Clickable ads coming to Instagram

As seeing this video, I realized how instagram will be a great platform for a lot of businesses or companies who seek into sns place for advertisement. By showing diverse videos, I could see that people will be able to enjoy learning about company within newly launched pictures as well. On the other hand, I am somewhat worried that this might be another way for settling down as where people will be going onto instagram a lot less than before by getting annoyed with seeing an advertisements. Instagram is a huge place where people go on to it a lot based on our daily lives. On the other hand, if people found out that this place is settled down as where advertisements are all over, I do not think that instagram will be considered as less attractive and obvious place like facebook.

Instagram, being my favorite of all social networks I use, is a great place for brands to take advantage of visual advertising by creating eye-catching ads. I think it is highly beneficial for businesses to take advantage of this social engine with the goals of reaching out to more prospect customers and get their name out there. On the other hand, the reason why Instagram has become my favorite is because of the lack of intrusive ads that the other networks have become flooded with. I can’t scroll through my Facebook without being completely bombarded, and in turn annoyed, with the excessive advertising there is all over- without the option of opting out of seeing all of them altogether. I think this advance is huge for Insatgram and companies alike, but it may push people away from this app if they feel the same as I do about unwanted ads. I have to admit, though, I am intrigued to see what the “multi-photo carousal” is all about and the impacts it will have on Instagram and companies giving yet another avenue to tell their stories to consumers.

I think a brand could really benefit from this because it allows a consumer to interact with the ad. This type of advertising is more visually appealing and encourages product and/or brand interaction with the consumer. This is also more effective than traditional advertising strategies. This is definitely a more innovative and fun way to grab attention and build awareness. 

I think the ads are a unique way to leverage Instagram's "visual" feed. I do not really use Instagram though, so it is difficult to tell if people would actually click. I know I occasionally click on the Twitter tweet ads and even more rarely on Facebook feed ads, but would an entire photo carousel be very convenient to scroll through? I think the story idea is very neat though. 

First of all I think this is huge for instagram! Instagram is the one app that I use daily if not almost every hour of everyday. I not only post my own pictures on there I also look at other people pictures for inspiration, and I'm interested in viewing other people's lives across the world. Being that I swipe through multiple accounts I feel like the way they set up the adverstisements will easily flow with my daily routine. I like that it easy at the swipe of your finger to see more about what the advertisement is all about. I love how it looks simple and clean and you can tell that anyone of any age will be able to understand that it is an advertisement and you only have to click on it if you want to actually view it. However, with advertising popping up on every app that I have it actually is very annoying. Instagram it won't annoy me as much because it doesn't really interrupt me from what I'm doing like while I'm listening to music and an ad stops the music from playing.

I like the way this ad looks.  Very clean and simple. This type of advertising would be idel for restaurants, real estate, and auto dealerships ( a very visual based market). I don't like the idea of ads on my Instagram newsfeed though. There should be an option that allows you to turn on or off Instagram ads. Although that would make them less effective and a waste of money, I just wish we could have one social media platform without ads.

Now Instagram too!?! We saw the inevitable demise of Facebook with cluttered advertisements all over our newsfeed, then Twitter fell to coporate sponsorship with having advertisements litter our timelines, and now we have to suffer through this with Instagram as well? Et tu, Brute? When will it end? Eventually we're going to send an iMessage to a friend about getting some food and then instantaneously recieve a follow up text from a restriced number with a 20% promo code for some diner. This advertising craze in social media is getting absurd. I cannot blame the apps themselves for progressing their business, but is nothing sacred anymore? These apps became so popular because of their lack of advertisments, it was a way to feel free from the outside world with just our friends on a social media platform, but now I feel violated with unwanted tweets and instagrams from an irrelevant Home Depot account telling me about their opinion on the NCAA basketball tournament. Will it ever end? Not looking likely.

I really like this idea for Instagram.  I love their idea to have the "muli-photo carousel" ad that allows users to swipe through images that tell a story about a product or brand.  This makes the ads interesting while still keeping the idea and format of instagram.  

I do like the way this ad looks.  I think it is a cool way to show a product, as well as allowing for people to click off of the ad right to the page.  A company can now get more creative with their ads.  I wonder what the possibilities are with video, can you add a video to the photo carousel?  

