Instagram publishes best practice guide for marketers

Video: Instagram for Business

The online guide, (which includes the video above), outlines five tips for brands looking to boost engagement with fans on the platform. Instagram advises marketers must be “true to your brand”, “share experiences”, “find beauty everywhere”, “inspire action” and “know your audience”.

A hard-copy “Handbook for Brands”, which will be sent to selected marketers and agencies, will also feature Instagram’s own brand values and 10 popular hashtags it says highlight the “collaborative creativity” within the Instagram community, such as #ChasingLight and #ThingsOrganisedNeatly.

Instagram first began testing advertising on the platform in October last year, but the roll out has been deliberately slow, with the company’s CEO Kevin Systrom telling the GigaOm Roadmap conference in the US last year that it would start off working with a limited group of advertisers in order to “keep the standard really, really high”.

In a blog post when advertising was first announced, Instagram said it wanted the ads to be as enjoyable and creative as high-quality ads in glossy magazines. 

Facebook acquired Instagram for $1bn (£630m) in 2012 as it looked to grow its then infant mobile offering, which at the time had “yet to generate any meaningful revenue”. Facebook’s mobile revenue generated $1.25bn, 53 per cent of its total revenue in the three months to December. 

Shortly after the acquisition Instagram faced a backlash from users when it changed its terms of service to allow it to sell users’ photos to brands. 

The company moved quickly to reverse this policy and in the blog post also reassured users they own their photos and videos and that the introduction of advertising would not change this.