Social Network Advertising Tips: Could Instagram Be the Most-Used Photo App During the Olympics?

Could Instagram Be the Most-Used Photo App During the Olympics?

It is thought that the extremely popular app Instagram gains a new user every single second. The app has only been in existence for a couple of years, but it has definitely been making waves ever since. Recently acquired by Facebook for a staggering $1billion, and used by more than 40 million people (as of April 2012), could Instagram become the most popular photography app of this year's Olympic Games?

It certainly seems as though it might be: already, if you visit Twitter, you can search hashtags such as #torchrelay and #londonolympics and see a significant number of relevant Instagram photos. There is even an official Olympics' Instagram blog, which suggests that the app could well be one of the big ways to capture and share the experience of the upcoming 2012 Games.

More than a billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram so far, and every day, upwards of five million new photos are added according to an infographic on the Digital Buzz blog. That works out at 58 photos being uploaded every single second. And, when we consider just how prevalent smartphones are starting to become and the likelihood that plenty of people will be interested in sharing their experience of the Olympics, it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to realise that a lot of those people will be sharing their experiences through Instagram.

The one thing that might limit Instagram use during the sporting spectacle is the fact that ticket holders are being deterred from sharing any photos or videos they might take while watching Olympic events. Under the 'conditions for ticketholders', they are only allowed to use their photos for personal use - so that means no sharing through Instagram or other social media platforms.

However, despite these restrictions, there is nothing to stop people outside the Olympic venues sharing pictures through the app. After all, more people will be celebrating the event at home or in the pub than at the Olympic stadium; there are still plenty of opportunities for sharing. Businesses might also decide to utilise Instagram during the Olympics. To name just one example, a competition for the best Instagram picture of an Olympics party could be used by businesses to engage with their audience.

Overall, even though there are some limitations on sharing photos through Instagram during the Olympic Games, it still remains one of the most popular apps out there; the fact that it is social by nature suggests that it could well be the hottest app of the Olympic period.

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What Is Social Networking?

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Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online.

This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about cooking, golfing, gardening, developing friendships professional alliances, finding employment, business-to-business marketing and even groups sharing information about baking cookies to the Thrive Movement. The topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of our universe.

As I'm sure you're aware, there are dangers associated with social networking including data theft and viruses, which are on the rise. The most prevalent danger though often involves online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that they are not. Although danger does exist with networking online, it also exists in the real world, too. Just like you're advised when meeting strangers at clubs and bars, school, or work -- you are also advised to proceed with caution online.

Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networking communities to join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search will likely return a number of results, including MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, and Classmates.

Social network advertising is a term that is used to describe a form of Online advertising that focuses on social networking sites. One of the major benefits of advertising on a social networking site (facebook, myspace, friendster, bebo, orkut...and many others) is that advertisers can take advantage of the users demographic information and target their ads appropriately.

There are three major classifications of Social Network Advertising:

Direct Advertising that is based on your network of friends - This can be the most effective format but also causes the most controversy. An example is the Facebook beacon project.[5] Based on an action your friend has taken, you might see a message in your news feed saying 'Bob has just bought a 'RadioHead CD from MusicWorld'. This can be an extremely effective mode as often people make decisions to purchase something or do something based on their close group of friends. However, there is also a lot of controversy surrounding this as it can be considered exploiting the personal relationships you have with your friends and also raises privacy concerns.

Direct Advertising placed on your social networking site - This is a more traditional form of web advertising that is minimally effective. Just like you see banner ads on many other sites, this is a similar concept, except on a social networking site. You can see these - for example - as a brick in the top right of MySpace pages, or as a banner on the right of Facebook profiles and so on. There are two differences however - One is that these social networks can take advantage of demographic data on your profile and hence target the ad directly to you. Secondly, these types of ads can also be placed by individual developers on their application pages through ad networks. They have access to the same data and can generate income for application developers giving them further motivation to create apps and giving advertisers a more engaging way to reach out to these social networking users.

Indirect Advertising by creating 'groups' or 'pages' - This is an innovative marketing technique in which a company will create a 'page' or 'group' that users can choose to join. They will use this to build up 'subscribers' or 'fans' and use this to market a contest, a new product, or simply just to increase brand awareness. These groups can quickly grow in numbers of subscribers which can become a very effective marketing tool.

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