Instagram is a free photo-sharing and social media platform that was launched in 2010 on iPhone and expanded to Android in 2012. It grew exponentially faster than other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. The platform allows users to share photos, apply filters, and use hashtags to make photos more discoverable. It also integrates well with other social networks for multi-platform publishing. However, changes to Instagram's terms of service in late 2012 regarding sharing user photos with advertisers caused privacy concerns among users.

1. Instagram
Christopher Spencer
Digital Design and Development
a snapshot

2. Instagram
• A free photo-sharing and social network
• Launched in October 2010 on the iPhone platform / April sees
Android launch
• Sept 2012: 100 million users
• Facebook bought in April for
$1 billion in cash
• Supports hashtags for findability
• Piggybacks off other social
networks extensively
128 years of WaMo

3. Instagram Filters

4. Why Instagram matters?
• Exponential Growth: Growth is twice as fast
as Facebook, three times faster than Twitter
and four times faster than LinkedIn
• Plays Well With Others: Good vehicle for
multi-platform publishing. However, Twitter
war is heating up
• Capitalize on User Content: Cornell alumni
experiment – 150 tagged pieces of content –
Builds brand relationship

5. Instagram Rights
• December: Revision to terms of service pushes privacy
boundary – selling user photos to advertisers without
consent
• Outrage - Instagram: 0 and Users: 1
• Revised policy (effective Jan. 16) – “Our updated
privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as
part of Facebook by being able to share info between
the two groups. This means we can do things like fight
spam more effectively, detect system and reliability
problems more quickly, and build better features for
everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.”

6. Instagram – Instavidual (ua4student)

7. Instagram - #YOUofA tag