Top 10 Most Popular Tags On Instagram

via readwrite.com

The Instagram hashtag can be a pretty powerful thing.

As with other social platforms, tags are used on Instagram for descriptive purposes, typically appending a caption with words that are relevant to the image's content. Look, my cat is swatting at a turkey sandwich. #cat #cute #sandwich #slap #food #lol. Pretty standard stuff, right?

Instagram hashtags can also be surprisingly effective in fueling content discovery, helping users get more exposure for the photos they take. Tagging images with the right terms at the right time can also lead to an uptick of likes and new followers.

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Instagram Responds: 'It Is Not Our Intention To Sell Your Photos'

via businessinsider.com

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom published a blog post this afternoon responding to criticism of the app's new terms of service.

In the statement, Systrom says Instagram does not want to sell your photos.

"To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos," Systrom writes. "We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

He also apologized for the confusion Instagram's new policy caused today.

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Report: Twitter Tried To Buy Instagram for $525 Million

via gizmodo.com

We all remember when Facebook bought Instagram for a cool billion dollars, seemingly out of nowhere. Well now another piece of the story might be coming out. According to a report from The New York Times, Twitter made an offer too, for $525 million.

The Times report cites unnamed sources who say Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom agreed to a verbal offer of $525 million in March before changing his tune and deciding to stay independent. Then, of course, the Facebook acquisition happened, and according to the Time's sources, Twitter was shocked; they'd been ready to make a counter-offer for more but the opportunity never arose.

The issue here, aside from Facebook vs. Twitter loyalty, is that Systrom later stated to the California Corporations Department—which was aiming to find out if the sale was made with investors' best interests in mind—that Instagram had never received any other formal offers. He was under oath at the time.

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No More Instagram Photos Inside of Twitter

via allthingsd.com

Instagram completely turned off support for Twitter Cards technology on Sunday, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to AllThingsD.

While users can still post links to their Instagram photos on Twitter, they’ll no longer be able to view Instagram photos from within the Twitter stream across both the Twitter Web site and mobile apps.

Twitter Cards is the microblogging service’s push into creating a more media-centric experience for users. It allows publishers and third-party applications to display photos, video and article text inside of tweets, rather than only sharing links inside of tweets.

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Instagram Comes Of Age: Thank Hurricane Sandy & The Election

via readwrite.com

Instagram is all grown up. Not just because it now has a big, publicly-traded parent company. Nor am I referring to its unprecedentedly rapid user growth or new Web-based user profiles. In just the last few weeks, something significant has happened. Instagram became a mainstream social network, checked by everyday users during major news events and embraced by media outlets who previously weren't sure what to make of it.

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How Journalists Are Using Instagram

via readwriteweb.com

Social photo sharing is quickly finding its way into newsrooms. Even though the payoff might not be immediately clear, many media organizations are turning to Instagram as a place to experiment. (This is the first part of a four-part series on how journalists are using social networks beyond Facebook and Twitter.)

Instagram's value to news organizations is less obvious than that of most other social networks. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can be used direct audience members to the publisher's site, but Instagram doesn't even encode URLs dropped in comment threads. There is no convenient opportunity to drive traffic directly to a media outlet's own site from within Instagram. So why bother?
...

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After Instagram: 6 Alternative Photo Apps To Try

via readwriteweb.com

Consider expanding your vision to other apps. Just like the photography service you already know so well, there are plenty of other awesome apps and communities for beautiful photos.

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Instagram Hits 80 Million Users

via technabob.com

You can’t go on Facebook without seeing tons of Instagram photos being shared amongst your friends. The use of the Instagram is booming since Facebook purchased the company back in May. At that time, the app had 50 million users. The company is now reporting a huge growth since it was acquired by Facebook.

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12 People You Should Be Following On Instagram

via businessinsider.com

Hopefully by now you've read our Instagram Users Guide and are well versed in how the photo-sharing app works.

Now you probably need some cool people to follow.

Take a look at this list we complied of superstars to inspire and/or entertain you.

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How to Get More Followers on Instagram

via readwriteweb.com

What makes an Instagram user worthy of thousands of followers? Already being famous in real life doesn't hurt, but for the rest of us, mobile photography stardom requires a mix of quality, skill and social prowess.

One year ago, we outlined six effective ways to get new followers on Instagram. Since that time, the company has launched an Android app, been acquired by Facebook and grown its user base dramatically. We thought it was as good of a time as any for a refresher.

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9 Tips And Tricks You Must Know To Master Instagram

via businessinsider.com

Instagram is one of our favorite iPhone apps of all time.

The popular photo sharing app makes it easy to share pictures with friends and followers on most social networks.

