The Facebook Instagram Deal Is a Grand Slam: 5 Ways PR and Marketers Can Get on Board Now

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 in Education/How-To, Social Media, Social Media Central, Social Media PR | 1 comment

By Brandon Lee, CEO, Social Stage LLC

The first thing that I thought of when Facebook announced the Instagram deal was the price tag to purchase a company that has $0 in revenue for $1 billion. Wow! That is just crazy money for a company without any revenues.

But, then I remembered that they are projecting Facebook’s value after their IPO to be over $100 billion. So, they spent 1% of their value to purchase a company that has 30 million+ users, a strong mobile development team and has been thinking about, planning for and dreaming over nothing but photos, photo sharing and all the development and tools to do it – all great things for Facebook, despite the negative fallout the company is seeing from some Instagram users and analysts (this CNN story sums it up nicely).

So, here are my 5 thoughts why purchasing Instagram was a great action for Facebook:

  1. Instagram is a great mobile app. The facebook mobile app has never been their greatest strength. Everything is moving more and more mobile with tablets and smartphones. They just acquired a great team that has been 100% focused on mobile + visual marketing
  2. Its great pre-IPO momentum. It keeps their name in the media (as if they needed more reasons), but it’s a great big reason because they just spent $1 billion on a company. I am sure that they received at least that much in free (pre-IPO) publicity in the last 48 hours.
  3. The world is becoming all about Visual Imaging. They just bought a company with 30 million users but more importantly from my CEO perspective is that they just bought an entire team that has been thinking, eating and dreaming pictures/images and strategies for serving them and promoting them. Now, they all wear Facebook nametags. When you are trying to squash Pinterest, this team of people just became Mark Zuckerberg’s best friends…
  4. If you can buy your rival (threat to your industry dominance), you should!
  5. Photo Sharing + Tagging is the most important viral and social sharing activities inside Facebook. So buying Instagram, their mobile apps (Android had a very impressive launch last week) and their tech and executive team behind it removed a threat and gained a very powerful team.

Anyone in marketing, PR and social media should clearly see that the momentum is moving to visual marketing and messaging. Pinterest, Instagram Path and Facebook’s shift to the Timeline format all point to the value of messaging through images. Get on board now:

  • Create graphic campaigns for your clients
  • Tell your company story in images and share it all over the Internet
  • Use the tools – Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc – for strategic, targeted messaging
  • Become experts using these tools and differentiate yourself from competitors
  • And be sure to do it all with a smile on your face because someone is probably taking a picture of you now and posting it all over the Internet!

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An entrepreneur, passionate business builder, and digital pioneer, Brandon Lee is Co-Founder and CEO of Social Stage – an online platform that allows users to build custom websites within Facebook pages. Launched in April 2011, Social Stage offers pre-packaged suites that provide small business owners the ability to create Facebook websites – fast. In addition to his current role as CEO of Social Stage, Brandon consults, trains and provides content strategies for clients through his company Social Elevate. He can be reached at Twitter: @Brandon1ee. Facebook: Social Stage. LinkedIn: Brandon Lee.