But you still can't click a link in a comment or hit a buy button... Why? My wife follows tons of fashion labels- it's a no brainer for her to pick up a dress with Stripe in Instagram. Why not have users opt in to ads since they're already following companies they love! Seems like a missed opportunity for the company and the user, but perhaps I'm missing something.
Does anyone else feel like IG may be jumping the shark by pushing the business angle so hard? This probably sounds ridiculous given their explosive growth, growth that may seem unstoppable at this point. But, BUT, at what point do we all stop and realize that we are choosing to stare at ads all the time? Seriously, what portion of the posts on IG are either overt ads or veiled (artistic) ads? That percentage seems to grow with every post. Remember where IG started and what it exposed us to? I barely do.
A bit offtopic but the switch to business.facebook.com has eliminated a ton of wasted time in my life now that I hardly ever get stuck checking my personal feed.<p>I don't have a personal Instagram - just a business one, but I'm definitely a fan of them segmenting these services off away from the consumer stuff. Far better productivity. Get in, do your work, and get out.
"Inspire People Visually With Your Business' Story". In other words, this is an ad system, not a collaboration system. The title gave the impression that Instagram was planning to compete with Slack.
I think this will be very successful. The roll of storytelling in business is becoming increasingly important, especially for consumer companies targeting millenials. See: <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/opinion/why-storytelling-will-be-the-biggest-business-skill-of-the-next-5-years" rel="nofollow">http://blog.hubspot.com/opinion/why-storytelling-will-be-the...</a>
"I think this will be very successful. The roll of storytelling in business is becoming increasingly important, especially for consumer companies targeting millenials. See: <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/opinion/why-storytelling-will-be-the..."" rel="nofollow">http://blog.hubspot.com/opinion/why-storytelling-will-be-the...</a><p>Agreed. I think this combined with Snapchat advertising could be the first steps in the direction of changing advertising from the intrusive and unwanted interruption of your daily life to something people actually browse through in order to discover interesting stories and experiences.<p>However, I also think as social media has proliferated, the definition of the word "brand" has expanded as now more than ever, people are seen as "brands" - often with hundreds of thousands of followers (more than many actual brands and even media companies). As everyone becomes a brand, I believe increasingly the line between marketing and storytelling will be blurred and marketing will become deeply embedded into our culture. Product placement in movies, celebrity endorsement, "native" posts: all these are the first indicators of a culture in which everything is meant to sell something. Whether this is a good thing or not is up for discussion.