LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwire) -- 11/14/12 -- The new profile pages recently rolled-out to desktop by Instagram offer businesses the opportunity to increase their brand reach, says integrated search, PR and social media agency Punch Communications.

With web users now also able to view photos and follow members on Instagram, the service has become much more accessible, allowing users to easily interact with a collective library of brand and user images via both smartphone and desktop.

Instagram began to roll-out its browser-enabled platform with individual profile pages for its users on 5th November 2012. Each profile contains a timeline that displays all uploaded images in chronological order, offering users the opportunity to browse and interact with previous uploads. The layout clearly resembles Facebook, which acquired Instagram in September 2012, leading many to speculate that deeper integration of the two could continue in the future.

With search engines, such as Google, continually increasing emphasis on social ranking factors, the new Instagram profiles will offer additional opportunities to improve a brand's social footprint. Search engines can more easily assess user interaction with profile pages now hosting each user's volumes of uploads, likes, comments and follows in a single location. This means that the platform should now be used to help increase a website's position within search engines.

Pete Goold, managing director of integrated social media, SEO and PR company Punch Communications, said: "Instagram's creation of online user profile pages presents businesses with a fresh opportunity to further promote and grow their brand through social media. New pages offer a one-stop location for web users to follow, like and interact with the images shared by their favourite brands, in an online space, in addition to the Instagram smartphone app.

"As Google continues to place emphasis on social signals when positioning websites in the results pages, this change offers businesses another medium to promote their online presence to the search giant, in a bid to continue to improve their visibility in organic search engine rankings."

If you have been researching the offerings of social media, PR and SEO agencies, contact Punch Communications, and find out what an integrated approach can do for your business, please visit www.punchcomms.com, or call 01858 411 600.