Tag Archives: Instagram

Instagram Spam

Posted on by
27

I still choose Instagram as my favorite social media service. With over 2,000 pictures taken and counting on my account, I will not be slowing down anytime soon (Follow me…@BrentReser). Even though I am loyal to Instagram and routinely sing its praises, there is something about the service that takes some of the fun out of it: SPAM.

I try to keep the selfies to a minimum.

I try to keep the selfies to a minimum.

I know, I know, I know, all social media outlets are prone to spam. What service has not fallen victim to annoying garbage? Facebook has all the silly app requests and wall posts, Twitter has fake accounts, and MySpace became a deserted wasteland overran by spam. But you know what? Besides MySpace, the other two social media services successfully combated spam as the networks evolved. With Facebook I can simply turn on a switch that will prevent users from posting mafia, angry birds, and entourage gibberish on my wall. I can block certain applications from even bothering me with a notification. With Twitter, no longer do I get e-mail notifications telling me that some bot has followed me. No longer do I get automated replies to my tweets. Twitter cleaned up and has policed its service effectively. Bravo.

Too bad for Instagram…instead of starting out with problems and fixing them over time like FB and Twitter, the service started out pretty clean but is now getting taken advantage of by spammers. My frustration stems from the fact that there are just so many ways to get spammed on Instagram. Many of these ways ruin pictures, distort “like” counts, pollute the picture database, and trick gullible people. Let me run down the different ways that spam manifests itself on Instagram.

Spam Followers/Spam Likes: Nothing sucks more than opening up Instagram and getting notified that you have eight new likes and three new followers only to see that the notifications are only popping up because accounts such as @Shoutouts_123321_ and @_get_new_ipad_3_6 are following you and liking your pictures. How are these accounts allowed to exist? Everyone knows that these profiles are not going to get anyone shout outs or anyone an iPad just like the @get5550likes_vvf account is not going to get anyone 5,550 likes. Besides being completely useless and impersonal, these accounts also contribute to an inflated “like” count. Call me weird but I do take pride in pictures that I post that produce lots of “likes”. However, all sense of accomplishment is gone when spam accounts make up half the of them. These garbage accounts don’t just waste space, they provide skewed data to users.

 

It is depressing to have so many great followers only to have it ruined by a spam account.

It is depressing to have so many great followers only to have it ruined by a spam account.

 

Curse of the Hash Tag: Whereas all users are prone to the above general spam accounts that follow and “like” everyone, those of us who enjoy hash tags must put up with a different wave of spammers…those accounts that automatically “like” specific pictures marked with a hash tag. Now I love cats and I love Instagraming pictures of my own cat but I HATE getting “likes” from @mjthecat, @instaabycat,@raph_the_cat, and @tuxedokitty01 the SECOND that I post a picture of her. Besides once again inflating numbers, these accounts make me look like I have some type of sick cat fetish. I find it unnerving that Instagram has not implemented a policy or software that disallows spam accounts from automatically liking pictures based on keywords. Just because I like football does not mean that each time I hash tag #football in an Instagram picture that it has to get “liked” by counterfeit football accounts.

I love cats, but this spam account is much too corny for me.

I love cats, but this spam account is much too corny for me.

Automated Comments: Out of the four spam tactics on Instagram that I am speaking out against tonight, this one irritates me the most. In fact, it doesn’t just irritate me, it makes me mad. It is one thing if a fake account is going to “like” my picture and get its name denoted under the image but it is a whole different thing when a trash account comments for everyone to see. I detest messages that go like this…”Hey want 2 make some $$? Respond with your name and address to be eligible”…..or….”Follow us right now to gain 1,500 followers guaranteed.” I want nothing more than my photos to spark conversation between my friendly followers. It makes Instagram fun and engaging. But when a spam account puts some baloney credit card or money related automated message under the picture, it kills discussion. Worse though, it just violates my account and I hate it. I never remember Facebook having problems with spam appearing under photos. Why Instagram? What will always get me to lash out, however, is when a legitimate account leaves an automated spam message under one of my pictures. Right away I will call the user out. A few times the user has responded to me with curse words but more often than not the user will apologize and admit that he/she had their account hacked. If the user responds to me with obscenities I will report that account, if the user is sympathetic and admits to getting hacked I take it as a self-awareness lesson. Regardless, Instagram needs to do something to control this.

