Couple Who Marry After Meeting On ‪‎Instagram‬ Is A Huge Business Opportunity

An adorable love story about a couple who met on Instagram and are now getting married is taking the internet by storm. It has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: risk, faith, and unbound optimism.

Yet beyond all the hype, their viral love story is a goldmine for businesses. There are endless ways that companies — big or small — can capitalize off of the trending story. Before we get into them, here is a little background on the doting couple.

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Erica Harris and Arte Vann first “met” on Instagram about a year ago. They exchanged “likes” and “comments” on the social networking platform, eventually progressing to direct messaging, then late night phone calls, and now they are getting married.

Yup, you heard us right. The couple decided to marry each other before they actually met.

Harris — a 36-year-old mother of three from California – met Vann in person for the first time last week at a California airport where he arrived after quitting his head chef job in New York. They exchanged rings and vows, got #InstaMarried, and had a weekend honeymoon in San Diego. They are now looking for a permanent place to live.

At first glance this story may appear to have nothing to do with business, but that’s positively incorrect. Viral stories like this are an opportunity for brands to attach their name to it and ride the popularity wave.

Here are just five ways businesses can leverage the power of this love story:

Retail businesses that sell houseware products could offer a free stove, washing machine or microwave to the new couple and then publicize the giveaway in a social media campaign using the hashtag #InstaMarried. Real estate agents looking for new clients could help the couple purchase or rent a new home pro bono and then announce their good deed through a social media blitz, similarly using the #InstaMarried hashtag. Local restaurants could offer a free romantic dinner to the couple, capturing the night with photography and video. The multimedia content would then be blasted on the restaurant’s social media channels, Yelp page and company website. Smartphone companies could give away their hottest phone to the couple and tell them to document their first 30 days together with a new pic everyday. The images would be compiled into a collage with a newly created hashtag and pushed through an aggressive social media campaign. Instagram could create a marketing campaign around couples that found love through their social media platform, complete with blog stories, photo galleries and videos. The key would be to distribute the multimedia content with a new hashtag.

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The possibilities for businesses to benefit from viral stories like this are only limited by creativity.

For marketing folks, think about the core of your product, identity and voice. Is there someway your brand could benefit from alining itself with touching stories like this? The answer won’t always be “yes”, but when it is the payoffs could be huge.