This could be a good tool for a company that is like a clothing company or shoes.  They can use it to show a product, for example, say express wants to show a shirt, they can show the front and side views in the ad.  A company like a cooking company could show the pans they are selling just plain and then with food in them or hanging on a shelf to show how much room they take up.  A company could also figure out a way to collect all the images.  It would be cool to create some type of a flip book type of ad that changes as the pictures go on.  

I like the way all of these ads look. The main reason is, because it goes with the format of the rest of instagram. Personally, the main reason I am not attracted to an Ad online is because I know it is an Ad right away and wont give it the time of day. Which I feel most people are like this. With this format, companies will really be able to take advantage of getting their awareness out there. It makes it that much more simply for direct sales as well. You see the ad, you want it, you click it, it's yours. A lot of comapanies can take advantage of showing what their product can do. An example of this could be a cleaner, they could have picutures and videos of something being cleaned that usually stains. People will be attracted to this, and may just want to purchase it on the spot after seeing what it can do. Now they came very easily.

This is such a huge step for Instagram because my group and my group and I in ADV 486 were just dicussing how we could utilize this app for ads in our campaign. Since instagram is extremely easy to use and popular, this new feature will attract thousands of new accounts such as businesses and advertisers. A way to leverage this product is to ad links or tags to specific photos while a person scrolls through the clickable ads. Also, small alerts that remind you of the ads that were viewed should be accessible. Our campaign is constructed around an antique store and this new feature could be very helpful if it could track popularity of antiques depending on region.

I think the new Instagram ad platform is a smart way to include the ads. It engages the consumer by allowing them to click through the ad themselves or just ignore it. It also presents a fun challenge to the advertisers to make their ads appealing enough for people to pause their scrolling and see every slide from the ad. Involving a call to action and directing people to a website for the brand is very smart and goes a step farther than the traditional way brands use Instagram. I like the set up of the ads.

I think beauty brands could especially benefit from these new instagram advertisements. Their ads could show the steps for putting on make up and direct people to the brand's site to buy the products or get more beauty tips. Instagram is notorious for not having a lot of ads like Facebook and now Twitter; I think this form of advertising, because it is so different and not very intrusive, will be beneficial for the advertisers who use it.

I think that this is a great idea for Instagram and long overdue. Instagram is the perfect platform for selling multiple different products. This new clickable ad product makes Instagram the perfect tool. In my opinion, it is easier to use than Pinterest, and now holds the ultimate selling opportunity that Pinterest has. It is now the best of both worlds. As long as boosting posts on Instagram doesn't become overly popular, and the companies stick to using these ads on their own pages, I think that it will contribute only good things. 

I think that this new ad style looks great and can be effective if used properly. When it comes to advertisements, people often do what they can to avoid watching them where they are seen. When watching television we constantly see commercials used to advertise. Products like TiVo, apple TV, among many other devices now offer the ability to record and watch television shows at a later time. Also, the devices present the shows with limited or no advertising commercial interruptions.

With using this technique of presenting pictures and the ability to swipe through the ad, the focus of the advertisement being made may come at a quicker rate than that of a standard advertisement. Doing it this way allows users to engage faster in the advertisement if drawn in by what is shown. I think that the advertisements effectiveness will come down to how well the company using this style ad creates its advertisement. Drawing a select audience may be difficult because of only having a few slides of photos to work with, so I assume much time and strategy will be applied in creating these ads for companies.

One company in particular that came to mind after reading the article and seeing the video is Nike. Nike offers many different types of items from clothing, shoe wear, headgear, sports gear, and even electronics. What many people like to see is the new and upcoming style of shoe or whatever product interests them that Nike provides.  This type of ad will allow Nike to advertise their product with famous people or athletes wearing them and or just the product itself. Again, the success of the ad will come down to how each picture is presented. I see many retail type companies using this style advertising that are similar to Nike.   

I think the ads are okay and appropriate. A brand could leverage this ad product in the same way that they did with billboards, except they can go a step further by using technology as a tool for consumer call to action. In the past, billboards created awareness but did not allow customers to take immediate action. However, with instagram as a platform, brands can market their products and have an immediate call to action.

