Top Blogs of 2012: The Power of Instagram

Could Social Media Be Behind a 100% Increase in Sales?

It is no surprise that social media has been on a stellar rise, especially with the convenience of using many of these websites on smart phones, the growth has been exponential – but is attributing 100% sales growth over a year to social media stretching it too far? Apparently not.

Rebecca Minkoff, well-known luxury brand of casual handbags, accessories, and apparel, created an Instagram account a year ago and has since then acquired 100,000 followers – a number that continues to rise each day. The brand’s social media team began using their account to post daily photos of the shoes that the designer was wearing that day. The posts began to garner more and more attention, receiving thousands of favorites each day. Following the popularity of the “shoetography” campaign, the company partnered with Bloomingdale’s. The department store had been using its Instagram account to attract customers as well as determine what styles and trends were the most sought after in order to stock its store appropriately.

Uri Minkoff, co-founder and CEO of the brand announced recently that its footwear sales increased 100 percent from spring 2011 to spring 2012, and that he believes Instagram is the reason why.

The statement brings the question of how much social media should play into a company’s marketing strategy. Rebecca Minkoff has clearly answered with – quite significantly. The brand’s first ad campaign for spring 2012 was through images posted on Instagram.

The advantages are obvious, and the disadvantages are hard to find. First of all, there is very little cost in advertising through a personal social media account, especially compared to the costs of print, television, and radio ads. Secondly, the target audience is hit with the images instantly, especially if they are one of the brand’s hundred thousand followers, as the images appear on their home screen. Moreover, through the available features of favoriting and commenting, users can see what styles are most liked by others – motivation enough to give the product a second look.

Mr. Minkoff is a strong proponent of the use of Instagram to further sales. “Instagram is revolutionizing the luxury community. It’s become the social-media platform for luxury goods,” he said. He announced that the brand has also begun a subscription-based weekly promotion to increase the number of subscribers through e-mail for Rebecca Minkoff. The surprise offer is released weekly on Instagram to encourage users to subscribe. “The future of Instagram is [figuring out] how to align it more toward sales,” he declared.

By Sadaf Syed

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