The Revolution Won't Be Televised; It Will Be Instagrammed

The boom in TV sales in the 1950s and '60s created a wave of innovation in visual storytelling. It gave rise to the now ubiquitous 30-second spot.

Today a similar phenomenon is underway. Visual storytelling is in renaissance -- but with a twist. Photography, rather than video, is fast becoming the lingua franca of a more global, mobile and social society.

This will have a significant impact on brand marketers, but perhaps in some not-so-obvious ways. More on this in a bit.

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40% of top brands use Instagram, love image filters

Today, Seattle-based Simply Measured launched its Instagram analytics tool for both the public, and its enterprise customers. In conjunction with that release, the company made public a study that it executed of the Interbrand 100 firms, concerning their usage of Instagram.

The Interbrand 100, for the uninitiated, is a list of the world’s one hundred most valuable brands. At the top: Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Google, GE, McDonalds, Intel, and Apple. The blue chip brands, if you will. Here’s what Simply Measured found out:

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Progressive robo-tweets spark social media crisis

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Pro tip for big brands: When talking on Twitter about how you handled a customer's tragic accident, the phrase "contractual obligations" is unlikely to play well.

Progressive Insurance is the latest company to spark a fiery online backlash to a tin-eared series of tweets and other online postings.

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