Isn’t it intriguing that this cat at one point had more Followers than the leading Sports News outlet? On the surface, this image is enough to make a social media newcomer say #idontgetit. But isn’t this the perfect example of the value of entertainment vs. the value of information on social media?

With tweets like “CURRENT CAT STATUS still a cat STATUS UPDATE IN THIRTY MINUTES spoiler probably still a cat,” @sockington certainly isn’t any kind of information hub.  The aforementioned tweet was shared by 100’s of Followers. People welcome @sockington to their news feed because this feline gives them a good chuckle.  It’s all natural, all silly, and even cuter.  This kitty is 100% entertainment, 0% information. Now that Spring is upon us, we need to take a step back, knock the Winter freeze off our social media content, and freshen it up for a new season of social wonder.

Now followed by nearly 2.7 million, ESPN isn’t exactly desperate – and they’re quite SM savvy. They put out the most popular sports news on the planet, and are counted as a go-to for sports lovers everywhere.  Being that sports are themselves a form Read more...]]>

Isn’t it intriguing that this cat at one point had more Followers than the leading Sports News outlet? On the surface, this image is enough to make a social media newcomer say #idontgetit. But isn’t this the perfect example of the value of entertainment vs. the value of information on social media?

With tweets like “CURRENT CAT STATUS still a cat STATUS UPDATE IN THIRTY MINUTES spoiler probably still a cat,” @sockington certainly isn’t any kind of information hub.  The aforementioned tweet was shared by 100’s of Followers. People welcome @sockington to their news feed because this feline gives them a good chuckle.  It’s all natural, all silly, and even cuter.  This kitty is 100% entertainment, 0% information. Now that Spring is upon us, we need to take a step back, knock the Winter freeze off our social media content, and freshen it up for a new season of social wonder.

Now followed by nearly 2.7 million, ESPN isn’t exactly desperate – and they’re quite SM savvy. They put out the most popular sports news on the planet, and are counted as a go-to for sports lovers everywhere.  Being that sports are themselves a form of entertainment, ESPN tweets a great mix of info and fun.

The lesson that can be drawn from silly superstar cats is this: people expect to be entertained on social media.  Be informative, but don’t be boring. Here are a few ways to integrate entertainment into your social media content mix and start boosting engagement:

1.  Ask Questions – whether it’s an actual “Facebook Question” or a question you post with a link on Twitter, people love to share their opinions. And once they do, you’ve got a great starting point for a conversation!

2.  Be Lighthearted – make your fans laugh with a funny picture or status update. It could be as simple as sharing something that made you laugh

3.  Post Videos – videos are a great way to educate your fans while also entertaining them. Publishing videos for your page that do both of these things are more likely to be shared, grow your page, and generate engagement. Again, make sure the content and quality of these videos is consistent with your brand!! Just make sure you stay consistent with your brand and avoid risky topics.

4.  Caption Contests – Post a surprising, goofy, breathtaking, or otherwise attention-grabbing picture with a status that asks your fans to comment the best caption. People like to feel that they’re funny and that their input matters. No monetary prize needed – just announce your favorite submissions and make your fans feel good!

5.  Fill In The Blank – Post a status with a word missing, and ask your fans to fill in the blank with a comment. You can even combine this idea with a Caption Contest. Again, no physical prize is needed – just recognize your favorite submissions and be _______ that you got all that extra engagement!

Can you think of other ways to entertain your following while still meeting your goals as a business? Let us know in the Comments section or at Facebook.com/WhatsNextMarketing!

Timeline hopes to “inspire users to spend more time browsing Pages and reading their feed stories” according to TechCrunch, but with key features like the ability to set a custom application as the default landing tab revoked, how do brands move forward in convincing users to spend that time?

Here’s an overview of the main changes and opportunities:

The Hispanic market, currently 50 million strong, is responsible for over half of the growth of the US population in the last 10 years. Their buying power grows faster than any minority group; it currently surpasses one trillion dollars.

Companies can and should target this niche market online. However, watch out when communicating with them on social media. Common pitfalls may hinder you from appealing to this audience, which are usually caused by cultural misunderstanding.

