Instagram - A Leg-Up in Social Media

In the past decade, social media has become one of the most important and successful ways to market oneself and one's business. Information ranging from reviews, to new products, to events, is now easily available at your fingertips. Yelp made it possible for people to review a business, Facebook made it possible for people and companies to connect in profession and personal ways, Twitter created a space for anyone to update their followers about their current mood or activity, and Instagram made it possible for people to express themselves in an interactive and visual way. With the evolution of social media, it is crucial for businesses to get connected on as many sites as possible that will benefit their company or risk losing potential customers who may see their lack of involvement as a negative.

While Facebook and Twitter are very useful tools for many businesses, Instagram is a gold mine for any business that works with visual and performance arts. According to Nate Elliot from Forrester, Instagram delivers brands "58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter."

Instagram allows the customer to look at the company in a clean and effective way, with essentially no clutter from words, or other distractions such as chat boxes, or advertisements. Each Instagram account provides only photographs or videos, which is very beneficial to companies such as dance studios, gymnastics & cheerleading, and any other sport or movement related business.

If a prospective customer is searching for a new dance studio to join, for example, and viewed the prospective studio's Instagram account, the client could see videos of the latest dance routines or competitions. For gymnastics or cheer, you can post pictures of your new uniforms for an upcoming competition. This can give them a more personal connection to your business because the prospect can visualize what it would be like to attend your classes.

Instagram can give you an edge over your competitors because, according to an American Express survey, Instagram is only "used by 2% of business owners, compared to 37% for Facebook and 10% for Twitter." By creating a successful and Instagram account, a small business can have a very high comparative advantage to others due to the smaller number of competitors on Instagram at this stage. It might be the right time for your business to take a first look at building an Instagram presence.

  — Article by: Rachel Simon of ClassJuggler

ClassJuggler System Upgrades

On August 12th, ClassJuggler completed its move to our new data center in Northern California. This new data center provides us with close to 50x the bandwidth for our servers ensuring that your connections will be the fastest they can be (subject to you local internet connections of course).

The next phase of our migration will begin on July 25th. This phase should have less impact and only brief downtimes for power management changes. Watch for announcements on your ClassJuggler sign-in page.