The new advertisements on Instagram, in my opinion, are better for marketers than users of the app. I do not think that people like to see advertising on their social media unless they follow a specific brand or company. I think users of instagram will find these advertisements annoying and invasive. I think if the functionality of these ads were given to company profiles, it might be more effective as far as getting users to participate and click through the call to action buttons. Businesses that get to have their ads on instagram, however, are excited to reach consumers on instagram. Hopefully these companies will have very visually appealing ads instead of trying to jam in reasons why you should buy their product. Instagram is a visual social network, so the advertisements on it should follow suit. The clickable button on the ad will leave space to focus on visual aspects of the ad instead of wordy information. Extra information can be given when the call to action button is clicked.  This layout is appealing and convenient for the consumers, even if they might not be happy with ads on their social media feed. The ad will peak the users interest if it is visually appealing to them, and if they want to know more about the company or product shown, they can use the click through button right on Instagram instead of having to leave the app to find more information. This is simplifying the process of getting information from business to customer.  Businesses that will highly benefit from these new advertisements are ones who can draw consumers in with visuals, and still keep their interest with useful information given in the click through ad. Businesses that are trying to build a connection with people who use instagram and are keeping the social network a place to share visual images will make these new ads tolerable for users. As soon as ads on instagram become “spamy”, no one will benefit from them because the users will be disappointed. 

I like the way these ads look like a lot. I think this is a great idea for Instagram to do that. I am really not for ads, but the way Instagram is going to do it makes me think that they aren't going to be annoying ads and I think I will actually take a look at the ones that interest me. I like how it shows a bunch of pictures when you slide the last picture away. I think that a lot of companies and brands could make a very effective campaign out of this Instagram ads. It gives brands a great way to show off their product with pictures. A good idea would have people in the pictures using the product and show the product in full effect. The pictures need to be interesting and entertaining to capture the audience's attention, especially when it is so easy and fast to scroll down the Instagram feed page. Companies only have a few seconds to capture the audience, so the pictures need to be very interesting and eye popping, in my opinion. They could even put in some videos that the audience could watch of the product.

The new ad design that Instagram is offering looks like it would be highly effective and capable of generating vast amounts of website traffic. The ability to flip through images allows advertisers to captivate the viewer with images that target their specific customer base. It won't feel so much like an advertisement if it the images are interesting to the viewer and the experience would feel more like flipping through a friend's vacation photos than having an advertisement shoved in your face. A direct link to the webpage of the product would allow for interested viewers to instantly get more information on the product or brand, possibly moving them through the buying cycle with your company before they even have time to look at other competitors. This format shows customers the unfulfilled want they didn't know they had and then the information to alleviate that desire within minutes. Even various organizations and startups could use this to great effect, in the demo video they show underprivilaged children to tug at your heart strings, and then a direct link to the donation page. This method of advertising looks like it will have a bright future because of the power of imagery and the convienence of the internet.

I think the new layout available for ads on Instagram is really cool and could be great for potential advertisers. I love being able to use Instagram without seeing an ad every few minutes like most other social media platforms. Even when a sponsored ad shows up in my timeline I get slightly annoyed because I do not follow the brands on Instagram, therefor I would not like to see the pictures they are sharing. It may be cool to see how some ads use the new layout. I just hope Instagram does not flood our feeds with ads instead what we want to see. 

I love it and I think it’s awesome! The reason why Instagram become so popular is because images are more attracting than texts toward audiences. People just tend to pay more attention on pictures and photos rather than words. So I think Instagram should definitely be a great platform for ads if like you pointed out they can fix all the limitations they have for placing ads. This new clickable ad product provides more than just pictures, but also directly leads the customers to the selling page which is very smart that customers won’t lose their interests while taking so much time on finding where to buy the products. And it’s also great to have more than one picture at once that the users could swipe and see, because more pictures provide more stories of the products, and more interests for the customers. And again, I think this new ad product is very cool!

I think an innovation for advertising on Instagram has been way past due. I like the way these ads look because it allows the user to swipe to see more photos they are interested in. If instead all photos were posted separately and flooding the user's page, I think the user could become annoyed with the overwhelming amount of advertising pictures and ignore them. The multi-photo carousel allows the user to become interested and actively look for more. 

