Less than 40% of newspapers use Instagram in their social media strategy

Instagram is where we expect to see awesome imagery, right? And why not to see cool galleries in Instagram made by magazines or newspapers? If you see Instagram as a "not for us" social media platform, you may be wrong. Today, we will explain why and we will share with you some successful examples of media accounts in Instagram.

Less than 40% of newspapers use Instagram in their social media strategy
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Instagram can be a powerful tool to reach new audience

In the last few years, many magazines have found different ways of using Instagram as an extension of their printed identities. Focusing on the numbers, Instagram has over 700 million monthly users and three times more engagement than its parent company, Facebook. Despite seeing 424 percent year to year growth in engagement,  less than 40 percent of newspapers are on Instagram.

There are a few reasons why media is not really engage with this platform. For naming a few, Instagram only allows active links in the user’s profile bio, so it is not a traffic driven tool. Also, it is next to imposible to monetize as users can’t embed advertisements.

So in this scenario, why communication sites should still invest in Instagram? Well, first and foremost: To reach new audiences. Most Instagram users are 18 to 29 years old. This age range has the lowest number of daily newspaper readership

Instagram offers as well a great opportunity to create brand awareness and expand. The platform provides the opportunity to showcase a slightly different aspect of a brand, reaching the 30% of the traffic in SM today. 

A great example on Instagram is The Economist. They have over 1.3 million followers on the platform and receive thousands of engagements per post. From quotes to short news stories, this publication is using Instagram to draw in more brand awareness, reach new audiences, expand their brand and more – while subtly placing their subscription link in their bio.

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Another great example is The National Geographic magazine with a large number of followers of the bunch, with a staggering 82, 9 million. That’s huge for any account, not just for a publisher. 

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CNN does a gob job here as well. Their reportes are active users themselves and when they are on site, they will post photos in action, with captions hinting at longer, more in-depth stories that will be available on their website. This provides that desire to visit the website that isn’t made easy with Instagram.

 

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And If you’re more interested in being informed than inspired, Time takes visual storytelling to the next level, communicating relevant news, political events, reports through high quality photo journalism. The one thing that sets them apart is how they deliver the human, emotional side of a story in most of their images. The image descriptions are always relevant and explanatory, so you can stay in touch with the world through Instagram.

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El Pais is another great example, with a community of followers growing pretty quick in the last year. Photos and content are very well presented and the users engage is quite good for a, still, not big community.

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The potential is here and Instagram options should be indeed explored by media companies. Instagram is different for every user. While one newsroom is using it to display their hard-hitting news, another organization is successful showcasing their employees’ pets. As we said in one of our previous articles, see what works for the organization and run with it. 

So, now that you know how, what are you waiting for? Follow our steps and see results! And, remeber, If you like to report in your blog, or you simply have a site with information and you have something to say, with Opennemas you can create your own digital site completely free of charge thanks to everything that our content management system offers you. Do you want to know how? Click here, and we'll tell you how.

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Less than 40% of newspapers use Instagram in their social media strategy