Keep reading for our favorite Instagram tips and tricks.

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7 tips for improving your Instagram following

via holykaw.alltop.com

Hey, it wouldn’t be a social media platform if there wasn’t a following to attract, and Instagram is one place you may not have considered boosting your brand’s presence until recently.

Well, let today be that day with these seven tips from Brian DiFeo at Social Fresh. After all, if images are such a powerful piece of the branding puzzle, then the world’s most popular photo-sharing site is the place to be.

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See The World Through Instagram Filters With These Amazing Glasses

via businessinsider.com

Check out the Instaglasses, an amazing idea that fuses one of our favorite apps with a stylish pair of sunglasses.

Instaglasses is a concept discovered by Cult of Mac.

Designed by Markus Gerke, Instaglasses are just as easy to use as Instagram. A slider on one arm of the frames activates the filters, and if you see something you like, you can tap a button and upload it to your Instagram feed.

We guess the glasses would have some sort of WiFi or 4G chip to make the uploads possible.

Sadly, this concept will probably remain just that, but we still think its a really awesome idea.

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Why Did Facebook Buy Instagram? Introducing Facebook Camera

via fstoppers.com

UPDATE 2: Huffington Post has edited their original article. They now state that the Instagram app deal will close later this year, not the whole app.
In case you were as baffled when you heard that Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 Billion, you weren’t alone. But news today shows the reason. Facebook has announced their next product: Facebook Camera.

UPDATE 1: Facebook has said that Instagram employees did not work on the new Facebook Camera app as the acquisition is still in process. They also announced that it expects the Instagram app to close sometime this year. Wait, what? The purchase of Instagram looks more and more like just an action to remove a competitor. But because there are so many apps out there, if that really is the reason the purchase can look sort of unnecessary and, well, silly. Unless HuffPost made a major boo boo with their reporting…

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Facebook Camera vs. Instagram: Ultimate Mobile Photo Sharing Smackdown

via gizmodo.com

A new challenger appears! Facebook is now beginning to eat up its children, releasing a Camera app that competes directly with its recently purchased Instagram. Is it any good? Should you use both? Which one is better? Let's dig in.

Instagram and Facebook Camera have the exact same promise: the easiest (and most fun!) way to share pictures from your life with people in your life. Both rely on the same general process: fire up the app, select a photo, add a filter if you're feeling sassy, and upload to the world. But there are some serious differences that should make anyone using Instagram and/or Facebook to reevaluate how they spread photos around.

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Instagram Coming out with their own Camera

via highsnobiety.com

Another interesting concept design comes from ADR Studio. This time they imagined the Instagram icon becoming a real life digital instant film camera – the outcome is the Instagram Socialmatic Camera. Check out the full concept idea here below.

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The Explosive Growth of Instagram - Infographic

via jeffbullas.com

I was recently travelling through Italy and having an iPhone allowed me to share what I was experiencing in real time to my Facebook timeline and to Twitter.

The photo that you see on the right of the sea side town of Camogli is the evidence.

This didn’t require waiting to get back to the hotel room and using my laptop connected to a socket in the wall.

It was as simple as taking a photo using the app, hit the filter feature you want and select which social network to share it on and your photo is visible to the world and the web.

All it needed was a mobile visual app called Instagram.

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Fake Instagram Android App Contains malware

via businessinsider.com

There's a phony version of Instagram for Android floating around containing malware that can access your text messages, according to security research firm Sophos.

TNW picked up the Sophos report.

Sophos says the fake Instagram app is available on a few websites, including one based in Russia.

The app pretends to be a fully-functional version of Instagram, but doesn't always connect to the photo-sharing service's network.

The best way to protect yourself from accidentally downloading the fake Instagram app is to only use the official Google Play market on your phone.

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What Is the Point of... Instagram?

via readwriteweb.com

Whenever a trendy app comes along, there are people who ask, "What is the point of this?" If millions of people are using something, there has to be a reason. In our What Is the Point of... series, we'll explain it to you.

This week, we're asking, What is the point of Instagram?

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This Is Why Instagram Is Worth $1 Billion To Facebook

via businessinsider.com

Facebook announced that it acquired Instagram for $1 Billion. The company is less than two years old, has no revenue, and about a dozen employees. Remember, acquisitions are about what the acquirer can do with the company in the future, not some multiple of revenues or profits today. Why is Instagram worth $1B?

Facebook acquired Instagram for about $30 per user, or $1B. ($30/user X 33M users = $1B) Facebook is valued at about $100 per user or $80B ($100/user X 800M users = $80B). Other popular social apps are valued around $20 to $50 per user. The monetization models need to work out about the same to justify the valuations.

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