Instagram has been in and owning the social game for a long time now (or should we say Facebook cause they own Insta?) and we’ve seen them appropriate other original ideas and incorporate features that another premier app has before that app even has a chance to succeed.
Remember Vine? Instagram didn’t have video capabilities and Vine, a video looping app, came out so they added video to keep users on their platform. And what did everyone (well, mostly everyone) do? Abandon Vine.
We guess there really shouldn’t have been any shock when they did the same to Snapchat but it really did a woozy on us.
We opened Instagram one day and saw the Story feature magically at the top of our feed – tempting you to touch it to view a mini How To they put together as an introduction. And you know what the How To said? “We’re ripping off Snapchat and you all are going to go with it”. Actually, it screamed that.
If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, read our post where we shared how it works and ideas on how to use it – you know, before Instagram stole their glory. Here’s a quick overview of Snapchat: you share stories (photo or video) and they disappear in 24 hours. “Well tah-dah, we do it too!” we imagine Instagram saying.
It’s a dog eat dog world out there.
So to answer the question to whether Instagram Stories is killing Snapchat? Yes.
Well, kind of. You can still use Snapchat (we would totally miss those lenses that make us all pretty if we dropped it cold turkey) but we think for your business and marketing that you should work Instagram Stories a little more.
So regardless of how we or you or anyone feels about it (don’t you feel a little dirty using it?!) the fact is that it’s there and we can’t ignore it. We actually kinda like it, to be honest.
Here are a few reasons we’re okay with Instagram ripping Snapchat a new one (even if they don’t have the incredible lenses that contour you… yet):
Our following is already on Instagram.
We have to admit, that even though we love the shit out of Snapchat, we were having to grow our following on a new platform to make it worth using and that’s an every day struggle. Why would we go elsewhere when our following is already on Instagram and we can now give them an experience very similar? We don’t have to now. Guess there’s a benefit to age in the social industry.
Finding and Following is SO much easier on Instagram.
Snapchat did have a few things we didn’t like about it’s interface. For example, it was always super hard to discover new people and add them as Friends. Basically, if they weren’t in your phone’s address book or you didn’t know their username perfectly, you weren’t finding them. We really like the search function of Instagram – allowing you to simply search by name and get lucky, the explore section, the hashtags, the location tagging. It’s all so user friendly which makes it easy for new followers to find you (and you to find them too!).
It’s all in One Place.
This goes back to our first reason – we already have following here, of course, but there’s also less of a work curve since you’re not stretching yourself across multiple platforms. Doing everything on one platform keeps it simple for you. K.I.S.S. right?
Anyways, we’re sure we’ll find more reasons as to why we’re in love with and cool with sticking to Instagram as well as more reasons why we hate them for stealing ideas and more reasons to miss Snapchat (we know you have these contradictory feelings too!!), but we’re gonna keep on keepin’ on – so, until next time, XOXO.