This group is growing fast, has spending power, and is geographically concentrated.  Hispanics are also engaged online users and important word-of-mouth influencers; forty percent of Latinos are creators of their own content. They are much more likely to blog, upload music, or film a “Sh*t People Say” video than the average US web user.

According to a recent Google study, “86 percent of U.S. Hispanics have a high-speed Internet connection in their homes and 78 percent use the Internet as their main information source, even more than television.”

Companies commonly ask marketers to translate an existing, mainstream campaign into Spanish. What they don’t realize, however, is that Read more...]]> The 2010 Census data exposed that every 30 seconds, a Hispanic turns 18 years old.

The Hispanic market, currently 50 million strong, is responsible for over half of the growth of the US population in the last 10 years. Their buying power grows faster than any minority group; it currently surpasses one trillion dollars.

Companies can and should target this niche market online. However, watch out when communicating with them on social media. Common pitfalls may hinder you from appealing to this audience, which are usually caused by cultural misunderstanding.

Explosion of Hispanic Users and Content Creators

This group is growing fast, has spending power, and is geographically concentrated.  Hispanics are also engaged online users and important word-of-mouth influencers; forty percent of Latinos are creators of their own content. They are much more likely to blog, upload music, or film a “Sh*t People Say” video than the average US web user.

According to a recent Google study, “86 percent of U.S. Hispanics have a high-speed Internet connection in their homes and 78 percent use the Internet as their main information source, even more than television.”

Spanish Translation isn’t Enough; Must Understand Cultural Content

Companies commonly ask marketers to translate an existing, mainstream campaign into Spanish. What they don’t realize, however, is that word play sometimes doesn’t translate well, as well as some idioms or common expressions. Often companies demand a literal translation, but in the end, it might not convey the same feeling to the reader. Often, it is better to create original content for the Hispanic audience. It should be content that appeals to its individuality and its cultural context.

Here’s an example…

If Boston CASA Embassy would want their tweet translated, we should consider language limitations. Obviously, the tweet’s meaning of “getting out there” is to make famous, or acquire recognition. However, translated in Spanish, it would just mean LITERALLY, taking something outside.

Spanish Differs by Country

My Spanish is not just standard Spanish. Spanish has regionalized in each country, and the vocabulary from day-to-day lingo to slang is different.

I don’t just speak Spanish. I speak Panamanian Spanish and Colombian Spanish.

Growing up in Panama, I would go with my cousins to the community playgrounds – back when slides were exciting. We would slide (surrar) in the slides (surra-surra).

After travelling to Mexico a few years later, my cousins eliminated the word “surrar” from their vocabulary. They were talking to a concierge who was very cordial at first, until my cousins asked if there was any water park where they could slide.  The man’s facial expression changed instantly.

“You can’t “surrar” there! Are you crazy?”

“Yes, why not?  Can’t we “surrar” down the “surra-surra?

I may have the manliest Pinterest account in existence.

Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Like jumbo shrimp, artificial reality or Microsoft Works, “manly” and “Pinterest” aren’t usually associated with each other. According to data from the Google Ad Planner, 79% of Pinterest users are female. While a variety of male-oriented competitors have emerged, including Gentlemint and WhereIsTheCool, Pinterest is growing faster than almost any other content distribution network in the history of the web and is finally capturing the interest of both genders.

So don’t worry guys, Pinterest isn’t only about wedding dresses and strappy sandals. When customized in the right manner, Pinterest can be a valuable resource for any guy. Here’s how to do it!

Be Picky with your Follows

The biggest mistake guys (including myself) make when they join Pinterest is to link up their account with Facebook and auto-follow their friends. This typically leads to a feed filled with female-focused pins. Remember that, while Pinterest has social features like Comments and Likes, it is NOT a social network. Pinterest is a content delivery network at its core and is much more focused about content discovery than social engagement. Keep your friendships focused on Facebook, otherwise your feed will be filled with Read more...]]>

I may have the manliest Pinterest account in existence.

Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Like jumbo shrimp, artificial reality or Microsoft Works, “manly” and “Pinterest” aren’t usually associated with each other. According to data from the Google Ad Planner, 79% of Pinterest users are female. While a variety of male-oriented competitors have emerged, including Gentlemint and WhereIsTheCool, Pinterest is growing faster than almost any other content distribution network in the history of the web and is finally capturing the interest of both genders.