I think this could be surprisingly successful for luring younger users into becoming consumers, especially for companies who use the visual appeal of their product or service as a selling point. A very well taken and interesting photo can capture users' attention, whether it be a fancy car or a delicious looking meal. Since it's easy to swipe across to see more, users don't have to put forth much effort to continue exploring. While this is likely to be more successful for less expensive products and services, this sort of advertising could open the door for further research for larger purchases as well.

I am not sure if I am a fan of this new advertising on instagram. I enjoy going on instagram to look at pictures of my friends and family, and sometimes get frustrated with an ad. I understand the compnay needs to make money and that is how but less is more when thinking about what the customer wants. 

I am not sure how many people will actually click on the ad and buy the product. This type of ad can only be leveraged to people who are interested so by looking into their interests and hobbies to make sure the ads are relevant to the person. The ads look interesting and it is great that it can tell a story through mulitple pictures. 

I think we all knew that it would only be a matter of time until advertisers found a way to use Instagram as a platform to advertise. There has been very little advertising on Instragram, because if there was a lot of advertising then everyone's newsfeed's would be clogged constantly. If you follow any major companies on Instagram, you would see that they are posting products and items to sell, so in a way it's like self advertising. 

I think that Instagram is planning on allowing advertising in a tasteful way because they don't want to lose users because of advertising. Instagram is looking for a way to make money, but they need to balance the advertising with potentially losing users.

I do feel that this is a smart move for Instagram, but they'll only learn if they made the right decision once they try it. 

I think it's hard to put ads on Instagram because it doesn't have many open space for ads on their website or app. I just saw few sponsored ads on my Instagram. Also, it’s hard to use only one image to catch attentions or tell stories. The new clickable ad is a breakthrough. I like the way it looks like. It's really a great idea to allow user to swipe through a series of image to understand the ad. I think they also can do the short video ad on Instagram. It dosen’t have technological difficult because user already can upload videos on Instagram. For short video ad, companies will have longer time to catch attentions or tell stories.

Athought I see how this kind of advertising will be highly beneficial to brands, I am disppointed that Instagram will be allowing more ad content to be instagrated to the app. Something that has caused me to move away from Facebook, and even to some extent Twitter, is how insanely saturated my feeds are with useless ad content. 

I do think that the Instagram format lends itself better to ads, and I am looking forward to seeing the series of images concept. Many brands, paticularly for me fashion brands, could utilize this feature to a great extent. Lookbooks, catalog style ads, etc. would work well with this format. If brands are creative with it, I think it could be less annoying and mroe interesting than promoted content on other social media platforms.

This new way of advertising will definitely be helpful for certain products and companys.  Depending on the target audience, this platform of advertising may be the best option for some products.  The ad developers would have to make it very catchy because who will actually scroll through an ad instead of scrolling past it.  I don't like at all that the use of ads on Instagram is being talked about.  That's the best part of the social media apps, there is no extra things in the way of what you actually want to look at.  The ads look cool and it's a good idea but I don't think many people are going to take the time to scroll through the pictures to figure out what the product is that is being promoted.

I love the way this looks because it doesn't clutter my feed. If ads were to constantly post, it would eventully turn into... a friend's post, advertisement, a friend's post, advertisement and so on. This way, people have the option to scroll across or just pass it completely. Something a brand could do to leverage this new look is to use the scrolling technique by making some sort of flip book where you have to slide to the next part of the ad to see what it is about/next. 

I think that this new way of selling products on Instagram will be very useful to the companies taking on this initiative. For me, I really never pay attention to the ads. But I know people who always are intersted in the features IG and Twitter products that somehow make their way onto everyones news feeds. With the ad shown above, I think the presentation is very clean and easy to figure out. Instagram is a very easy navigation app, and making sure that the ad fits that is important. To get more leverage, as said before, make the ad featured so it shows up on everyones new feed. Also, as said before, make the navigation simple for possible buyers.

I love this. I am an extremely strong advocate for new Social Media advertising, a diversion from the tired Facebook and Twitter promoted content. With a sister who is almost a generation behind me but 10X more technologically interconnected than I'll ever be, I'm able to see what the new large consumer base is using technology-wise. It isn't facebook and it isn't frankly Twitter, its Instagram and Snapchat. 

