Selfies, Foodporn, Picoftheday

They are already more or less at home on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Co. Now growing numbers of marketing masterminds are looking at the next big thing: Instagram. And they definitely like what they see: This new social network shooting star hides amazing possibilities behind screens full of blurred selfies and cute baby cat snapshots. With already 200 million users, this platform effortlessly reaches beyond language barriers to involve truly global fan communities in targeted activities. A perfect example in this respect is the first European Instaweekend, hosted by Swarovski Crystal Worlds with competent support by Netural. “Catch the moment and share it with people everywhere in the world.” This is Instagram´s essential idea. Here, one picture is not only worth a thousand words, it also worth a thousand languages. Visual communication is the only real global language, and this photo network can help companies to across language barriers and involve users worldwide into campaigns. So Instagram is great for your brand, right? Well, yes, provided you understand some important basics. Number one: Instagram is not commercial. At least not very – yet. It is about sharing very personal memories, experiences, emotions and aesthetic preferences. So it is necessarily about trust and confidence. This is why the easiest way to scare off and anger your followers is throwing stupid adverting at them. This does by no way mean that uploading photos of products is a no-no. On the contrary, it can work surprisingly well, provided the products look great in the photo. Oh – they don´t? Think twice before uploading them.