I reveal the mysteries of Instagram‘s inner workings. Some nuances to privacy settings are unclear on Instagram Help, so let’s shed some light. Skip to ii. Privacy below if you know enough about account management and third party Instagram websites.
i. Instagram FAQ
1. Can I have multiple usernames?
Yes. Each must be associated with a different email address.
2. Can I toggle between my usernames on the iPhone app?
No, you have to log out and log in to switch your profile. Here are tips on using Dropbox and Fotogramme to make toggling less painful.
3. Can I see Instagram pictures online?
Yes. Some are directly uploaded to Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous etc. But if a user simply tweets a link to the IG picture, you can see it by clicking the link (or in twitter.com’s native display). However, you won’t be able to login and Like or comment. To do this:
4. Can I Like and comment Instagram pictures online while being logged into and able to manage my IG account?
Yes. For this, I like statigr.am best. There are several other third party Instagram services. This post covers the top 10, however I’ll leave out the cat-related and meaningless competition-based ones in my list.These are the other two sites with functionality closest to the Instagram iPhone app:
A. Ink361 (formerly Inkstagram) Login to this web-based version of Instagram. You can do everything you can on the iPhone app except add new pictures.
B. Insta-great Login to see Instagram photos, follow/unfollow users, or to like photos. Filter photos by dates, users, or tags. You can only view one picture in full size at a time.
To see IG photos in a stream or grid, try the web gallery Instagrid.
ii. Privacy Tips
You can block a user. This means that even if they are following you, they will not see your photos in their Instagram feed, nor will your actions (commenting, liking) show up in their News – Following feed. However, they can still see your photos in other ways: If you tweet or post a link to another social network when you share an IG photo, they can click it and see the photo.
... read more Post a comment (461)
If humanity incarnate struck a pose, its better side would be technology and marketing.
M.C. Escher- "Eye" 1946
We each have limited bandwidth for consuming content. Some people focus on current events, some on specific political issues, some on celebrity gossip, and others on the ins and outs of Facebook marketing, SEO, and celebrities like Steve Jobs, Joe Jaffe, and Chris Brogan. I hone in on the latter; on digital marketing, technology, and consumer psychology. Here’s why it’s a better area on which to focus your limited attention and free time than the general news:
1. It’s less depressing.
Innovation moves us forward. It inspires progressive thinking. It improves the quality of life. Competition propels business in the free market. Marketing tries to master this and sell it.
2. It’s pleasantly unpredictable.
Yesterday (9/14/11), theatlantic.com published How Our Predictions for the 9/11 Decade Panned Out, a follow-up to Richard Clarke’s 2004 piece for the January/February 2005 Atlantic predicting what the world would be like ten years after September 11, 2001.
The most notable predictions were:
4. GDP Plunges and National Unemployment Skyrockets
7. Dissatisfaction with Politics Gives Rise to An Influential Third Party
Richard Clarke probably based his predictions on the outcomes of comparable historical events. In business and technology, the annual trend predictions every January are often prefaced with caveats. It’s hard to peg what the future holds and the Internet is written in ink. But in politics and history, prediction becomes easier as time passes and history repeats itself. Interpersonal and global affairs are both still rooted in universal human habits and traits. We enact the most familiar archetypal story time and again. The driving forces behind war, crime, and conflict do not change; they manifest in new ways. On the other hand, technology develops on a different trajectory, more vertical in nature. It’s more fun to follow. It has the potential to surprise you. Tunnel vision upon gadgets, podcasts, and completely meta Twitter debate over viral marketing campaigns is more flattering for our camera face.
PC Mag’s July 2011 poll indicated that user dissatisfaction with Facebook is at such an all-time high that up to 50% might be willing to abandon the social network.
I read a thoughtful statement regarding this on Social Media Today by David Amerland: “Loyalty is a myth. Like banks and supermarket chains discovered in real life, the public is notoriously fickle, using whichever service gives them the most of what they want in a particular moment in time.”
Brand loyalty is more tenuous than loyalty to a social network. Granted, Facebook is a brand, but in a different way than Crest or Tiffany is. If anything, the high disapproval ratings of Facebook for its privacy policy and other flaws suggest that people use it because it has a monopoly, it’s all they know, and it’s convenient since everyone else is there. That’s a recipe for losing market share.
Force of Habit
Assuming that because Facebook has 750 million users, it will remain ubiquitous is naive. Plenty of widespread, hugely popular, go-to platforms have been abandoned en masse for the BBD (Bigger Better Deal). As Chris Brogan said on Six Pixels of Separation episode 262 when Mitch Joel asked if people would port to a new platform, “Two words: Cassette tapes…. There’s a new format in town. You kind of adapt or you find yourself saying “Wow how come nobody’s in my top 8 on Myspace?”
I don’t see Facebook going away yet, but Google+ will infiltrate Facebook’s market share over the next couple years. When Google+ incorporates businesses and brands, it will explode, as long as beta maintains such high growth.
