Social media can be a pretty powerful outlet. Intoday’ss society no one can seem to get enough of it; scrolling through pictures, tweets, status’s, etc., it seems as though half our day is consumed being on some form of media site. But what is it about social media that draws people in? Maybe it’s because we like to connect with our friends and see what exciting lives other people are living (while we sit at home with our dog watching Netflix). Or maybe some go on to get up to date news on things going on in the world or to see where their favorite celebrity was last night.
Businesses know the strong following that social media has and how broad of users it possesses. Media site reaches all over the world and the users of it are so diverse. Many companies use these sites as a place to promote and publicize their products or services. It is an easy way to get companies’ name out in the world without having to spend immeasurable dollars on advertising expenses. Countless fashion labels have especially latched on to the idea of using social sites as a way of branding and getting the name out for their collections. One specific site that has become the leading place fashion brands tend to gravitate towards using is Instagram. Instagram allows designers to give consumers a picture of their pieces and show customers sneak peeks of what is to come within their brand.
Around the time Instagram was launched, Snapchat also stepped on the scene. Many fashion designers were more hesitant to start using Snapchat at first because of how unfiltered it was. Especially higher-end brands, they felt that Snapchat did not reach the customer base they were trying to target as well as Instagram did.
As years past and Snapchat started adding more features, designers started to use the app more often. When Snapchat added the feature of “stories” many fashion brands felt it was an interesting way to allow customers to see behind-the-scenes and live action pictures or videos of what they were doing. With this added feature, it allowed designers show short clips of the backstage action that went on before, after, and during their runway shows. Snapchat becomes particular popular around New York Fashion Week in fall 2016, when designers started to see the benefit of featuring live clips going on during their fashion show.
Instagram, however, was not going to let Snapchat steal its shine with the fashion world. Instagram started adding more features to its app as well and eventually announced that it to would feature stories. Just like Snapchat, these stories allowed people to posts photos and videos of what they were doing in a particular moment and each story would stay present for 24 hours. With this added feature Instagram now offered the best of both worlds by allowing designers to still post pictures with the added bonus of having short live clips.
Fashion brands started hopping off the Snapchat train and going back to using Instagram as a way to showcase their collections. Because Instagram does produce more polished content then Snapchat, many designers felt it was only right to start using it more again.
Sadly, Snapchat began losing a lot of their active fashion users when they all started fleeing their way back to Instagram. Instagram stories really put a boredom on the growth of Snapchat users and the rate at which the app grew took a halt. On the other hand, Instagram could not have been more pleased. They won back their users with the added story feature and their audience started growing more and more daily.
So tell me, which side do you play for? Are you more team Instagram or team Snapchat?
