What is Instagram?

Instagram is is a free photo sharing program where users can take a photo, edit and make it beautiful by adding filters and then instantly sharing on their social networks. Instagram photos have a signature square shape similar to that of the Intamatic and Polaroid photos. It was started back in 2010 and widly used by  iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch owners. Then in April 2012, Instagram released thier Andriod version and popularity has only soared from there.

What is the big deal?

NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 09: In this photo illustration, the photo-sharing app Instagram fan page is seen on the Facebook website on the Apple Safari web browser on April 9, 2012 in New York City. Facebook Inc. is acquiring photo-sharing app Instagram for approx. $1 billion. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Aside from the billion dollar acquisition by Facebook, Instagram is immensely popular in the smartphone world. The day that it was released on the Android market, it has 1 million downloads in the first 12 hours! The user experience is fun, and many people enjoy the fact that they can take really great pictures with their smartphone devices and then broadcast them to their Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr with the click of a button.

What else makes it important?

Like I mentioned in a previous post, photos are the kings of content now. Images get more engagement on Facebook (likes and comments), especially if they are well done and visually interesting. So Instagram can make you almost look like a pro by helping you take really good photos, improving them with filters and then sharing them easily.

How do I get started on Instagram?

Step 1 - Go to the App Store/iTunes for iPhone, or Google Play for Android and download and install the free app to your smartphone

Step 2 - Launch the app and tap on Sign Up, then set up your username, password and add your profile photo.

Step 3 - Import contacts or find friends from your various social networks, or look at your recommended people to follow

Step 4 - Take your first photo, apply a filter (optional) and upload to Instagram and your chosen social networks.

Instagram is a growing network and a very useful app. It can make the most amateur photographer look like a pro. And it’s just plain fun to use. Are there ways to use it for you real estate business? Absolutely. In a follow-up post, I will outline some ideas you can utilize in your business with Instagram.

What are your thoughts Instagram? What kind of photos do you like to take with it? Leave a comment below!

Related articles

• Instagram’s rapid user growth visualized(techi.com)

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Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy

There has been an explosion of photo sharing on the web. You may have heard , “Facebook is the Photo Economy“.  More than 90 billion photos have been uploaded since Facebook launched. 6 billion pictures  are being uploaded monthly. I am sure that you have noticed in your news feeds that a large chunk of the content you see are images now. So it may come to you as no surprise that photos tend to grab more attention in your news feeds. The engagement rate on photos versus status updates is about 2:1. What does that mean? People are more likely to “like” and comment on photos as opposed to status updates.

But it is not just Facebook where images are important. The visually based social network, Pinterest (which I’ve talked a lot about recently) continues to soar in popularity. People are using it to curate information they like, that inspire them, and brands have found a way connect with customers in an authentic way. In the first quarter of 2012, Pinterest had 11.7 unique visitors. This image reliant social network is a force not to be ignored. And of course, there are some great ways to make good use of it and apply to your business.

Now is a good time to seriously consider infusing your marketing with more visual content. This is especially great if you struggle with coming up with new thing to write about for your real estate blog. These images can then be easily be shared across social networks and can be a potential traffic driver.

Images have a way of communicating ideas, emotions and more, in ways that words sometimes cannot. They capture more attention and have a higher engagement factor on your social networks. Examine ways to improve your use of images on your website and social media. Then get involved with visually based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. This “photo economy” is about more than just your listing photos.

What are your favorite ways to use images in your marketing? Are you an avid Pinterest or Instagram user?  Let us know in the comments below! We would love to hear about it.

Related articles

• Top Trends of 2012: The Visual Web(readwriteweb.com)

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• How to Breathe New Life Into Your Marketing With Visual Content(hubspot.com)

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Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy

This fabulous infographic that originally came from Smith and Associates, displays the differences perfectly!

Browse more data visualizations.