So don’t worry guys, Pinterest isn’t only about wedding dresses and strappy sandals. When customized in the right manner, Pinterest can be a valuable resource for any guy. Here’s how to do it!

Be Picky with your Follows

The biggest mistake guys (including myself) make when they join Pinterest is to link up their account with Facebook and auto-follow their friends. This typically leads to a feed filled with female-focused pins. Remember that, while Pinterest has social features like Comments and Likes, it is NOT a social network. Pinterest is a content delivery network at its core and is much more focused about content discovery than social engagement. Keep your friendships focused on Facebook, otherwise your feed will be filled with useless clutter… unless you have a genuine interest in innovative hair-braiding techniques. I don’t, and that is why I’m so picky about whom I follow on Pinterest.

Follow Boards, not People

When you follow someone, you follow all their boards. This includes the boards that have yet to create. Do your due diligence when considering whether or not to follow someone and check out all their boards. If you like some of their shared pins and not others; only follow the boards which you find interesting. Enjoy food and travel? Follow your friends’ boards that relate to these subjects and ignore the wedding boards.

What are you looking for on Pinterest?

It’s easy to get caught up in the sheer volume of content on Pinterest. If you have an idea going in though on what type of content you want to discover, it is much easier to pick and choose the right boards to follow. I personally want to discover pinned content focused on humor, men’s style, branding/design, infographics, food and cool getaways. If it doesn’t fit those categories, it better really peak my interest to get a follow. Set the guidelines for your social discovery adventure and Pinterest will provide you with a wealth of interesting content.

Top Male Boards and Users on Pinterest

My personal favorite Pinterest board is #BroPin, created by social media strategist Mike Street and managed by a variety of male Pinterest users. The board features pins across a variety of masculine subjects, like muscle cars, science fiction, and suits.

Looking for crude humor? Follow the Pinterest board of TastefullyOffensive.com. Curated by Christian Baker, TO’s pins tend to cross the gender gap and make fun of everyone and everything. TastefullyOffensive’s board is also a great example of how content creators can use Pinterest as a means of distributing their content to an additional audience.

Here are eight men to follow on Pinterest:

Evan Sharp – Pinterest cofounder with boards for anything from Crazy Star Trek Shit to Nuclear Beauty

Scott Monty – Global head of social media for Ford Motor Company curates for #BroPin and shares a variety of very classy boards, including Dress to Impress and Royal Warrant Holders

Tristan Walker – BizDev at Foursquare with great boards for books and technology

Ben Golder – Fullbright Fellow in Spain with a penchant for architecture and robotics

Justin Blumer – Wisconsin student with an eye for masculine design

Adam Walker – FlyCanvas founder and SoCal surfer

Warren Quirk – Vancouverite with cool automotive boards

Rich Rogerson – Newcastle graphic designer with boards for comics and World War II posters

Pinterest can be a valuable tool if used carefully and with purpose in mind. Be picky with your follows, focus on following individual boards over users, and have a strategy in mind from the beginning and you’ll discover a wealth of valuable content!

Oh, and shameless plug… if you like innovative ideas and gadgets, tasty food or social media infographics, be sure to follow my boards.

MySpace was sold by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp last year for $35m – compared to the $580m that he originally paid for the website back in 2005. However, new owners, digital media firm Specific Media and investors, including Justin Timberlake, promised to shift the ailing social network and bring it back to life.

A new life focused on music, in fact. MySpace supposedly offers the biggest free music collection online, even ahead of popular streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Pandora. MySpace houses a music catalogue of more than 42m free songs, a significant step above the 15m songs Spotify contains in the US.

In addition, the website has made claims that around 40,000 people a day have signed up to MySpace since it introduced new ties with rival social networks, Twitter and Facebook. A number of the new users are thought to have come through Myspace’s new music player, which provides streaming music, radio modes, and a recommendation engine; but also from the fact that new functionality makes it Read more...]]> We all know the story of MySpace — the social network that ended in failure and was thus sold in June of last year. But is the site making a comeback? Possibly…

MySpace was sold by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp last year for $35m – compared to the $580m that he originally paid for the website back in 2005. However, new owners, digital media firm Specific Media and investors, including Justin Timberlake, promised to shift the ailing social network and bring it back to life.