Eyesore Pictures: Finally, Instagram needs to clean up the pictures in its database that really aren’t pictures at all. The service has a problem with spam photos that perpetrate the same types of schemes that spam accounts plague on our own legitimate photos. For example, I love to search hash tags on Instagram. Every now and then I will enter #Vegas. Mixed in with all the beautiful pictures of the Vegas strip and the gorgeous pools, you will find several images that consist of terrible graphics and mangled words. Many times the photos will nudge the users to do something to **surprise surprise**gain more followers or to apply for cash. These spam pictures will use many of the most popular searched hash tags to aid people in finding them. It is a joke. It is also an eyesore and a complete scam.

I hate seeing this garbage when I search hash tags.

I hate seeing this garbage when I search hash tags.

————————-
Instagram is an awesome service with still a lot of potential. However, measures need to be taken to address this growing spam problem. With its multi-billion dollar deal with Facebook, I am hoping that the great minds at Mark Zuckerberg’s company can create something to lessen the impact of the junk train that is making the constant rounds at Instagram. With any business or service the goal is to improve, not digress. While still on the upside, I hope Instagram cleans up this problem before it gets really out of control. What a shame it would be to become the next MySpace. Don’t Blink.

Life’s Little Instructions

Posted on by
4

One thing I am not is a quotes guy. As I have explained extensively, I find quotes both overused and corny. I am not one to recite them, write them down, or share them over social media. However, I do have one exception when it comes to quotes. For seven years, I have had a desk page-a-day calendar based on the famous “Life’s Little Instructions”.

Before I dive into story time, let me educate those out there who are not familiar with “Life’s Little Instructions”. Basically, the concept of “Life’s Little Instructions” is to educate a person in one or two sentences about the lighter aspects of life. Some of the instructions are helpful, some are funny, some are witty, and some are just downright stupid. To illustrate what these instructions are like, check out the entries from the past five days: Politeness is called for even when you dislike someone (3-6) / Don’t go looking for trouble; it will soon find you (3-5) / Give people a second chance, never a third (3-4) / Laugh more. Frown less (3-2 and 3-3) / Don’t finish other people’s sentences (3-1) . Get the idea? Okay, let’s move on.

This is an example of what a daily instruction looks like.

This is an example of what a daily instruction looks like.

Every year for Christmas for as long as I can remember, my mom would always buy the three of us kids a page-a-day calendar. For me, themes ranged from this day in sports to bible verses to Jeopardy trivia. But that one Christmas seven years ago my mom decided to try something a little different and got me the “Life’s Little Instructions” calendar. As a freshman in college, the little bits of advice helped to keep me in line while also giving me a laugh. Each morning, like never before with my previous calendars, I looked forward to ripping the previous day off to see what the new instruction on the new day said. I enjoyed these instructions so much that as the next Christmas came around, I asked my mom to get me the same themed calendar.

The evolving then started to begin. When I got my second “Life’s Little Instructions” calendar six years ago, I decided that I wanted to share the daily wisdom. Because texting had just started to pick up steam, I used that avenue to spread the advice. Because she bought me the calendar, because I knew she would appreciate the little sayings, and because it was a great way to communicate with her on a daily basis, I started to text my mom the daily “Life’s Little Instructions” tidbit each morning. Although it started out a little rough namely because my mom did not truly understand text messaging and because the texts arrived at 4:30 a.m. for her (during my college years I would get up to work out at 5:30 a.m. and in Montana we are one hour ahead of Washington State), she quickly started to enjoy them. Not only were the instructions good, but it also let her know that her son was okay and up and ready for the day. Presently, my mom is still the first one to get my “Life’s Little Instructions” piece of advice each morning.

