Growing with Instagram

5 Ways to Grow Your Exposure With Instagram

By Jim Tobin
Published August 22, 2012

Wondering if the rapidly growing Instagram photo sharing community could benefit your business?
As teens quickly migrate to Instagram, could their photo sharing addictions include your pictures?
Instagram was the smartphone photo sharing tool of choice long before its acquisition by Facebook and the release of an Android version. And it’s growing faster than ever.

What Is Instagram?

Instagram makes sharing pictures easy.

Instagram is a free application for iPhone or Android that lets people take photos, apply filters to change the look of the photos and then share them. Users can share them on Instagram while also choosing to share them to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare.

Instagram photos (from left to right) on Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and Facebook.

Like most social networks, users can accrue followers who will see their photos. The use of hashtags is encouraged as a method of photo discovery.
Instagram is unusual in that users review their photos via the app only, not online. However, several websites, including Pinstagram, Webstagram and Statigram, provide that ability.
In the last year, photo sharing has become an increasingly popular method of social sharing.
Facebook has made photos a bigger part of their experience, Pinterest has exploded in part because of their simple photo-based interface and brands are seeing increased engagement from sharing visual updates online.
This represents a great opportunity for businesses to participate in this thriving community. Like all communities, however, you need to do it right to be accepted.
Here are 5 ways to grow your presence on Instagram.

Read on...