A new life focused on music, in fact. MySpace supposedly offers the biggest free music collection online, even ahead of popular streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Pandora. MySpace houses a music catalogue of more than 42m free songs, a significant step above the 15m songs Spotify contains in the US.

In addition, the website has made claims that around 40,000 people a day have signed up to MySpace since it introduced new ties with rival social networks, Twitter and Facebook. A number of the new users are thought to have come through Myspace’s new music player, which provides streaming music, radio modes, and a recommendation engine; but also from the fact that new functionality makes it easier for MySpace to interface with Twitter and Facebook, the two social networks that had a hand in ‘killing’ the site to begin with.

Reports state that the app has jumped from 900,000 users to 1.6 million in just 30 days. Yet, another addition to the network has been announced, and is being called MySpace TV – a social integrated TV watching experience. The idea is to embed social-networking tools directly into the TV and give people the ability to share what they’re watching and what they think of it in real time without moving away from the TV. Viewers will be able to see what their MySpace friends are watching, and make comments through the TV set and via smartphone and tablet devices. A specific date hasn’t been revealed as to when MySpace TV will become available, but it’s expected to roll out in the first half of 2012.

Timberlake and the team’s strategy of repositioning the site as a [for now] music service seems to be temporarily dragging MySpace out of its grave. But will it be enough? Without a comprehensive re-brand, will the MySpace name continue to linger in the minds of people as a complete social network flop? You tell us!

There’s no doubt that Pinterest’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last several months. Although access to the “Virtual Pinboard” is restricted to invitation only, over 3.3 million users have signed up and the site boasts 421 million page views. That means its users are pretty active and oh by the way, women, the most powerful consumers, make up 70 percent of its user base.

Pinterest was named one of the top ten social media networks of 2011 and was recently listed as one of the 60 new Timeline Apps from Facebook. If there was ever a time for a brand to start using Pinterest, it’s now. Here are four tips to help you get your feet wet and harness its PINtential.

1. Promote Your Products

This is fairly easy to do on Pinterest if you sell some sort of good. Simply upload a photo of said product, link back to your website and write the price in the pin description. This will automatically create a Read more...]]> Chances are, you’ve heard of Pinterest. Your girlfriend is pinning wedding or home décor ideas obsessively. Your mom is cooking and crafting things she saw on someone else’s pinboard. Maybe you’re building your dream closet. (I know I am!)

There’s no doubt that Pinterest’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last several months. Although access to the “Virtual Pinboard” is restricted to invitation only, over 3.3 million users have signed up and the site boasts 421 million page views. That means its users are pretty active and oh by the way, women, the most powerful consumers, make up 70 percent of its user base.

Pinterest was named one of the top ten social media networks of 2011 and was recently listed as one of the 60 new Timeline Apps from Facebook. If there was ever a time for a brand to start using Pinterest, it’s now. Here are four tips to help you get your feet wet and harness its PINtential.

1. Promote Your Products

This is fairly easy to do on Pinterest if you sell some sort of good. Simply upload a photo of said product, link back to your website and write the price in the pin description. This will automatically create a price banner across the image. If you sell products directly from your website, you could use the “Pin It” bookmarklet to do this too.

I’d avoid too much of this, though. Pinterest Etiquette Rule #3 states, “Avoid Self Promotion.” Remember, you have to walk the “salesy” line in social media, and its especially difficult on Pinterest. Keep reading for ideas to keep you on the right path.

2. Build Your Brand’s Identity

Pinterest is the perfect platform to build a visual representation of your brand’s identity and there are two easy ways to do this. First, use pinboards to showcase your brand’s culture. The great thing about Pinterest is that you can literally choose the images you want to represent your brand. Perhaps your brand identifies with a preppy New England lifestyle. You could easily create boards reflecting that culture. Pin images of iconic spots along the New England coast, the clothing, the food, etc. I’m visualizing Ralph Lauren models eating lobster in Nantucket just thinking about it. Help your followers do the same by creating that image for them.

