Instagram media sharing

Instagram was launched in October 2010 by co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Simply snap a photo, then choose a filter to transform the look and feel. Pictures are shared on Instagram, and can be easily uploaded to other social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. It has been commonly referred to as “the Facebook of photography.”

Instagram in Statistics

• 100 million Monthly Active Users
• 40 million Photos Per Day
• 8500 Likes Per Second
• 1000 Comments Per Second

 

Instagram Pro's

• Fast, easy, and efficient photo-sharing. 
• Status updates, expressed visually.
• You have the option of also posting the photo onto other popular social networking sites
• It allows you to take world-class photographs without having to carry anything besides your mobile phone, which most people carry with them everywhere anyway. The convenience of not having to carry around both a digital camera and your cellular phone is definitely something that people who heavily document their lives can appreciate.

Instagram Con's

• It takes away the creativity of photography
• Many are also concerned with the policy that Instagram adheres to when it comes to the privacy of and rights of sharing the photos that are posted onto the application. 
• Unbeknownst to many, Instagram reserves the right to reproduce, reuse, and redistribute any image that users upload onto their feed. This not only creates a privacy concern, but also a financial one. This means that any photo posted onto the application may be used in advertisements and marketing campaigns both without your consent and without any sort of compensation.

I believe ANY company can successfully use Instagram for one reason or another. I will pick on Bridgeport because it's where I am almost everyday. Bridgeport could take photo's of new products, items, and employee event's to help promote the store. It is an awesome way to display new merchandise, show new specials, and engage customers in the events of the store! It is just another social media tool that any business could use to their advantage by showing fun photo's.

Social Media Privacy Policies

 

The first privacy policy I decided to check out was Instagram. Instragram was recently under fire for policy changes! On December 18, 2012, Instagram released a new policy that angered users around the world. This was because the main point of the policy announced that it has the right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification. The policy was set to take effect on January 16, just three months after Facebook completed the acquisition of Instagram. Instagram has since changed their policy and it was updated on January 19th 2013. They are still sharing your info with anyone and everyone, but your photos will not be sold out to third party's! That was a huge concern for celebrities wanting to be a part of the service. The deal was you had to delete your account and start a new one to  be safe from the photos being sold.

 The second policy fact from Instagram that surprised me was they have a childrens policy which states the following:

Instagram does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for the Service. The Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.

I wonder why its only under 13? There were many parts of the policy that were typical including:

A device identifier may deliver information to us or to a third party partner about how you browse and use the Service and may help us or others provide reports or personalized content and ads. 

Following termination or deactivation of your account, Instagram, its Affiliates, or its Service Providers may retain information (including your profile information) and User Content for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes.

Next I took a look at Apple's privacy policy and surprising to me I found the following policy:

 We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected the personal information of a child under 13 we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible. I guess that one is pretty common....

I also thought this was interesting and surprising:

In the U.S., we may ask for your Social Security number (SSN) but only in limited circumstances such as when setting up a wireless account and activating your iPhone or when determining whether to extend commercial credit.

The two typical elements of the policy are they may Apple may collect information on people you connect with on their devices and they have access to your location basically at all times.

My feelings on privacy policies are basically every company needs one. A company does not really have any way around that. A company's social media policy would really have no effect on whether I would work for them or not as long as it was ethical. I would not want to stand behind a company doing shady things beyond reason with peoples information.

LinkedIn

I have finally created my LinkedIn profile. It was important for me to just basically list what I have done in the past and my interests. I wanted to mention the type of job experience I have had as well as what type of duties I preformed at my previous jobs. It is very easy for people to see I have a lot of phone, customer service, sales, and retail experience. Even though I am navigating from some of those types of jobs, the skills I have learned are important for any position as well as everyday life. 

 My philosophy on LinkedIn is I have created it for a class and that's about it. I believe it was something I wanted to wait on, until I graduated, entered the job world, or established exactly what I want to do with myself. I would say I am a "professional" LinkedIn user. I prefer to contact with people I know or in similar industries. I hope Linked in helps me in the future when I need it, at this point I have no expectations of the site. It is new to me and I am just beginning to learn about it. Right now I will use it to connect with people I know and research the business I like and the site itself. 

I decided to check out Sam Schatz's blog on LinkedIn. Sam had a short but sweet blog that covered a few good points. His main reason for checking in on LinkedIn will be for job hunting. I think this is another aspect of the site I will use and his blog reminded me of this. He also mentioned you can follow business's you are interested in working for as well as people who may be influential on getting you into those positions. He laid out the facts and the important factor's of what LinkedIn will do for him.