Nissan Joins Instagram

Auto brand Nissan created its official Instagram account last week in tandem with the 2013 New York International Auto Show as a way to show its fans some real-time event photos. According to Erich Marx, director of interactive and social media marketing at Nissan, the decision to finally join Instagram was motivated by a desire to reach a younger audience.

“There seems to be a real shift among the younger audience toward Instagram and away from Facebook,” said Marx. “We think there is an opportunity for us to reach a younger group, and it makes sense for us from a business standpoint.”

There is already a large community of gearheads on Instagram. The network is made for auto brands, since they have great visuals of cars that people are ready to share.

According to Marx, photos of Nissan’s performance cars, like the Nissan GTR, get lots of engagement on Facebook and Twitter, so it was only logical to extend this to Instagram. Along with an emphasis on its performance and sporty vehicles, Nissan plans to share behind-the-scenes photos on its Instagram account that aren’t just official photos that can be found elsewhere.

As of now, Nissan has only 11 photos up on Instagram and 228 followers.

Marx noted that the brand is aware of having to adjust its content for different platforms. For example, because Pinterest is a female-dominated network, design-related content does better there than elsewhere. So it will just be a matter of figuring out who its Instagram audience is and what they prefer.

Courtesy of Digiday.