It is me with my very special calendar!

It is me with my very special calendar!

Seven years ago I started to get the “LLI” calendar, six years ago I started texting them to my mom, and then five years ago another development occurred…I got a Twitter account! Even with my disdain for sharing quotes on social media, I went ahead and started tweeting out the little instructions each day. I did this because the quotes are really not quotes in the first place…they are instructions. I simply just put quotation marks around the advice to let my followers know they are not my own words. Secondly, I wanted to do something that kind of gave my Twitter account its own special twist. Just like how I sign off each night with “Don’t Blink”, sharing the daily “LLI” gave my account more personality. Thirdly, I just wanted to tweet them because many of them are actually useful while others provide a good laugh. So, it just seemed right to start that little tradition and five years later it is still going strong.

The sharing of my page-a-day calendar has branched off once more since Twitter. Fifteen months ago I got an Instagram account. Knowing I needed to do something to make me constantly update my account, I decided to take a picture of my calendar each day. After I text my mom the daily advice and after I tweet it out, I Instagram it. I take a picture of the specific date, apply the “rise” filter to it, caption it with “Life’s Little Instruction for (month, day)”, and then upload it. I never realized how many people would actually enjoy the Instagram version of “Life’s Little Instructions”.

While my mom responds to about 30% of the “LLI” texts I send her and while I will occasionally get a reply or a retweet when I tweet out the instruction, nothing compares to the response I get from sharing it on Instagram. In particular, nothing compares to the response I get from females about them.

Each day on Instagram I can always count on several “likes” and at least a couple comments on the advice for that particular date (mostly all from women). I have had girls text me and ask “Where do you get those pictures of advice from? They are so cute. Do you know where I can get my own?” Today a friend of mine messaged me and she asked if I could picture message the advice I shared on Instagram earlier this morning. About a few times each week, someone will come up to me and say that they look forward to checking Instagram each morning to see what the instruction will say for that day. If it is a weekend and somehow I forget to upload the day’s instruction right away, people will check in with me to make sure I am okay…and then tell me to get it up ASAP.

Where my calendar sits in my room.

Where my calendar sits in my room.

So what does it say about me that I like something just as much as a bunch of females? Well, I rather not think about that. Instead, I just find it cool that I have started a little tradition that a lot of people enjoy and even depend on. A calendar that my mom purchases for me each year for about $10 yields a much higher return on investment than I could ever calculate. Thank you for sharing with me “Life’s Little Instructions” each morning. Keep the reaction coming! Don’t Blink.

Google Yourself!

Posted on by
Reply

A couple months ago, I blasted the social media community for dramatically overreacting to the new Instagram privacy policy. As I am sure most of you remember, the immensely popular photo sharing service introduced a crafty new policy that stated users who sign up with the service automatically give ownership of the photos they put on the application to Instagram. Delving further into the policy, it stated that Instagram had full liberty to sell pictures to third parties for “promotional purposes”.

After this privacy policy went live, you would have thought the world was coming to an end the way people reacted. The whining and crying about the policy reached ridiculously high rates. Online petitions circulated like wild fire. Talk of boycotts and lawsuits gained steam. People with too much time on their hands demanded answers from the big wigs at Instagram.

I pretty much just sat back and laughed…and then I wrote a blog post about the stupidity of it all. I basically said that for anyone to be so worried (and arrogant) to think that their Instagram photos would be chosen out of all the billions of photos that are in the app’s database to be featured in some type of marketing campaign were beyond delusional.

Fast forward two months later to the present time and I still feel many of the people who let some social media privacy policy ruin their whole day acted out in the most idiotic way possible. However, after I learned about a certain event involving one of my friends, I did come around just a little bit to why they were freaking out so bad.