The second way to build brand identity is to let your followers gain an inside glimpse into the people behind the brand. One of my favorite digital publications has a different pinboard for each of its editors and contributors. The authors then use their pinboard to feature the things they love. This helps put a face to each employee and in doing so, it allows users to create a sense of familiarity and possibly even camaraderie with the brand. Who wouldn’t want that?

3. Inspire Collaborations and Boost Engagement

Once you’ve got the hang of Pinterest, try using the contribute function of the pinboards. To do this, you must manually add people you are following to your “Contributors” list for an individual board. This allows users to pin images to your boards. They could contribute to your lifestyle boards, upload pins of goods or services they wish you offered or even share images of themselves enjoying your product. This is an easy way to get around the self-promotion issue, since your fans are doing the promoting for you. It also boosts engagement with your existing fan base and encourages others to start engaging with you.

4. Use Pinterest as Free Research

If you aren’t convinced that Pinterest is right for your brand, then the least you could do is use it as free market research. Find yourself an invite to Pinterest and create a personal account. Then just sit back and observe. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest doesn’t create private profiles. Generally speaking, any user can view any pinboard. This means you can see what potential fans of your brand like. An easy way to gather this information is to click on the different categories of boards and pins. This shows pins from everyone on Pinterest, not just users you follow. Pinners are sharing tons of information about themselves: what they eat, what they wear, where they travel, etc. Start noticing recurring trends and use that information to your brand’s advantage. If tropical locales are trending on the travel page, figure out how you can make that relevant to your brand. There are tons of inspiring marketing ideas lurking on Pinterest, you just have to discover them!

The Bottom Line

Whether you use Pinterest to build engagement with fans or simply for research, it can be useful for every brand out there. As its popularity continues to grow, so does its potential. Now is the time to jump onto the Pinterest bandwagon and these tips will help get you started off on the right foot.

Tell us, is your brand on Pinterest? How are you using it and what benefits have you seen so far?

Want to see what Lauren is pinning? Follow her Pinterest boards!

What do you get when you marry the biggest television event of the year with the revolution that is social media? For one, you get explosive and immediate feedback. In the past, it was more common for people’s conversations about the things they watched on television to be saved for the water cooler at work, or perhaps over lunch. As social media evolves, millions of people everywhere are becoming more likely to share their immediate thoughts and reactions to what they see, as soon as they see it.

According to Semiocast, a French Social Media monitoring service, last year’s Super Bowl was the topic of roughly 4.5 million tweets. These tweets included conversations about the game, individual players, halftime performers and of course, the commercials and the number could grow substantially this year. In light of this, the NFL is stepping up its game by having its own Super Bowl Social Media Command Center. From there,  not only will they monitor the conversations had on social media platforms about the game and its surrounding events, but they will also tweet and message directions to fans to help them find parking as well as direct them to businesses and restaurants around Indianapolis Read more...]]>

What do you get when you marry the biggest television event of the year with the revolution that is social media? For one, you get explosive and immediate feedback. In the past, it was more common for people’s conversations about the things they watched on television to be saved for the water cooler at work, or perhaps over lunch. As social media evolves, millions of people everywhere are becoming more likely to share their immediate thoughts and reactions to what they see, as soon as they see it.

According to Semiocast, a French Social Media monitoring service, last year’s Super Bowl was the topic of roughly 4.5 million tweets. These tweets included conversations about the game, individual players, halftime performers and of course, the commercials and the number could grow substantially this year. In light of this, the NFL is stepping up its game by having its own Super Bowl Social Media Command Center. From there,  not only will they monitor the conversations had on social media platforms about the game and its surrounding events, but they will also tweet and message directions to fans to help them find parking as well as direct them to businesses and restaurants around Indianapolis where the game will be played.

So how can companies and brands capitalize on the mutually beneficial connection created between the world’s favorite sporting event and social media? A number of brands have responded by taking their commercials to social media before the big game in 2012. Putting out teasers and generating a buzz and hype around their brand for free on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, helps to extend the promotion beyond its typical moment in the spotlight on Super Bowl Sunday. This year, two notable teasers have come from Volkswagen and Doritos, who were not so ironically, two of the biggest winners in terms of social media buzz from last year’s Super Bowl as well. These companies have taken three unique and effective approaches to integrating Social Media into their planning for the big day.

