According to an article by the Content Marketing Institute, Instagram use grew faster than other leading social media channels from 2012-2014.  The Pew Research Center offers great research on this, along with insights into the use of technology and social media by US teens. Nearly 75% of teens either have or have access to a smartphone, and over 90% go online daily; with more than half going online several times a day.

While I hear from colleagues in education that students frequently report that “they don’t really use Facebook anymore” (because it has lost it’s cool factor) – these reports don’t agree with the research. According to Pew, 71% of all teens report using Facebook, and it remains the leading social media channel for this group.

You can find the original Pew Research report here.

The increasing popularity of Instagram has also led to an interesting development among social marketers who use images as a central part of their strategy. Instagram excels in user generated content, and the majority of images found there are far from the perfectly stylized, high quality professional photographs that companies and organizations typically create and use for marketing.

As a result, organizations and companies are investing more time in the creation of art and photographic images with image errors and imperfections. These are being posted in  content campaigns in an increasing and intentional effort to make these images look like user generated content – authentic.