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A quick overview of InstagramA quick overview of InstagramA quick overview of InstagramA quick overview of Instagram
Blog Post Date: September 10th, 2012
Category: Social Media
Author: Ulrika Hedlund
Source: http://www.businessproductivity.com/ a-quick-overview-of-instagram
Last week, September 6th, Instagram was officially welcomed to
Facebook. This means that Instagram’s 16 employees (yes, that’s
correct, they are only 16) will be moving to Facebook’s
headquarters in Menlo Park. The acquisition, that was announced
back in April, has been pending the Federal Trade Commission’s
approval. The final price tag for Instagram ended up at 735 million
dollars - not the initial 1 billion due to Facebook’s fluctuating stock
price. A lot has been written about Instagram since the initial acquisition announcement in
April, but if you are one of those who aren’t a hundred percent sure of what it is, I thought I
would use this week’s blog article to give you a quick Instagram overview. This way you
won’t feel like a fool when your twelve year old niece asks you if she can post a picture of
you on her Instagram.
What is InstagramWhat is InstagramWhat is InstagramWhat is Instagram? ? ? ? Judging from the price tag you would assume that Instagram is an extremely sophisticated,
genius application that meets people’s various needs. The truth is that Instagram is
exceptionally simple. It’s an application for your mobile phone that enables you to edit
pictures you have taken with your mobile phone camera using built in filters and share
them with others. If you have an Instagram account you can tag pictures, rate and
comment on other people’s pictures and follow other users. If you want to see how
Instagram works without downloading, installing and creating an account yourself, you
can watch this YouTube demonstration of Instagram.
InstaInstaInstaInstagram backgroundgram backgroundgram backgroundgram background The name “Instagram” is a combination of the words instant
and telegram. Instagram was founded by two Stanford
graduates, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in
October 2010. Initially it was only available for the iPhone,
but in April 2012 Instagram became available for Google
Android phones as well. Instagram became instantly popular.
After just a few months they had over one million users from
all over the world. In July 2012, Instagram had over 80
million users with 4 billion photos uploaded, and last week
Instagram announced that they have passed the 5 billion
photos mark.
Who can see Who can see Who can see Who can see Instagram photos? Instagram photos? Instagram photos? Instagram photos? To be part of the Instagram “community” you need to have an Instagram account. You can
sign up for one using the Instagram app which is available for iPhones (can also be installed
on iPads) and Google Android phones. By default your account is public, meaning that
anyone can see your photos. You can select to have a private account in which case users
need to be approved by you before they can see your photos. Even if you don’t have an
Instagram account you can view Instagram photos on your PC using a number of web sites.
One example is Gramfeed. Here you can look at photos that are currently popular or search
for photos containing specific hashtags. Other web sites for viewing Instagram photos
include Instagrid, Webstagram, INK361, Instagreat and Photogram.co. To get full access to
user photos you need to have an Instagram account, but you can still see popular photos
and do searches on photo tags without an account using some of these web sites.
Integration with other social networksIntegration with other social networksIntegration with other social networksIntegration with other social networks Instagram integrates with other social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and
Foursquare. This means that you can post your Instagram photos directly to other social
platforms so that more users can see your photos. If you add a location to your photograph
you can post your photo to the location based social network Foursquare. (To learn more
about social networks read the blog article “Making sense of the Social Networking
Jungle”.)
How How How How can can can can you you you you use Instagramuse Instagramuse Instagramuse Instagram as a business? as a business? as a business? as a business? Even though Instagram is primarily intended for personal use, sharing photographs with
your friends and family, Instagram, just like other social networks is being successfully used
by some businesses to promote their brand and their products. According to a study by
SimplyMeasured in August 2012, 40% of the leading brands are active on Instagram. Big
brands like Red Bull, Starbucks and Burberry have hundreds of thousands of followers each.
In 2011 Ford successfully used Instagram
to promote their Ford Fiesta. They
launched a photo competition called
“#Fiestagram Photo Competition” where
users were asked to take pictures
showing off a particular feature or
technology found on the Ford Fiesta.
Ford organized the Fiesta's features into
six categories: #Starting, #Hidden,
#Listening, #Entry, #Music, and #Shapes.
Each category was given its own week.
Users uploaded their pictures tagging
them with #fiestagram and the hashtag
for the week. A team of judges selected
the winner for each week and at the end
of the competition, the overall winner was given a brand new Ford Fiesta.
Is Business Productivity using Instagram? Is Business Productivity using Instagram? Is Business Productivity using Instagram? Is Business Productivity using Instagram? Currently Instagram isn’t available for the Windows mobile platform so I can’t download
Instagram to my phone. I have downloaded Instagram to my iPad so that I can follow
others, but I haven’t shared any pictures myself yet. Now that Instagram is a part of
Facebook I’m hoping that they will get more development resources and that they will be
able to develop a good PC app as well as a mobile app for the Windows mobile platform.
When it becomes available I’ll be sure to let you know how you can follow us on Instagram.