Introduction
Instagram has become an integral part of people’s lives in modern society, as more people choose to make use of it to keep up with social trends and contact friends and family. It was first launched in 2010, however; it began to gain major prominence in 2012 after Facebook offered to purchase it for 1 billion dollars (Blystone, 2022). From a corporate perspective, Khaimova (2019) notes that Michael Kors became the first official user in 2013, after Instagram first introduced sponsored post advertising, with the probable argument being that such a brand saw an opportunity to better showcase its line of products on an app that according to Blystone (2022) gained 25000 users on the day it was first launched. This essay will focus on analyzing the influence of marketing in social media based on how it become an easier way to communicate and raise awareness for large brands since Instagram offers different methods of promotions.
Engagement in the social media network
The emergence of Instagram has made it easier for brands to engage with followers and potential customers. Looking at the comments section as an example, its significance is vital as it enables brands to gather opinions or feedback on initiatives they may be interested in undertaking, or even on their products. It has become an area that consumers can use to directly communicate with the brand. This is backed by Sharma (2021), who argues that Instagram has the most engaged users when compared to other social media platforms. Large brands spend large amounts of money on digital advertising on Instagram because they put their business in the line of growth but moreover want to take advantage of the growing number of active users as argued by Sharma (2021). To cross-reference with other sources, Khaimova (2019) argues that 60% of people discover new products through Instagram, which only highlights the fact that such data supports the idea that Instagram’s tendency to provide highly engaged customers is unparalleled when compared to other platforms, and thus supporting the notion that it has become much easier to raise awareness on Instagram.
However, increasing awareness in social media marketing brought about different levels of communication because, as a platform that facilitates interaction, collaboration, or content sharing between users in general, it has led to the interactive nature of marketing communications and the discovery of innovative applications to make products and brands more affordable through online marketing efforts via social media communication channels (Bilgin, 2018). As a result, social media influences their consumers’ responses and reviews of brands because marketing leads to advertising the products and brand promotions within their budget and receiving their customers’ feedback as a means to further provide their customers with better products and service. Building and raising brand awareness must reach certain levels in order for a brand to gain recognition, acceptance, and recall in order for it to run smoothly and positively, because for a business to be able to reach their targeted audience and profit through the use of marketing tools, brand-consumer relationships must be built in the marketing world of social media (Bilgin, 2018). Growing brand-consumer relationships creates groups of customers who remain loyal to the brand because the main goal of growing brand-consumer relationships is to make brands stronger by getting recognized, recalled, and influenced in the world to build the long-term success of the business and growing customer retention as a means to take engagement in the social network to a new level.
Because Instagram has dramatically changed the way people can advertise, engaging in social media marketing results in communication being transferred and spread globally. According to (Heskiano et al., 2020), social media marketing and brand awareness have an influence on brand loyalty, which is assisted by brand image. Successful social media marketing will affect the awareness of the advertised brand in the minds of every consumer, so that the image of the advertised brand will be firmly entrenched in their experiences, resulting in a continuous increase in the same brand loyalty. However, when it comes to raising awareness, the brand’s image is important in order to reach the targeted audience because if it suffers, it can harm the business’s growth and customer awareness and recognition of the brand.
Influencers on Instagram
The rise of influencers on Instagram has helped large brands increase their hold on customers. Influencers are ranked based on the number of followers they have although they face different interactions and networking on the site. According to Sanders (2023), Mega-influencers have more than a million followers, which means they have a similar status to that of celebrities and have higher chances of higher visibility. Large brands are thus likely to make use of their large following on Instagram to reach those customers they would otherwise be able to reach when using other forms of media. Despite their huge followings, Sanders (2023) also notes that their rate of engagement decreases as their total follower count rises. This could be due to the fact that such influencers’ credibility is likely to reduce due to the fact that consumers may see it as the influencer’s way of gaining from monetary benefits, rather than being an actual advocate for the brand. Thus, sanders (2023) has also identified the emergence of micro-influencers, who have a more intimate connection with their followers, with brands being able to reach a specific niche by using such influencers. Different types of influencers have managed to aid brands in expanding and refining their reach even further as they are now able to reach more people faster and more efficiently, which only further helps in concluding that raising awareness has become much easier through Instagram.
