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When it first launched, now-Facebook owned Instagram was seen as a place for people to simply upload selfies and other mundane pictures.
But since then, it has grown into a juggernaut that is so powerful for brand marketing, that some individual users have been able to make a living off their Instagram accounts, especially in areas like fashion, travel and make-up.
And brands have discovered that it is an ideal platform for many of them to make connections to their current customers.
Instagram can now build a community, which is a powerful tool for many brands.
You can see why from the statistics.
As of the end of December 2016, there were 600 million monthly active users. Of those, 400 million decide to sign on every single day.
And while other stats are hard to gauge, the average user appears to be spending at least 15 minutes per day on the site.
Instagram is still overwhelmingly female at about 68%.
The most popular age range skews higher than you might think. I've seen statistics saying that the average age of an Instagram user is 35. But about 45% of the users are in the key 18-34 demographic. With another 35% making up the 35-54 age range.
It's no wonder, then, that Instagram is growing its advertising base quickly. In March 2017, Instagram announced that it had reached 1 million monthly active advertisers, up from 500,000 just last September and 200,000 a year ago.
Growing a Brand on Instagram
But for many brands, it's not only a place to buy advertising. It has become the perfect place to find new customers and build a brand through their own accounts.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the healthy eating/diet area.
Kayla Itsines, an Australian personal trainer, has created a fitness empire out of posting before and after photos of followers of her Bikini Body Guide on her Instagram page, many of them in bikinis or workout clothes. There are also beautiful pictures of healthy food. She has 6.6 million followers.
She has branched out into the community area as well with an entire Instagram feed devoted to the Bikini Body Guide Community, also known as "BBG Community". There are similar types of pictures, but more of women in groups doing the BBG challenge. She has 325,000 followers on that feed.
Her followers are known as "Kayla's Army" and her Bikini Body Guide is now one of the most in-demand in the fitness industry. Initially, she did it all without a book or a television show. Prior to Instagram, that would have been impossible to pull off.
Established Brands in the Game or Falling Behind?
Where does this leave the big, corporate diet and eating brands, if these small mom-and-pop start-ups are able to make connections using pictures on Instagram?
Weight Watchers (WTW - Free Report) , for instance, has always been known for its community. But that community came in the form of weekly meetings, which you paid to join. This worked successfully for many years but started to breakdown with the invention of the fitbit and other online communities, including Instagram.
Weight Watchers now appears to be embracing the Instagram diet and healthy eating phenomena. It has 562,000 followers on Instagram. It posts mostly food and inspirational pictures, including links to recipes, which are popular on Instagram. It also posts short videos depicting how to cook recipes.
A post shared by Weight Watchers (@weightwatchers) on
The company has also embraced InstaStory, Instagram's challenge to Snapchat.
Advertising Or Connection?
But it's the opposite story at Nutrisystem . The company sells packaged diet meals and recently launched the South Beach Diet, a brand it purchased in 2015 with the goal of bringing it to a whole new generation. South Beach Diet has over 23 million books in print.
Yet, its Instagram feed has a measly 5,520 followers. I thought maybe I was on a fan page or something, but there is a check mark next to the name indicating its an official brand page.
It too posts some inspirational quotes and also posts pictures of its food, with the packages clear in the pictures. The pictures aren't as pretty as what Weight Watchers is using and their products are usually featured.
It has some videos, but they are mostly of Marie Osmond, the current spokesperson, giving a marketing pitch. Weight Watchers, by contrast, doesn't have any photos or videos of Oprah, that I saw. Oprah has her own Instagram page with 8.7 million followers.
I didn't see any reference to InstaStory or to their recently launched South Beach Diet. There's also no separate Instagram feed for the South Beach Diet, in case someone wanted to follow ONLY that name.
From the look of it, Nutrisystem appears to be falling behind on Instagram.
A Diet or a Lifestyle Change?
The weight loss companies don't just go up against each other, they also have to compete with "do it yourself" types who are using social media sites like Instagram to build their own diet plans and do #healthyeating.
Whole Foods also has pretty pictures of foods, where you can go to links for recipes too. It's really not that different from what the diet companies are offering.
A post shared by Whole Foods Market (@wholefoods) on
The food delivery services, like Blue Apron, are also using Instagram to showcase the dishes you can make through their food delivery service. Blue Apron, which is looking to go IPO in 2017, has 274,000 followers.
While you have to go a step further than Nutrisystem, because it is sending you the ingredients and then you cook it yourself, it's not that different of a concept from a home delivered diet.
I didn't see any videos nor InstaStory, however. I'm surprised they aren't showing videos of customers making their food or just how-tos to take the mystery out of cooking at home.
While pretty photos of the food are nice, the how-to videos are what make a connection with users. Only their Facebook page has the "how-to" videos.
Instagram Is the New Battleground
The battle for new customers in the diet and healthy eating arena is quickly switching from magazines and books to the online Instagram community.
With 400 million daily active users, and growing, it provides a huge opportunity for these companies.
But how many of them will cash in?
It's becoming quite clear for ALL brands, not just the healthy eating ones, that they ignore Instagram at their own peril.
Zacks' Hidden Trades
While we share many recommendations and ideas with the public, certain moves are hidden from everyone but selected members of our portfolio services. Would you like to peek behind the curtain today and view them?
Starting now, for the next month, I invite you to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time from value to momentum...from stocks under $10 to ETF to option movers...from insider trades to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises (we've called them with 80%+ accuracy). You can even look inside portfolios so exclusive that they are normally closed to new investors.