 

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy

Be Authentic

You’re not all business all the time, are you? Pinterest can be a true representation of who you are, especially if you spend the time to curate boards of things you like, things you want to make, things that inspire you, and things that you have made. Include a great mix of yourself and your business by making boards that represent your personal life, and then creatively making boards related to your business. (Need some ideas? Read this post here). And for the boards you have that ARE business related, go ahead and pin images used in your blog posts or your website, since it is great for driving traffic to your sites.

Still Avoid Shamless Self Promotion

In the beginning of April Pinterest removed the “avoid self promotion” rule in their terms, which opened up more possibilities for business use. There are some great benefits that Pinterest can bring to businesses, like increasing traffic to your website/blog, but one needs to strike a delicate balance. A majority of Pinterest users are on there for personal use and are not necessarily there to shop for real estate or other products. And nothing will turn off your followers more (and Pinterest users ignore your boards completely) if they see nothing but shameless self promotion. So doing nothing but promoting your listings with it (unless they have some awesome and inspiring photos), putting a photo of yourself up as “Worlds Best Realtor” or constantly promoting some other product you sell just won’t garner much attention and you could lose followers.

Pin Images From Their Original Sources

We must work to keep Pinterest from being dilluted with images that are not pointing to where they originally came from. For example, I find it incredibly frustrating when I find an image of a recipe I really want to try, but I cant get to it because it’s not linked to the source. So be sure when you pinning something, that you are getting it from the original source. I also recommend that wheneer you repin something, first click on it to check to make sure it came from the original source. Don’t use Google Images for pinning, because you run into the same problem. Go to the site the images actually came from to give proper credit to the source. And if you find images on Pinterest not sourced correctly, leave them a comment to let them know.

Be Sure to Write Descriptions and Tags

When pins have descriptions and are tagged right, they are so much easier to find. So don’t be stingy and write a description for your pins, or change them on your repins. You’re helping the Pinterest community to find them and letting them know why they should click or pin them too. Also, tag it back to the creator if possible. It helps the creators a bit in tracking where their pins are coming from. And if you are pinning images that came from your own site/blog, be sure to have a good description and tag so your items can be easily found too.

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy

I found this this genius infographic that explains just how much a real estate agents makes when selling a home. The designer of this infographic lays it out perfectly.

Browse more infographics.

 

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy

First, Why Pinterest Matters?

Pinterest has become the fastest growing social network as of late. According to Compete, unique visitors jumped 155% from December 2011 to January 2012. Mashable reported recently that Pinterest is now the #3 ranked social network in the US. The point is, it gets HUGE traffic, and chances are there are many of your potential clients that use it regularly. Can you use it for marketing? You can, but as I pointed out before, it is important to do it authentically and in a smart way.

Another reason Pinterest matters? The potential to drive traffic back to your sites and blogs. I will delve into this more in an upcoming post, but Pinterest can potential have a huge impact in the incoming traffic to your site/blog if you post interesting and relevant images sourced from your own site. More to come on that later.

Who Uses Pinterest?

According to stats analysis sites such as Alexa and Infographic, Pinterest has about a  70% female user base.  This group also reveals a higher than average percentage of college-educated users, with most being between 25-34 years of age. Certainly this is a growing sector of the homebuying world as well.

Basic Pinterest Lingo

Pin: An image posted  to Pinterest

Pinboard: A themed collection of pins

Repin: Reposting someone else’s pin

Grab The “Pin It” Button for Your Browser

One fabulous goodie that Pinterest provides is a button for your browsers bookmark bar. Once installed on your browser, you can then Pin images on any website you are browsing and add it to one of your pinboards. It is quite convenient and makes pinning easy. Go find it HERE.

Still Need An Invite?

Pinterest is still running on an invite only system. You can go to the site and fill in your info to request an invite.  If you want to get in on the Pinterest fun sooner, have a current Pinterest user to send you an invite (like me).

So those are some basics. As you can tell, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about. Coming up next in future posts, I’ll be talking about the traffic driving force of Pinterest, some Pinterest etiquette, and ways to build your following.

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 12 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan provides top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. She is also author of VA Mommy