Social switchers

News that the first Instagrammer-in-chief has been appointed on the world’s largest ever cruise liner, Symphony of the Seas, is an interesting move. The job description is, according to Telegraph, “to inspire guests to do the ship justice through their own Instagram content". Bearing in mind that this mammoth of the oceans can accommodate 5,518 passengers, that is a lot of of posts in one sailing season. It also sends a clear message to all brand owners, not just about the power of social media but of one medium in particular. Twitter’s popularity is increasingly localised, Facebook swamped in scandal, the power of the image is now. Immediacy, impact and experience are united in one click.
 
According to sproutsocial.com "many experts believe that instagram could reach a billion users in 2018". That's more than double the monthly active users of Twitter and over three times as many users as on Twitter and Facebook Messenger. A quick scan of some of the UKs top wine brands shows that on average Facebook activity is much higher than on Instagram. Mentioning no names, on average, the top wine brands in the UK are currently between 6 and 10 times more active on Facebook than on Instagram. With recent news about a certain social media giant loosing over 20% of its value on the stock market and with tens of thousands of followers jumping on the #DeleteFacebook band-wagon perhaps a sea-change is ahead of us and drinks brands would do well to shift their visual focus to the Instagram.
 
Historically the wine trade, in particular, can be late to the party in terms of innovation. Other branded consumer sectors tend to lead the charge in terms of communication. Perhaps on this occasion the wine business could become early adopters along with the millenials who are more switched on to social media than to drinking wine.