In social media marketing, the potential of visual communication can be employed in various ways. This section takes as example the Igers communities in Spain, Germany, England and Italy to illustrate its different forms. According to Andreas, the core point that bonds Igers community members is the interest in taking and sharing photographs without restricting the activity only to skilled people. Indeed, in order to achieve an objective, he says, users do not need to make beautiful pictures, but they need to make something. This approach confirms the efficacy of the principle of user engagement described earlier that sees people concerned in the activity more than in the result. The time users spend online represents the apparent intangible benefit that, as discussed earlier in this chapter, businesses work for.
The Spanish Igers community was established on 20 January 2011, as reported on the official website. The Spaniard, Philippe Gonzalez, founded the Igers community with the main objective of helping others to understand and use the application, and create a social community of people attracted by mobile photography and social networking. As Philippe said: In December 2010, on a lazy Sunday morning, while I was in bed, I read users posts wondering about Instagram’s best practice. I suddenly thought I could help new users with my knowledge regarding social networks and apps. Since then, I have never stopped! I first started the blog with tutorials, apps reviews and interviews of highlighted users around the world. Soon people started to write to me and ask me to help them to launch local groups with the Igers brand. It was a crazy idea. […] [But now] there are more than 350 groups in the world so far.
Despite the general perception, Phillippe acknowledges that the Igers community at that time did not have a tied relationship or stable cooperation with the company Instagram as they coexisted as independent bodies. The company Instagram manages its business as global social media platform, meanwhile the Igers community enjoys, as Philippe said, the application as hobby, taking the best part of it without any economic pressure. However, even if Igers declared that the main purpose of the community was fostering social engagement, cooperation with brands and businesses appears one of the prominent uses of the platform.
The Igers community was born in Spain with the intention of creating a community of interest formed by people with the passion for mobile photography. Along the way, it has grown exponentially, showing a particular attention also in the social aspect of using Instagram. The main characteristic of this approach was recognisable in the sense of support and belonging demonstrated by the members, which is also typical of communities. Considering that Igers are spread all over the world, it deals with online (photosharing) and offline (InstaMeets and InstaWalks) social interactions.
Instagram Communities: Online and Offline