As we've all seen recently, for those of us who have Snapchat, they are beginning a larger push into promoted content and advertising paid promotion. I think this is a natural progression of the site and a great use of advertising dollars for those agencies and companies. The same goes for Isntagram. I think it would be a great way for a department store like Nordstrom to be able to put but a selection of new shoes, for instance, or bags that are available for the upcoming season. It would be easy to flick through the pictures, see one that you like and go to the product purchase landing page. 

I really like this idea! Instagram is a social media site that I haven't used in a while, but I think this new feature is awesome and could possibly get me back into using it for myself! I really like the way the ads look in the video. I think they not only entice the customer, but they are great branding for the companies that decide to use Instagram as a networking tool. I think this is really fun for people that are visually enticed by products. I think a lot of people need to see the produc before they purchase, I know for me personally I love seeing things before I click "Buy". I think though, that's what our generation is so used to. Having brands that use the Internet for buying purposes is so common, and many people don't even go into stores anymore to purchase their items. They simply go to a company's website and make their purchases from there. Plus, you get two in one- you see the product while making the purchase. I think this is a great tool for companies to gain more of a customer following, and really tailor their products to the customers that are looking for those specific items. I may use this branding tool in the future, because it seems really different and fun. 

Instagram is designed in such a way that you don't need to look at things you don't want to, unlike facebook, where the ads move with you throughout each page. That is why I believe this advertising could be a good thing for brands to take advantage of. Instagram is a "follow what you like" social media platform, and doesn't force you to look at unwanted accounts unless you go searching for them. This could be great for organizations such a non-profits, so people who very much care about a certain cause can follow it, see updates and fun pictures, and donate right from there. Another great thing about instagram is that it is only pictures, which always can be interesting no matter if you care about the brand or not. You don't need to read up about these things, you can still look at the updates from brands and be intrigued, rather than being roped into scrolling through multiple pages and reading up about it.

When instagram first started allowing ads on their app, I saw a lot more ads than I do now. It seems as if the ads, though asthetically pleasing to users, weren't actually increasing sales because I don't see very many ads anymore. Maybe this new tactic will actually increase sales for the advertiser. If that's true, we'll probably see a spike in ads on the app. I don't mind that though because up to this point, advertisers have been creative in their ads making them look like normal instagram posts. Hopefully they will keep that up despite the new platform. 

Brands will definitely be able to give more information about the product or tell a story through pictures with this new set up. I believe that it will be easier to engage a potential customer with a photoset & having the link to the company website/the purchase page is a great idea to make purchasing a product fast and easy. Hopefully advertisers will be able to use this new and improved ad space correctly and increase sales!

Instagram is actually my favorite social media platform, and I don't think that marketers and business do NEARLY enough to take advantage of it. I follow a lot of brands on Instagram, and I love how the nature of the platform forces companies to be more creative in reaching followers and prospects. I think this product is super applicable in many product categories, but especially in retail. It will allow users to scroll through their feeds, stop on a picture of a model, and then potentially swipe through the pieces making up the outfit. If used correctly, the viewer would then be able to go directly to that company's web page to purchase the desired piece. How cool! I'll be interested to see how many folks actually use this tool to its full potential.

As shown in this video, I think this product could be an exceptional tool for non-profits and service/donation-oriented companies as well. Sponsored posts from non-profit organizations could promote a specific cause, show people the benefits of helping their organization, allow viewers to make connections, and then take potential benefactors directly to the organization's website. What a great way to SHOW people why they should donate, rather than just telling them they should. I look forward to seeing this tool used in my feed!

I'm personally not a huge fan of the ads on Instagram and don't think they generate much interest. I think Instagram is one social media platform where people just want to be able to scroll through and see their friends pictures. When I see an ad on Instagram I tend to just scroll right past is without even looking at what company posted it and move on to the next picture. I do like the way the ads look but I don't think I'd even look at the ad long enough to notice I could scroll through multiple pictures. I do think it's a great addition to add an option of being able to click a link for more info and to donate or maybe even purchase a product. I think that will make the ad much more effective because people won't have to remember to look it up later, they can take action right then and there if they're interested.

