Why Instragram can be used as a source for economics and finance information

While Instagram may not immediately spring to mind when you are thinking of economics or financial services, you'd be mistaken for dismissing it without giving it a second's thought. It may seem normal to believe that there is no reason whatsoever for thinking of Instagram when you are looking for the latest information on the many facets of economics. However, it is worth taking your time to have a look at what it has to offer for those who are interested in this area. It is important to remember that Instagram is a sprawling information system that has far outgrown its original service as a social network to share photos with friends and family. This is down to the substantial number of people who actively maintain accounts on it and the varied interests these users have. While Instagram's uploads are more often concerned with other topics, there is a niche for economics and financial services on Instagram and it should be explored.

Why should Instagram be relevant to economics?

The main attraction of Instagram, for whatever reason people are interested in using it, is the large number of active users. More than a billion Instagram accounts access the platform on a monthly basis and half of this number do so every day, with three-hundred and fifty million accounts accessing Instagram several times over the course of the day. Naturally enough, once you have this many different people from thousands of different places all around the world, with different languages and cultures, you are also going to get quite a substantial mix of different interests. By being a place where hundreds of millions of people can come together and share their ideas, you know that you are going to be exposed to plenty of different points of view and ideas and interests. While economics and financial services may not be considered the coolest of interests, there are still plenty of people out there who take a keen interest in them and this is reflected on Instagram. There are nearly six hundred thousand Instagram posts that use the #economics hashtag while there are more than three million posts that use the #finance hashtag. On top of this, you can find other hashtags that refer to more specific areas and there is also a large number of posts that don't even use hashtags. This is not to mention all the accounts maintained by media sources, journalists, financial institutions and universities, among others, who also have some stake in these two areas.

How can Instagram be used for spreading information about economics and financial services?

A quick glance of the results for the #economics and #finance hashtags suggests that a lot of people who use Instagram to share their opinions or facts about economics and finance do so through the use of infographics i.e. pictures that use the power of images with minimal text to express an idea. This is very much a visual way of communicating a message and it can often be done in a powerful way. This approach, using images to get a message across, is exactly the same as the overall ethos of Instagram. Instagram lets users upload pictures or videos to share their ideas with the world, with less of an emphasis on text and more of an emphasis on images in comparison to other social media. By doing so, the pictures are able to communicate their message to a wider audience as the language barrier is reduced significantly by there being less text. Additionally, images can frequently say a lot more than words ever can once they bring a visual impact to the user. Other examples of what you can expect to find in relation to economics and finance on Instagram include pictures with inspirational quotes or inspirational stories, cartoons, ads, quotes, charts and links to articles. Given the number of people who use Instagram, this is certainly one effective way that information about economics and finance is being spread to a wider audience.

Should you consider having an Instagram account if you are interested in economics?

The answer is a resounding yes. Given the large number of people, the large number of ideas that come with them and the ability to connect with people in far-flung corners of the world who have their own takes on economic stories, if you are interested in getting more information about economics and finance, Instagram is the place for you. It also depends on what you want to do with your Instagram account. A large number of Instagram accounts are being used for purposes beyond those that the social network was originally considered for, i.e. sharing photos with friends and family. For example, people frequently use the social network to advertise their businesses or as a source of information. Again, the large audience means this is a highly-attractive approach, combined with the low costs.

How to make a name for yourself on Instagram

If you are one of these people whose interest in economics leads them to start an Instagram account where you can share your ideas with others then you need to have a quick crash course in how to have the biggest impact: Location and hashtags are known ways to get a considerable amount of attention, as is following other people who operate in the same area as this makes your profile more visible to people interested in that area. Most importantly of all, the more followers you have, the more interaction you get for your profile and it is able to grow at a faster rate. To help get more followers, it is possible to buy Instagram followers. Using this method, you can rely on real Instagram users to provide you with the engagement required to give your popularity an extra boost.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.