutes. As that's impossible for 99% of
users, a number of pop groups have sprung
At SXSW, Instagram's founders talked about up. These are closed accounts where you
two different types of Instagram user. The apply to follow. The groups post at a
majority who use it as a visual life stream designated time and all post together, using
or news feed. And the minority, secret hash-tags to like every post in the
representing Instagram's most committed group.
users, who see it as, in Kevin Systrom's
words "performance art."
The latter group manifests itself in a
number of different ways, for example
through:
Edit challenges. There are regular edit
challenges on Instagram, where a picture is
posted and users are invited to change it as
they see fit. One of the most popular edit
communities is one run by a French pastor
on @applified. Every night he posts a
different image from France and every day,
people think of new and creative ways of
changing the picture and uploading an edit.
Most pop groups members tend to see the
whole exercise as a group challenge as
opposed to a popularity contest. They also
claim to post high quality images with the
aim of taking back the 'pop' page from the
teenage and cat photos that often make an
appearance there.
Instagramers. The best known Instagram
community is the "Instagramers" - Set up by
Rabbit client, British Midland International Phil Gonzalez in Spain, Instagramers now
(bmi) has over the past month been running has hundreds of chapters worldwide. They
a weekly #bmieditchallenge featuring

5. organise challenges, as well as real-world #shapes, all apparent Fiesta brand
meet ups and photo-walks. attributes. The campaign was supported by
advertising and had 16,000 responses
The London Instagramers group created
Europe's first Instagram exhibition in GE - At the end of last year GE ran a
October, which Rabbit supported, and competition for a full time “instagrapher”
we've been working with the groups on a under the tag #geinspiredme. GE also has a
campaign for low-fares airline bmibaby lighting photo app, and uses its feed to
which has seen over 30,000 destination visually showcase the business.
photos being uploaded and tagged.
bmibaby - myeurope. This is an going
campaign we've been running since August
to bring bmibaby destinations to life.
Rather than launch the competition into the
wild, we worked with local Instagramer
groups with the countries taken in rotation.
Essentially working through Instagramers,
users had to upload and tag their favourite
destination photos for each country.
The campaign has also included a series of
What brands are using Instameet exchanges and a series of visual
inspiration guides using the images on the
it? bmibaby website. As of March 2012, we
had 30k+ pieces of user generated content
submitted
Many of the early adopter brands were as
you'd expect in fashion, the media, retail
and travel. This includes Starbucks, Red
Bull, Burberry, Ford Fiesta, MTV and (in
Metrics and
travel) Rabbit client bmibaby. A few
examples of how brands used it are as
measurement
follows:
Puma - flew core Instagram and Tumblr
users to Abu Dhabi to visually document the There are a few Instagram web viewers that
Volvo Ocean Race, tagging them allow you to view posts, and also manage
#marmostro (the name of Puma’s boat) your account (but not post direct to
Instagram). One is Statigram, which also
gives you basic metrics including top
Ford Fiesta - Ran a six week competition to
followers, average likes and comments per
win a car. This integrated Facebook and
post and best time to post.
Instagram. The categories for posts included
#starting #hidden #listening #entry #music

6. #powerlineporn (pictures of power lines)
8143 images
#buildinglover (people who love buildings)
11094 images
#foodporn (an Instagram favourite) 636,164
photos
#computer 32,692 photos
#streetsign 5264 photos
Statigram has also tried to solve the #cat 1,730,793 pics - OK, no surprise there!
problem of the lack of a repost function by
allowing you to 'repost' an image in a round So what should you do?
about way - you send a image with a repost
logo to yourself and then upload it via
Instagram.
As a brand marketer,
what should your first
"But I'm not in fashion / Instagram steps be?
travel /
entertainment?"
1 - Create an account and get to grips with
Instagram yourself. Nothing beats first
One of the most common comments we get hand knowledge and the fact that many of
is 'but we're not visual.' We believe every us at Rabbit have been enthusiastic
business is not only visual, but should have Instagram users and really understood the
a visual social media strategy pulling in the communities, proved key to the successes
other two main image led social networks, we've had
Pinterest and Tumblr, as well.
2 - Reserve your brand ID. The same
For example, take a look at the huge range strategy as other social networks applies,
of objects being featured on Instagram, take your brand ID before someone else
some truly weird and wonderful: does so. Right now there have been no
examples of brand-jacking, but it is not a
question of if but when. Given the saying
of a picture says a 1000 words, were it to
happen it could be highly embarrassing for
the brand in question
3 - See what people are taking pictures of.
As we've said, if you don't think your
business is visual, you are mistaken. The
range of things people take pictures of on
Instagram is huge, the chances certainly are
that some tie into your business
4 - Take a look at what other brands are
doing for best - and worst - practice.
Plenty of brands are now on Instagram for
you to follow and assess what they are
doing
5 - Put together a visual strategy for your
business, not only encompassing Instagram
but also Flickr Pinterest and Tumblr. How
can your brand be brought to life, beyond

7. standard photos of the CEO shaking hands
to seal a deal that no one is interested in?
Finally, if you want us to advise on a visual
strategy for your business and how
Instagram can work for you, email us!
instagram@therabbitagency.com
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