Search
Content you post to Google+ is search-friendly. If you are promoting a brand (your personal brand most likely at this point), every Google Plus update has the potential to put helpful notches into your SEO belt. Since search is increasingly social search, status updates on a search-friendly network will be more valuable than those on Facebook.
It’s where relationships die and drama is spewed. High schoolers use it to cyber bully. It also functions as an ad platform where you can be targeted as a consumer based on minutiae of personal details you give away in your profile. It’s not the place you want your resume or job hunting efforts anywhere near.
I first heard about Facebook Branch Out on my friend Melody’s Facebook wall. Her friend Rachel had invited Melody to Branch Out. My split second valence reaction: Gross.
Odd: I typically encourage competition (heralding Google +1 for simply existing)
Reasoning: Branch Out challenging LinkedIn is like community college Division 3 athletics taking on the 1990s Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls. Here’s the Wall conversation:
These are professionals.
Rachel: Its a professional networking site (so like LinkedIn), only its on the FB interface, which obviously reaches more people – that, of course, is its advantage. It is just getting off the ground so I haven’t played around with it that much, but feel like it is likely to replace LinkedIn in this area for the reason mentioned above (also because I think it will have better functionality bc the FB ppl are better at social media..). Hope all is well!
Emily Binder: Where to begin… Facebook is not LinkedIn and never will be. (By the way, I’m not a guru.) Unless your personal brand is a page, not a profile, you are not on Facebook to represent yourself to the business world. If this is the main reason you’re on social networks, then just hang out on LinkedIn. LinkedIn reaches 100 million+ members with targeted interests. Sure, Facebook reaches more, but for professional networking and exposure, you don’t want to reach the majority of them, trust me.
Whoever runs marketing at Alamo Drafthouse cinema in Austin, TX is a CRM rockstar. This video is fantastic: Listen to a real recording of one angry customer’s voicemail left for Alamo. It’s a Twitter complaint on private steroids. (Well, it’s not private anymore.) Maybe marketers should be grateful that Twitter only allows 140 characters of a diatribe like this. (Warning: video contains some profane language, NSFW):
Alamo phone girl’s audio complaint brings to life who is really behind so many of the potentially devastating online grievances that customers haphazardly hashtag and hurl. Many online brand bashers are (unfairly) disgruntled customers reveling in their newfound bitching megaphones: social media. But if your brand can turn it around, you win: Why a Negative Review Might Not Be So Bad After All.
It’s easier than ever to find product or service reviews. But remember, now that we’re all publishers of content, some individuals suffer from an exaggerated sense of entitlement and they’re shouting with their tails between their legs. Our brains are wired to be defensive. (I.e., if you don’t read the fine print or follow the rules and then you suffer the consequences, don’t blame the brand; just avoid its unacceptable product or service in the first place.) Alamo Drafthouse spun this negative situation into a free, funny advertisement that reinforces their brand and strengthens their community.
Montreal-based clevercupcakes brand links to Montreal Science Center website with edible QR code
QR codes (Quick Response codes) are nothing new. Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave created QR codes in 1994 for vehicle part manufacturers to track equipment. QR Codes are popular in Japan and South Korea but have been slower to catch on in the West. A QR code is a matrix barcode presented by a 2D image of black or colored modules in a square pattern on white background.
Either dedicated QR barcode readers or camera phones can read the images. If you want to read a QR code with your iPhone, you need to download a third party app. I love the potential these things have, and the marketing applications are endless. So why aren’t they ubiquitous in the US yet?
Pros – QR codes:
- Hardlinking (linking to the internet from physical world objects). This is too cool. (Yet it also walks a fine line between nature and e. (Imagine a forest carved into a bird’s-eye view QR code: Thoughts?)
Kylie Minogue’s 2010 All the Lovers music video hardlinked nicely with a QR code which scans to produce the word LOVE:
- Convenience and mobility
- Ability to share a vCard (electronic business card)
You have been charged with researching the value of directing a media buy toward a specific platform such as TV, radio, print yellow pages, or Google PPC. How far should your due diligence go? In our digital information bonanza, I miss yesterday’s trip to the university library to pull out a giant binder of full survey research papers. Yes, I can find the full papers online but they are needles in shoddy research SEO haystacks.
Accountability of “research” is diminishing. What is the connection to the accompanying trend of widespread anonymity? Perhaps we’d rather not know.
Granted, survey research has never been guaranteed bias-free. But faster, efficiently indexed information at our fingertips costs us data integrity.
A new study released by AT&T claims that PYP (print yellow pages) advertising is highly relevant for marketers:
…The conclusion that print Yellow Pages are still valuable for advertisers and consumers was confirmed in another study by CRM Associates, which is a market analysis and consulting firm headquartered in Boulder, Colo. -Ken Ray, AT&T Advertising Solutions
Amidst many other studies demonstrating evidence that champions digital media spend, I needed to examine AT&T’s research methods:
... read more Post a comment (7)