I think the ad layout is well designed and I like how users are able to scroll through multiple pictures and then end up at a link to click. I believe this type of ad will be very beneficial to non-profit organizations such as the example shown above because users can look at more than one picture and then make a decision whether to learn more and/or donate. Many people dislike online advertisements, and Instagram has always been an app without ads so there might be some backlash now that they're allowing more companies to fill up users feeds with advertisements. I believe that the ads can be successful as long as companies use the feature in moderation as well as create enticing and creative ads that users enjoy looking at.

I do really like the way the ad looks. I wish there were not advertisements on instagram because that's one platform you get to look at only your friends feed, or the people you choose to follow. It is sad to me that now every platform is trying to make money off advertisements. I think it will be very effective tough. If brands can plug in to peoples feeds without having to have users follow them it would work very well. If users would still need to follow a company in order to see the advertisements I don't think it would be any more effective than the current companies that have instagram pages. 

That being said, leveraging their product could be made possible the same when any add is, by choosing a target audience and having pictures that they want to like, click on and look at.

Creating these ads for instagram can be hard because people get so annoyed with online ads. So these may make some people angry. Although, I like the way that it is just one picture and you have the choice to scroll through them then buy/donate or you can just go past them and continue through instagram. I think that makes them a little less annoying because it isn't like those pop ups you can't get rid of, but more of a choice to gain more information on a product. I think a way to leverage these products is to just make sure the initial picture is attention grabbing enough so that people want to continue to look through the ad. 

The advertisement is well designed and all, but I think I would use Instagram less because of its advertisements. I saw a sponsored ad for a video game while scrolling through my feed last night and was kind of irritated upon seeing it. If the advertisements were tailored to themes of people that I follow then I would not mind seeing a clothing advertisement every now and then. 

A lot of apps are now getting paid advertisments and all around its very annoying (maybe I am not in the right career field!). Tinder recently annouced they would have people pay for the number of swipes they can use in a day. Apps are more fun when they are not yet discovered by big corporations before they gain their popularity because they can sell out in an instant. Snapchat has had a lot of new idea flops, like when they competed with venmo for sending money over. Venmo already existed but chances are you had a snapchat before you got a Venmo, thus saving storage on your phone. 

I think the ads look nice and very creative. As an instagram user I would not want to see advertisments on my news feed. A brand could leverage this ad product becuase it allows the product to be displayed in different ways through different pictures. It even allows access to the website in order to purchase the product. 

I like the way the ad looks. I think Instagram will allow brands to be creative in getting their ads across. A brand may be able to leverage themselves by becoming more interactive with their following. These ads can allow for sweepstakes, contests, and ways for customers to get involved. 

I really liked the look of this ad. I think Instagram has the ability to keep ads very creative and interesting instead of simple banner ads you might see on Facebook or posts that you would see on Twitter.  However, once a business starts putting ads on their website or product, it seems that it is a slippery slope until the website is more ads than content.  Pandora has run into this, at first there was only one ad every once in a while.  Now, it seems to be after every 2 or 3 songs, sometimes having 2 ads in a row.  You can purchase a version of Pandora that does not have ads but the beauty of Pandora is that you can stream music while working out, driving, etc. without making purchases.  As long as Instagram doesn't slip down this slope, I'm sure they'll be successful. 

From my perspective as an Instagram user, I like the appearance of these new ads. Every form of social media eventually becomes diluted with advertisements; it's inevitable. However, I like that these ads don't take up more space on my Instagram feed than any other picture. If I decide to scroll through the entire ad to see what story it tells, that is my choice. But, if I have no interest in seeing what the ad is about, it takes no more time to scroll past it than it does to scroll past any other picture that has been posted.

While the idea of "telling a story" through these multi-frame ads is creative, I don't see it being as effective as marketers would hope. As a person who scrolls quickly past ads in my social media newsfeeds, I do not catch the message of ads unless they are presented right there staring me in the face. While the story told in an Instagram ad may be creative and communicate a strong message, users like myself will never receive that message because we won't take the time to scroll entirely through. The only way I see myself checking out these ads is if the first frame that appears is extremely alluring and makes me want to learn more. This presents quite the challenge for marketers creating these ads. I'm excited to see if these ads are successful and if I find myself scrolling through the whole story.

