How 3 Entrepreneurs Used Instagram for Business. Instagram, the photo-sharing social media platform, isn't just for sharing your pretty photos with friends.
In fact, for some clever entrepreneurs it's become a free marketing platform. For others, it's been the impetus to start a business. The key, they said, is building a following that wants to see your point of view, whether you're selling something or not. Here are three successful e-commerce retailers who shared their secrets of Instagram success. MyHauteCloset MyHauteCloset, which has more than 38,000 Instagram followers, is an entirely new era of consignment that started on Instagram. "When I first started using Instagram, I shared images of my personal style and developed relationships with women across the globe who shared similar interests," Troche said. Troche said that nearly 100 percent of her clients are from Instagram.
"They're intelligent, always socially connected, and trust someone they believe to be their peer who is in constant communication with them," Troche said. The Fancy’s E-Commerce Expansion Continues With Launch Of “Buy” Button For Web Publishers. This week, New York-based The Fancy, a Pinterest-like site with a focus on not just browsing, but buying from its collection of inspirational imagery, began encouraging users to share its content on social networks in exchange for cash rewards.
But paid promotion via social sharing was only one part of the company’s larger plan. Today, the company is rolling out another piece of the puzzle and is introducing “Buy” buttons to power purchasing behaviors on any website. The “Buy” button is targeted at bloggers and other publishers, not online merchants or e-commerce sites, of course. It should be especially appealing to the large and growing community of fashion bloggers, who frequently post images of clothing and accessories like those that you also find on The Fancy.
And it gives them another way to monetize their sites beyond using text-based or banner advertisements. Publishers will be able to implement the button on their site using a single line of Javascript code. Marketers Have It Wrong: Forget Engagement, Consumers Want Simplicity. Fashion Aggregation FTW: Lyst Picks Up $5M, Now Lists DFJ Esprit As Backer. The fashion world has taken to the internet like fish to water — with thousands of brands and retailers complemented by the rise of fashion bloggers, social media and new technologies to make it easier than ever to buy online.
But all that activity poses a problem for the consumer: navigating one’s way through all those virtual clothes rails to find just the thing you want. Lyst, a New York/London startup, is taking a big data approach to try to solve that issue, and today is announcing that it’s picked up $5 million in financing to help do it. The Series A round is being led by new investor DFJ Esprit — a champion of European startups that was also an early backer of LOVEFILM, now part of Amazon.
Accel Partners, Alex Zubillaga and Venrex also participated. The total raised to date by Lyst now stands at $6.5 million since its launch in April 2011. Lyst’s approach to the online fashion industry is to be the site where it all the many disparate strands of online fahsion come together.