Instagram, the popular photo sharing application, released their 2nd independent application this week.
The app, called Layout, helps users easily create custom photo collages and comes after their first independent app debut of Hyperlapse in August 2014. Layout gives social marketers and creative instagramers the ability to do more with their images without the use of photo editing software or professional photography. The app boasts functionality to mirror and rotate images to fit collage layouts and a feature called “faces” which finds and selects photos from your phone camera reel with faces in them. This feature is sure to come in handy, as a recent study from The Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs found that photos that include faces are almost 40% more likely to receive likes/engagement than photos without faces.
A great example of a brand already using Layout in this way is Sephora Beauty Stores. The most recent company Instagram posts use Layout to share quick make-up tutorials. Sephora is my favorite example of this so far, and I am excited to see how Instagramers will use this app for enhanced visual story telling in the future.
At COHN, we are always thinking of what’s next in social and how it will be used in social marketing. A few brands have already adopted the new app, and have utilized it in different ways to share their brand message.
The biggest opportunity with Layout is the ability to tell a complete story in one Instagram image. Though photo collages are nothing new, Layout collages are seamless and have a professional look, compared to similar services PicStich and PicCollage.
Photo Credit: Instagram