How Did Instagram Change to Become a Tool for Community Building?

1. Instagram Guide To It's Journey To Become A Community Building Tool netcontent.biz

2. Introduction Instagram's meteoric rise is reminiscent of a Silicon Valley fairy tale, with the startup gathering incredible momentum in a matter of short months. Software experts just needed eight weeks to create the social media program for uploading photos and videos before it was made available on the iOS mobile operating system in October 2010. Facebook (META) bought the business for $1 billion in cash and equity in less than two years. As with any good story, there were twists and turns, failures and successes, conflicts and synergies, as well as some fortuitous coincidences. Since its debut in 2010, Instagram has experienced some of the quickest growth and development of any app. The main function of the app hasn't changed much throughout the years, although there have been some modest but significant additions. We'll discuss how the app has developed, how it's grown to be one of the most effective social media platforms, and how you can use Instagram for your business. If you are still in some confusion or don't know how to build a scalable Instagram account then partner up with a Net Content digital marketing agency as we can help you in building the brand name.

3. 1. History of Instagram In 2009, Kevin Systrom, a 27-year-old Stanford University alumnus, was employed by Nextstop, a firm that provided travel advice. Systrom had previously interned at Odeo, a business that would later become Twitter, and worked as a corporate development associate at Google (GOOG) (TWTR). While working at Nextstop, Systrom learned to code on the side because he had no professional experience in computer science. In the end, he created a web app prototype named Burbn, which was influenced by his preference for premium whisky and bourbon. Users of the Burbn app could check in, submit their plans, and exchange pictures. Even though location-based check-in apps were relatively common at the time, Burbn's photo-sharing feature stood out.

4. 2. Venture Capital Funding A pivotal moment occurred in March 2010, when Systrom went to a party for Hunch, a Silicon Valley-based business. Two venture investors from Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz were introduced to Systrom at the event. They agreed to meet for coffee to continue their conversation after he demonstrated the app's prototype to them. After they initially met, Systrom made the decision to leave his career and devote himself to Burbn. Within two weeks, he had secured $500,000 in seed capital for his business venture from Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Systrom was able to begin assembling a team to support his endeavor thanks to this initial investment; the first person to do so was 25-year-old Mike Krieger. Krieger, a fellow Stanford alum, had previously worked at Meebo, a social media company, as a programmer and user-experience designer. The two were acquainted from their time as Stanford University students.

5. 3. Pivot to a Photo- Sharing Application After Krieger joined, the two reevaluated Burbn and chose to concentrate mainly on images acquired particularly with mobile devices. At the time, they extensively examined the top photography apps. The Hipstamatic app caught the attention of Krieger and Systrom due to its popularity and intriguing features that could be applied to photos, such as filters. Systrom and Krieger recognized possibilities in creating an app that connected Hipstamatic and a social media site like Facebook because it lacked social media-sharing features. Burbn was reduced to just its photo, commenting, and "liking" features as a step backward. They changed the name of their program to Instagram at that moment, fusing the phrases "instant" and "telegram." They also started concentrating on enhancing the photo-sharing process. The software was created with the idea of being simple and requiring as little user interaction as possible. They spent eight weeks perfecting the software before giving it to friends to beta test and assess its functionality. They brought the software to launch after fixing several bugs.

6. 4. Launch of the iOS App On October 6, 2010, the Instagram app was released, and within one day, 25,000 users downloaded it. Instagram had been downloaded 100,000 times by the end of the first week, and by the middle of December, there were one million active users. The iPhone 4, which featured a better camera, had recently arrived in June 2010, making the timing of the app's release fortunate.

7. 5. Newer Features Added to the App Despite having a wide range of capabilities, Instagram's user interface essentially just allows those who have registered for a free account to submit material, including both images and videos. After that, users can apply filters to the images they upload and arrange them using hashtags and location data (a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign that is used primarily on social media platforms to identify posts about a specific topic). Users have the option of making their profiles public or private; the distinction is that when a profile is public, all other Instagram users can see the user's photographs and videos, however, when a profile is private, users can choose who they want to be able to access their postings. Instagram users can browse the images and videos of other users by looking for hashtags and locations. Additionally, by clicking on icons that allow people to "like" a post or leave a text comment on a post, users can interact with the photographs and videos posted by other users as well as scroll through an assortment of trending content. A user who "follows" another user will have that user's photographs and videos appear in their feed.

8. Users could only display their media in a square aspect ratio in the first iteration of the Instagram app (the aspect ratio is the proportion between an image's width and height). Images with a square aspect ratio have the same height and width. This meant that Instagram users could only upload images that were the same width as the iPhone 4 at the time, which was 640 pixels (in 2010). In 2015, this function was modified to allow users to upload larger files (up to 1080 pixels). Instagram has since its initial release also included a chat tool and given users the option to share multiple photographs or videos.

9. 6. How Brands Can Be Utilising Instagram As one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram should be used by brands for their own gain. Some brands, such as those in the public sector like legal firms or non-visual corporations, might not be appropriate for Instagram. Instagram is the ideal medium for creative industries and marketers because it is entirely visual. Instagram is more of a brand recognition site with the ability to drive conversions, so don't expect to achieve conversions there. It's challenging to get direct organic traffic because you can't link back to the products featured in pictures. They are gradually rolling out an in-app shopping feature that is currently only available for more well-known, established businesses. However, they are gradually admitting a fewer number of well-known companies. The other way to increase traffic is through Instagram stories, where you may include links that, should a user swipe up, will take them there. This brand recognition helps you to build trust with your customers and that can indeed help you to build up your sales. Net Content Digital Marketing is helping many businesses to establish themselves as a brand and if you are also looking for someone to help then get in touch with us today!

10. The Future Of Instagram Instagram has a bright future ahead of it thanks to its constant tactical updates while maintaining a close resemblance to its original software. It's challenging for its earnings to just keep rising along with its user base. Just wondering what their potential future project is!

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