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.

Keep the 5 Step “Hype” Cycle in mind to make your adoption of new channels more intentional.

Gartner, Inc. explains their research findings into the adoption of emerging technologies in clear phases in this article. Here’s a quick look:

Applied to your organization’s adoption of new social media, you will need to keep in mind how risk-friendly or risk-averse you want to be in seeking out new types of channels. While emerging social media tools frequently look free at the outset (no out of pocket costs), the downside cost of investing the time necessary to identify, understand, and populate new social media channels can be prohibitive. Depending on your resources for communication and content creation, you may be an organization that wants to take a wait and see stance until others have made it through the disillusionment phase and you can begin to see successful applications discovered through enlightenment.

But my audience is all over the new channel!

Never forget:  I’ve talked more than once about remembering to regularly research your target audiences. Where are they, and where do they congregate? Matching that data up with a good understanding of the cycle of adoption for your audiences can also help you to weather the inflated expectations phase without jumping prematurely into what looks like the newest biggest thing; only to find your audience members abandoning your channel in droves.