Image: Bigstock
Is it Do or Die for Brands on Instagram?
When it first launched, now-Facebook owned Instagram was seen as a place for people to simply upload selfies and other mundane pictures.
But since then, it has grown into a juggernaut that is so powerful for brand marketing, that some individual users have been able to make a living off their Instagram accounts, especially in areas like fashion, travel and make-up.
And brands have discovered that it is an ideal platform for many of them to make connections to their current customers.
Instagram can now build a community, which is a powerful tool for many brands.
You can see why from the statistics.
As of the end of December 2016, there were 600 million monthly active users. Of those, 400 million decide to sign on every single day.
And while other stats are hard to gauge, the average user appears to be spending at least 15 minutes per day on the site.
Instagram is still overwhelmingly female at about 68%.
The most popular age range skews higher than you might think. I've seen statistics saying that the average age of an Instagram user is 35. But about 45% of the users are in the key 18-34 demographic. With another 35% making up the 35-54 age range.
It's no wonder, then, that Instagram is growing its advertising base quickly. In March 2017, Instagram announced that it had reached 1 million monthly active advertisers, up from 500,000 just last September and 200,000 a year ago.
Growing a Brand on Instagram
But for many brands, it's not only a place to buy advertising. It has become the perfect place to find new customers and build a brand through their own accounts.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the healthy eating/diet area.
Kayla Itsines, an Australian personal trainer, has created a fitness empire out of posting before and after photos of followers of her Bikini Body Guide on her Instagram page, many of them in bikinis or workout clothes. There are also beautiful pictures of healthy food. She has 6.6 million followers.
She has branched out into the community area as well with an entire Instagram feed devoted to the Bikini Body Guide Community, also known as "BBG Community". There are similar types of pictures, but more of women in groups doing the BBG challenge. She has 325,000 followers on that feed.
Her followers are known as "Kayla's Army" and her Bikini Body Guide is now one of the most in-demand in the fitness industry. Initially, she did it all without a book or a television show. Prior to Instagram, that would have been impossible to pull off.
Established Brands in the Game or Falling Behind?
Where does this leave the big, corporate diet and eating brands, if these small mom-and-pop start-ups are able to make connections using pictures on Instagram?
Weight Watchers (WTW - Free Report) , for instance, has always been known for its community. But that community came in the form of weekly meetings, which you paid to join. This worked successfully for many years but started to breakdown with the invention of the fitbit and other online communities, including Instagram.
Weight Watchers now appears to be embracing the Instagram diet and healthy eating phenomena. It has 562,000 followers on Instagram. It posts mostly food and inspirational pictures, including links to recipes, which are popular on Instagram. It also posts short videos depicting how to cook recipes.
The company has also embraced InstaStory, Instagram's challenge to Snapchat.
Advertising Or Connection?
But it's the opposite story at Nutrisystem . The company sells packaged diet meals and recently launched the South Beach Diet, a brand it purchased in 2015 with the goal of bringing it to a whole new generation. South Beach Diet has over 23 million books in print.
Yet, its Instagram feed has a measly 5,520 followers. I thought maybe I was on a fan page or something, but there is a check mark next to the name indicating its an official brand page.
It too posts some inspirational quotes and also posts pictures of its food, with the packages clear in the pictures. The pictures aren't as pretty as what Weight Watchers is using and their products are usually featured.
It has some videos, but they are mostly of Marie Osmond, the current spokesperson, giving a marketing pitch. Weight Watchers, by contrast, doesn't have any photos or videos of Oprah, that I saw. Oprah has her own Instagram page with 8.7 million followers.
I didn't see any reference to InstaStory or to their recently launched South Beach Diet. There's also no separate Instagram feed for the South Beach Diet, in case someone wanted to follow ONLY that name.
From the look of it, Nutrisystem appears to be falling behind on Instagram.
A Diet or a Lifestyle Change?
The weight loss companies don't just go up against each other, they also have to compete with "do it yourself" types who are using social media sites like Instagram to build their own diet plans and do #healthyeating.
Whole Foods also has pretty pictures of foods, where you can go to links for recipes too. It's really not that different from what the diet companies are offering.
The food delivery services, like Blue Apron, are also using Instagram to showcase the dishes you can make through their food delivery service. Blue Apron, which is looking to go IPO in 2017, has 274,000 followers.
While you have to go a step further than Nutrisystem, because it is sending you the ingredients and then you cook it yourself, it's not that different of a concept from a home delivered diet.
I didn't see any videos nor InstaStory, however. I'm surprised they aren't showing videos of customers making their food or just how-tos to take the mystery out of cooking at home.
While pretty photos of the food are nice, the how-to videos are what make a connection with users. Only their Facebook page has the "how-to" videos.
Instagram Is the New Battleground
The battle for new customers in the diet and healthy eating arena is quickly switching from magazines and books to the online Instagram community.
With 400 million daily active users, and growing, it provides a huge opportunity for these companies.
But how many of them will cash in?
It's becoming quite clear for ALL brands, not just the healthy eating ones, that they ignore Instagram at their own peril.
Zacks' Hidden Trades
While we share many recommendations and ideas with the public, certain moves are hidden from everyone but selected members of our portfolio services. Would you like to peek behind the curtain today and view them?
Starting now, for the next month, I invite you to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time from value to momentum...from stocks under $10 to ETF to option movers...from insider trades to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises (we've called them with 80%+ accuracy). You can even look inside portfolios so exclusive that they are normally closed to new investors.
Click here for Zacks' secret trade>>