To follow up its huge success with last year’s commercial; Volkswagen chose to share a teaser of this year’s commercial on youtube, which has generated 10,800,000+ views in just over a week. The full commercial of course, will air on Super Bowl Sunday. The teaser is called “The Bark Side” and is a clever presentation of a chorus of dogs barking “The Imperial March” from the classic movie Star Wars.

Dogs + Star Wars = Great Success!

Doritos is taking the approach, which seems to be a rising trend now, of allowing fans to submit their own commercials and ideas with the chance of having them aired during the Super Bowl. This is a great idea for several reasons. First, it gets fans and customers involved and talking. It also creates a ton of free advertising that will live on throughout internet history and more and more users continue to view the different commercials that advertise your product and feature your brand in a positive light. The contest entries can be found at crashthesuperbowl.com. Here’s an example of an entry that did not make the finalist cut for Doritos’ contest, yet has still generated over 2.3 million views.

The takeaway here is that companies and brands of all sizes and budgets are becoming more aware of the importance of engaging their audiences and customers through social media. It is now being effectively used as a tool that facilitates conversation before, during and after major events which helps to increase the all too important brand awareness factor that all businesses have to be conscious of.

The system has been in a beta testing phase since the public announcement at Facebook’s f8 Conference on September 9, 2011. Provided to an initial group of partners, results have already exceeded most expectations. Spotify, an initial partner, has grown its paid user base to over 2.5 million in a few short months. Yahoo reported in December that 1 million articles are auto-shared daily, leading to 500,000 daily referrals.

What is the Open Graph and how does Frictionless Sharing work?

The central mechanism of Frictionless Sharing is Facebook’s Open Graph. In 2010, Facebook launched the Open Graph. The Open Graph enabled Facebook users to move beyond mapping their relationships and opened the system up to connections with nearly anything imaginable. They did this by integrating the Like button, which provided users the ability to connect with Pages, Apps, and Read more...]]> According to a new report, Facebook will launch Frictionless Sharing tomorrow, January 18, 2012. Frictionless Sharing enables users to share behavior on Facebook without having to provide authorization for every action. Examples of auto-shared actions include “John Doe is listening to Move Along by The All-American Rejects on Spotify” or “Jane Doe is reading Popular Websites to Go Dark Over SOPA Controversy on Yahoo! News.”

The system has been in a beta testing phase since the public announcement at Facebook’s f8 Conference on September 9, 2011. Provided to an initial group of partners, results have already exceeded most expectations. Spotify, an initial partner, has grown its paid user base to over 2.5 million in a few short months. Yahoo reported in December that 1 million articles are auto-shared daily, leading to 500,000 daily referrals.

What is the Open Graph and how does Frictionless Sharing work?

The central mechanism of Frictionless Sharing is Facebook’s Open Graph. In 2010, Facebook launched the Open Graph. The Open Graph enabled Facebook users to move beyond mapping their relationships and opened the system up to connections with nearly anything imaginable. They did this by integrating the Like button, which provided users the ability to connect with Pages, Apps, and websites by clicking a single button.

Now, Facebook is taking the next step. In the words of Mark Zuckerberg at the 2011 f8 Conference, “We’re going to make it so you can connect to anything you want, in any way you want it. So now, you don’t have to Like a book, you can just read a book. Which is good, because you’ve probably read ten times more books than you’d want to Like on Facebook anyway.”

The Like button added the noun to your map of connections: [user] likes [any noun].

Frictionless Sharing will add the verb to your map of connections: [user] [any verb] [any noun].

How will this impact businesses, organizations, and media outlets?

Frictionless Sharing will help users express themselves in new ways. If you have something that you think users will want to share, but it isn’t prominent enough to showcase in the user’s newsfeed, Frictionless Sharing will place it in the Ticker. Examples of sharable experiences include online shopping, consumption of media (text, videos, photos), and activity attained via mobile apps.

Produce a film? Create a user experience that helps customers share your movie without having to manually post that content themselves. Online merchant? Create a user experience that helps customers share what products they’re viewing – think window shopping online! Market a supermarket chain? Create a user experience that helps customers share their favorite recipes using your products!

Frictionless Sharing is the next level of virality. Not every business creates viral experiences, but for those that do, Frictionless Sharing provides fantastic opportunities to get word out among social networks like never before.