I personally don't actively use Instagram, so I do not have strong feelings either way. I think the ads look fine and companies could benefit from using them.  Our generation has become very used to seeing advertisements on everything - Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, etc.  While they may be annoying and take up time, it's not like they dramatically decrease our happiness or satisfaction.  I honestly don't notice them often anymore.  They are so abundant that I just tune them out for the most part.  

I personally don't know how I feel about this. I do like the way the ads look, but when I am on Instagram strolling down on my news feed, I don’t want to have to scroll past an advertisement. I think the reason why Instagram is my favorite is because they don’t put anything in my feed that I don’t follow like twitter does. I hate scrolling through tweets and all of the sudden something pops up that I don’t follow. The way I see it is if I don’t follow it, I don’t care about it. However, Instagram is all about pictures. A way a brand could leverage their ad product is by simply taking a really cool picture of it. For instance If I am on Instagram and saw a cool picture of someone’s nail polish and it featured what kind it was, I wouldn’t mind that and it would capture my attention. I personally think photographers should use this to their benefit. I wouldn’t mind if a picture a photographer had taken and was up for sale showed up on my news feed. I just don’t want the classic ads showing up. If it is a picture of the product and the caption does the talking, then it won’t bother me.

I think it was only a matter of time before Instagam allowed advertisers to show up. I think the slideshows are a good idea and can allow the marketers to really use the "story" aspect when looking for new customers. I think the companies who do have ads on Instagram should also have an instagram page that those who are interested in the company could follow and could see the products or sales daily. This would allow the ads to not only just get one click, but have many followers come looking for more daily.

I've always faced a paradox as both a social media user and social media marketer. As a user, I frown upon most ad integration with my feed - it's annoying, it's never targeted towards my personal interests, I never want to navigate away from the page, etc. However, as a marketer, I think this is a brilliant use of Instagram's platform and utilizing its MO - which is telling a story through pictures.

The carousel function itself is a smart move because its a feature that's common across different apps and platforms. By allowing brands and companies to upload a few pictures to the carousel, they give them the opportunity to create a narrative for their brand instead of a one shot ad. For me, a one picture ad has to be pretty persuasive with their offering in order for me to click on it and for it to take me to another page. With the offer of a carousel of pictures, the user can flip through them without any navigation away from the page - it doesn't cost them anything other than a few extra seconds. So, if the brand creates a compelling first picture and the user doesn't necessarily want to click to find out more, they can simply swipe to see more before they decide. The carousel basically gives companies more leverage time with the user and more content to create their brand story. 

For example, a brand could create the equivalent of a six second Vine in the form of pictures - a short, succinct story that compels users to pay attention. A way brands could do this is by adding leading text that encourages and persuades users to flip through the pictures to see what the message is. They could also create a "Before" and "After" set of pictures for a product or service to show the benefits of purchasing or investing. 

I think this is a great idea. As instagram grows I think its important for them to work with companies to help them build their brands. I am also kind of nervous it will change the way people use instagram. If a newsfeed becomes all ads it will create a negative impact on the user. I am also wondering if normal users will be given the option to use the slideshow effect. I think this will be a positive addition to instagram if it is used in moderation.

I think that the new way for brands to tell stories on Instagram is a very smart. It is not annoying,but also effective. As a matter of fact, Instagram successful seperate the ads from they platform which is good for all the users, because once people get tired of the  social media, the ads is one of the most important reason. People enjoy using Instagram is because there is not many ads, they have plenty space to play on their own site.  But if you have the choice to control whether to watch the ads or not, like Instagram, I will buy this idea.

In fact, one of the most imortant reson that I gave up using Facebook is that the ads on it to much and Instagram has avoid  commercials which made me really comfortable using it. As a customer, he/she has the right to choose to buy or not to buy the product, there is no way to force them to buy when they saw the ads is appearing everywhere in the social media. I think the new design for commercials in Instagram is smart.

As an avid social media user, I really like the absence of ads on Instagram. As it has started to add "sponsored" posts and advertisements on my feed, I find myself worrying how much space they're going to take up on my timeline. Every time I come across a sponsored post, I am at first confused, and then annoyed by it on my feed. I mainly follow my friends, not celebrity accounts, so these sponsored posts stick out like a sore thumb. I think that the idea of swiping across for multiple photos is awesome, but I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about these ads popping up on my feed. I'll probably end up hiding them, just like I've been doing with the sponsored posts.