Despite the emergence of influencers in digital media, the use of celebrities in advertising (particularly traditional) has been present for a long period of time. In the past, brands were likely to make use of celebrities and their “superstar” status in T.V. ads for example, or making use of imagery on billboards. A paper by Zhang, (2021) states that traditional celebrities are often musicians, actors, and more, and have an immense influence amongst their fans. Large brands still make use of their services today but have now shifted towards looking at how each level of influencer can best increase financial benefits. This brings about social media influencers and their rise on social platforms, (Instagram) and due to their notorious nature, anybody can become an influencer, with each type having its own benefit to the brand. Zhang (2021) states that social media influencers’ high reach and authenticity render them with the same power as traditional celebrities. This provides a cheaper option for larger brands and an alternative way to reach audiences they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access if the Micro-influencers follower count happens to be lower than that of a celebrity, indicating that raising awareness is not only easier but cheaper as well as providing a comparison between past strategies to raising awareness, and current ones.
Furthermore, there are other different types of influencers although they receive different treatment on the platform compared to mega-influencers. These influencers are Macro-influencers, Mid-tier influencers, Micro-influencers and Nano-influencers. According to Sharma (2021), Macro-influencers are known to be users that have 500000 to 1 million followers. Although they might be around the same level as mega-influencers they do not receive the same level of payment even though there are some large brands that would still reach out to this type of influencers due to their content, they may not get what they look for based on the engagement they need from their target audience. Mid-tier influencers have 50000 to 500000 followers, although they also do not get acknowledged in the celebrity status. They are able to remain with maintaining content for their followers as they are still known to be strong in the field of Instagram influencers due to the engagement these influencers put in much effort to grow and connect with their followers (Sharma, 2021). Micro-influencers are based with a number of 10000 to 50000 followers. However, this level of influencers is able to have better engagement with their followers as they listen closely to their follower’s points of view to bring more content to them, as a way to connect and maintain their followers as well as to gain followers by being active and niche-focused with the content sharing they provide (Sharma, 2021). Lastly, there are Nano-influencers. These influencers have a small follower count compared to all the 4 other types of influencers but they are more cost-effective than the higher-ups because if larger brands and even normal businesses that need content start with these types of influencers then they are able to start at a low rate of payment to be able to maintain their brands (Sharma, 2021).
The growth of social media has enabled companies to engage and create relationships with their consumers, as well as enhanced the visibility of digital influencers (Ristevska & Bogoevska, 2021). Digital influencers have dominated how social media marketing efficiently boosts clients and sales depending on the influencers’ feedback of the specific product and service they sponsor and posting material of good quality and influential reviews on Instagram. Brands, on the other hand, invest in digital influencers to endorse their brands by sharing and creating content based on the influencer’s followers’ interests and the brand’s target audience because many people can come across the products and services they see on Instagram because, as a platform where communication can be transmitted globally, Instagram has expanded the opportunity of branding and marketing effectively on building trust, collaboration, and brand awareness on the platform. Thus, social media marketing helps to strengthen and influence brand awareness based on trust and collaboration; however, if a brand encounters and fails to positively reach their customers’ trust and build collaboration, it will result in drawbacks and a negative impact on the brand’s image as well as recognition of their products and services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Instagram still contributes to spreading awareness due to its prominence and the ability it gives users and customers to share content. As a result, social media have altered how marketing-driven promotion functions in terms of raising awareness. For example, in the past, large brands lacked the ability to effectively grow and maintain their audiences because they lacked a means of concretely connecting with consumers, whereas Instagram has brought about a variety of changes in the way large brands raise awareness. Since the growth of marketing has prompted changes in increasing consciousness with the assistance of social networks and modern society, brands have seen a massive increase in engagement. Although some major corporations may experience minor media issues, the benefits of Instagram making it easier to raise awareness far outweigh the drawbacks, both in terms of cost, as a result of the emergence of various types of influencers, and greater reach, as a result of how much easier it is to reach more specific audiences with different niches. Instagram continues to provide its best social network services because it wants to develop and provide its users with the chance to operate their businesses for the benefit of the community, members, and society. In relation to the topic of online networks and social change, raising awareness through the use of Instagram has opened doors and opportunities for growth through the use of the internet and engagement partly because of the support and promotion of maintaining and delivering changes within today’s media, Social media marketing has enhance communication and brand visibility based on brand awareness since the recognition of the brand leads to diverse of opportunity and goals to maintain success and growth between the brand and their customers. Overall, social media marketing is the sole reason modern culture is transformed in today’s world because when it comes to producing and raising awareness to gain their social media marketing and sales, it is important to focus on how to attract customers and how they would prefer and want their customers to perceive their brand and just follow their own perception and goal as a brand, which is why the use of digital influencers has and continues to help large brands widen their brands to increase sales and insight from their customers and target consumers.
Nguma-20934134_Conference Paper Participation
References
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