For those of us that have a serious passion for photography, and even for those of us that don’t, Instagram is a fast, fun, and social way to share your life with friends through the photos you take and share.

Fast, being that the application is available as a free download in the iTunes store on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above. Also, unlike Facebook, where sometimes it takes a while to upload your photos; the people at Instagram have optimized the experience to always be fast and efficient.

Instagram is fun because of the ability to take photos and apply one of seventeen different custom filters that transform the colors, mood, border, and tonality of your photos; transforming even the common person’s pictures into professional-looking snapshots..

And it’s social because Instagram is programmed to share your photos on multiple platforms; take a picture once, and have it shared (instantly) on all your social networks. Currently, you can share your pictures on Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous and Twitter. Additionally, if you specify a location with your photo, you can opt to have your photo added to your check-in on Foursquare. Other users can “Like” and comment on photos to boost popularity, and Read more...]]> What is Instagram?

For those of us that have a serious passion for photography, and even for those of us that don’t, Instagram is a fast, fun, and social way to share your life with friends through the photos you take and share.

Fast, being that the application is available as a free download in the iTunes store on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.2 or above. Also, unlike Facebook, where sometimes it takes a while to upload your photos; the people at Instagram have optimized the experience to always be fast and efficient.

Instagram is fun because of the ability to take photos and apply one of seventeen different custom filters that transform the colors, mood, border, and tonality of your photos; transforming even the common person’s pictures into professional-looking snapshots..

And it’s social because Instagram is programmed to share your photos on multiple platforms; take a picture once, and have it shared (instantly) on all your social networks. Currently, you can share your pictures on Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous and Twitter. Additionally, if you specify a location with your photo, you can opt to have your photo added to your check-in on Foursquare. Other users can “Like” and comment on photos to boost popularity, and find more users to follow by browsing keywords and what’s popular.

So who’s using Instagram?

In 2011, the Instagram community grew from 1 million to over 15 million members posting over 400 million images from around the world, with an average of 60 photos uploaded every second! It is certainly enjoying a steadily increasing growth rate in terms of users, even compared to Facebook and Twitter as one of the largest social networks. And with recent talk of an Android version, the people at Instagram are excited to see their current membership nearly double. It was also just announced that Instagram was selected by Apple as the App Store Rewind 2011 iPhone App of the Year! Instagram users are share-hungry, and love looking through the popular photos section of the application, as well as checking in on what the people they follow have to share. It’s also obvious they enjoy seeing what their favorite celebrities are uploading; Justin Bieber alone has 526,033 followers!

The people at Instagram have seen a wide array of people and services give it a shot. From bands and sports teams, to fashion photographers and designers, to the most recent additions: news media and politicians. President Obama joined the Instagram community on January 3^rd as @barackobama. The Obama 2012 staff is asking followers and supporters to share their photos from the campaign trail with the tag #obama2012. Likewise, news organizations such as NBC News, ABC World News, NPR, and the Washington Post have been uploading behind-the-scenes photos at debates and town hall meetings across the country.

This isn’t exactly a new thing, however. Instagram began welcoming brands on the service when it introduced its hashtags feature back in January of last year. Brands such as Red Bull, Brisk Ice Tea, Starbucks, Nike, Tiffany & Co., General Electric, Ben & Jerry’s, and the Boston Celtics (just to name a few) have all discovered how Instagram offers them another quick, simple way to generate and share visual content with existing fans as well as attract new ones, thanks to its search and browse functions. Companies are currently sharing pictures of their products and the messages of their brand to a community that is substantially growing every day. And of course, with this increased membership base also comes talk of advertising becoming available to the free application.

Is Instagram right for your business?

It’s hard to say, but most marketers agree that there is no single approach for brands to take on Instagram; you just can’t lose sight of the big picture, so to speak. Sharing a passion for photography and stunning images is what Instagram was created for. It has also been noted that soliciting feedback from the beginning is a great way to gauge what your followers like and don’t like. And as with any other social media outlet, you must interact with users; meaning you can’t just push your own content, but you must also comment and “Like” other users’ photos as well.

So download Instagram and get started sharing, and don’t forget to have fun!