My friend was in the library today and in the middle of everything she had a couple minutes of downtime. Like any smart, motivated young person does occasionally, she Googled herself. (Hate to shift into my lecturing tone real fast but it is important to Google yourself every two to three weeks. Find out where your name pops up, see what people are saying about you, make sure no red flags or inaccurate information comes up). So she types in her name and one of her high school senior pictures comes up. Although it is not on a local website…it is in Toronto. But this gets even better (or worse depending on how you look at it), her image is being used in context with an educational subject. But not an educational subject like photosynthesis or hibernation. Can you guess what subject it is? BIRTH CONTROL!

Featured on the website www.teenhealthsource.com , my friend’s image was placed prominently at the very top of one of the pages of the site titled “Birth Control: Finding The Best Fit”. Now all kidding aside, it is not like birth control is that terrible of a subject but to unknowingly have your picture placed right in the middle of a page of a foreign website that is discussing a topic some might find awkward is a little unsettling. I mean what if she steadfastly opposes any type of birth control? To see your image associated with the topic would be very upsetting. I know that if my image ever appeared next to something that I strongly disagreed with or detested I would feel very uncomfortable and angry. For just a short moment, I kind of felt the uneasiness that many of the Instagram privacy policy protesters felt.

Because my friend is one of the coolest cats you will meet, she did not flip out over her library session discovery. In fact, she even told me this had happened before. One time her mom went to the doctor and flipped through a magazine issue of WebMD and saw a photo of her daughter in one of the ads. Once again, it was one of her senior portraits. My friend told me that she believes she remembers signing a waiver with the photographer that gave him the rights to the photos along with the permission to sell them at his discretion. Obviously the photographer knew he would make more money off of my friend than just the money she was giving him because she is a very attractive girl but I do question the ethics of a photographer selling the images of his clients, especially the younger ones. But as I said before, my friend does not care so it is not my battle to get into.

So the purpose of this post is for me to first concede that maybe just a little bit I can see now why so many people went cuckoo with Instagram’s privacy policy. Although I still hold to my guns that 99.9% of Instagram users will never see their photos used by a third party, I can see why some might worry if what happened to my friend happened to them. Secondly, make sure to Google yourself! Even if you don’t mind at all about what is out on the web about you, at least you have an idea. Remember, you can follow me on Instagram at @BrentReser. Don’t Blink.

Overreaction to Instagram Privacy Policy

Posted on by
1

From what I observed out of people throughout the day, I could have sworn that December 18 marked the end of the world as opposed to December 21. In my time following and working with social media, I had never such an unjustified joint freaking out as I saw on Tuesday. Facebook feeds and Twitter streams filled up with needless paranoia and anger as people reacted to Instagram’s revised privacy policy.

At the heart of the privacy change, the part that is getting so many people outraged, is Instragram’s position that the company has the right to use images uploaded to the service for its own purposes such as selling them to other companies so that they can do with them as they see fit. In fact, the exact language on the policy goes like this: “To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”

First off, kudos to Instagram for pretty much getting right to the point and telling its user community the liberties they are taking. That sentence is pretty much cut and dry, yes, Instagram is reserving the right to sell any image they want to third parties. The company didn’t hide behind legal jargon and ambiguity, something that I appreciate.

Apparently though, most everyone else didn’t appreciate the frankness. Instead, they took the statement as saying that “ALL THE PHOTOS YOU POST TO INSTAGRAM WILL NOW BE SOLD TO SHADY, RACIST, CAREER ENDING COMPANIES AND POSTED ON LARGE BILLBOARDS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.”

What an overreaction.

Over 5 million pictures are uploaded to Instagram each day. That means roughly 35 million pictures are posted per week. Even though Instagram probably wouldn’t sell photos this way, for hypothetical purposes, let’s say that Instagram has a draft each week where companies can purchase images to use in their marketing campaigns. Let’s say on the draft day that a lot of companies participate and a staggering 35,000 images are sold. Although it is ridiculous to think that on a weekly basis 35,000 unprofessional iPhone snap shots would be bought for use in a well planned out, high profile advertising campaign, let’s just go along with it. This would mean that out of all the photos taken on Instagram that week, .1% of them would get purchased.

