Marketing and PR of Instagram.

"It is probably no mere historical accident that the word person in its first meaning is a mask, it is rather a recognition of the fact that everyone is always and everywhere, more or less consciously playing a role." (Robert Ezra Park 1950) In today's technology it is being said that the texts that users actively share or upload are part of a social agenda to further their social status. Could it therefore be said when someone uploads a picture of a companies brand, or text that they are accepting the companies product as a positive element in aiding their profile or page for others to then view? Or could it be said that because of this "role" we are playing forces us to join in on the "trends" uploading pictures of products we don't necessarily believe in just to fit in? Are we all being fake and pretending to be people we aren't just for the acceptance of others?

Regardless of the above questions, the active role users play in sharing and distributing companies products across the web to improve their social status should be seen as a compliment, someone values you're product enough to openly advertise to others they use it, a huge risk in today's technological age where getting the most "likes" or "comments" seems to be ruling young audiences minds. In Hugh Millers journal he states  "Goffman sees embarrassment as an important indicator of where people fail to present an an acceptable self and an important motivator." Here Goffman is furthering the point that this self presentation is an important goal for young people, one which could inevitably aid companies at no cost, however the growing participatory culture of sharing and creating could put the companies at risk if they don't take control of the situation.

Companies don't need to own a social media account for their product to be shared and distributed on these social media apps, The journal by Bergstrom and Backman talks about Mcdonalds as a clear example of this, if you search Mcdonalds on Instagram over 2,000,000 results come up, meaning that anything could be posted without the companies control. This doesn't mean that by taking control the company is necessarily saved from boycotting and negative posts. The twitter campaign "Mcdstories" resulted in "hashtag hijacking" with people posting photos such as " found a finger nail in my #mcfries #McDstories." (Bergstrom and Backman, 2013)

Although the case study mentioned above is a negative example of companies using social media to market their products, it doesn't always go this way, Companies such as "Nike" in 2013 launched the #PHOTOID campaign, during this campaign users were asked to upload their favourite pictures and in response nike would design a trainer with the same colour scheme. 

The results

• 100,000 shoes created in the first week

• 600 shoes created per hour at peak

• 8% clicked through to buy shoes on Nike ID

• Zero media spend

Nike ID’s online community is estimated to be 15 million strong with revenue of the fiscal year 2013 exceeding $100 million.

(Url: www.digitaltrainingacademy)


Nike could be said to be more successful than the Mcdonalds campaign due to its higher popularity, its a clothing line that people see as fashionable, Mcdonalds on the other hand is a fast food chain and not seen as a way of advertising a good lifestyle, which brings us back to Goffman's point of self presentation, In Bergstom and Backmans journal it is said that "Goffman defines life as having two spheres, front stage and back stage, people act with the knowledge that others, who are themselves playing a role, are judging them. Parts of human life considered unfit for public display is kept backstage hidden from the view of critical onlookers." (J. Fawkes, 2001) Therefore the reason Nike was more successful is purely down to the influence of social agenda, Companies need this social acceptance for their campaigns to work in the first place, therefore this is a clear example of why users are so important to producers in todays technological age. Bringing us back to Jenkins briefly his theory of participatory culture states that it "aids conglomerates, and businesses" (Jenkins,2006) It is easy to say that these marketing campaigns are proving his theory, however It can also be proven above that it doesn't always work to the companies advantage, so when do companies know when to take the risk?

Nike made sure of their followings before launching the campaigns with their own Instagram providing beautifully shot images of people wearing their products. They made sure they had the popularity needed to make the campaign successful. Stated by the digital training academy website.