If you are like me and don’t classify as a celebrity, don’t have over a million followers, or don’t have super model looks, you don’t ever have to worry about the revisions to the Instagram policy impacting you. No company is going to purchase the photo of your macaroni and cheese dinner, nor your shot you took of yourself after you got ready for the day, nor your InstaFrame of your vacation, nor your Throwback Thursday of you and your date your sophomore year at Homecoming. You know how you always hear of those “You have a better chance of so and so happening than you do of winning the lottery” scenarios? You can substitute in having one of your Instagram pictures bought by an advertiser. It is just not going to happen.

But maybe you are one of those people who just feel the principle of abiding to such a policy is degrading and an inherent invasion of privacy. Okay, I can see where you are coming from but let’s get real here, we share information on a daily basis over the internet and other social media services that is much more intrusive and invading than what Instagram is proposing to do. What we do on Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat, e-mail, and text messaging is much more vulnerable for exploitation, manipulation, and profiting than an Instagram image is. If you are so concerned and terrified by what Instagram can potentially do with the new privacy policy in place, I assume you don’t touch any other social services.

Talking hypothetically again, let’s say you do beat all odds and get struck by lightning four different times in your life and manage to have one of your Instagram images sold to an advertiser. What is possibly the worst that can happen? Instead of negative ramifications, you will probably enjoy notoriety and maybe even a little profit yourself. Please listen to me, Instagram will not deal with shady companies looking to buy their images. Rather, they will be dealing with top of the line, prestigious organizations willing to pay top dollar for these photos. My guess would be that your image would be paired with a company that is well-known and well-respected. Almost instantaneously, you could garner fame and recognition (if the photo had your personal image in it) or just the ego-booster that a national company deemed your shot (if it is of a landscape, object, etc) as advertising worthy.

Again, I caution you not to overact. BUT, if you do overact, please don’t totally jump off the deep end and make the bone headed mistake of deleting your Instagram account. As I have written about before, I find nothing more silly or damaging than when someone decides to get rid of their social media accounts. And to get rid of your Instagram account over the latest policy change is perhaps one of the dumbest reasons I have ever heard of for doing so.

Look, Instagram is really feeling the heat for this policy revision, even though I don’t think they should be. Most likely they will be revising it again and taking out some of the strong language that has turned off so many users. But whether they do or not, realize that the chance that this new policy impacts any of us is slim to none. Let’s not get carried away on a silly issue like this when there are so many more worthy causes in this world right now that we can devote our time to. Don’t Blink.

15,000/1,500 Club

Posted on by
Reply

 

This morning I hit a huge milestone for myself when I simultaneously sent out my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram picture.

This morning I pulled off my biggest social media milestone to date as I managed to hit the 15,000 Tweet mark and the 1,500 Instagram mark at the exact same time. It was truly a day of celebration for me as I managed to coincide these two accomplishments with one tap of the “share” button on my phone, putting a successful end to a personal campaign that I started to eye last week.

At around this time one week ago, I became aware that I was approaching my 15,000th Tweet and my 1,500th Instagram. Upon this realization I immediately thought it would be pretty cool to hit both of these marks at the same time. However, a week ago I was at around 14,800 tweets and 1,425 Instagram pictures, thus I was 200 and 75 posts away respectively from the big milestones. It was at this point where I decided that I would just continue to post as usual to both Twitter and Instagram, knowing that by going at my regular pace I would naturally come upon both marks at around the same time.

My strategy roughly worked. On Monday of this week, I found myself about 20 Tweets out from 15,000 and 25 Instagram pictures out from 1,500. Well, if you know me, even though I Instagram like it is going out of style, I am more known for my prolific Tweeting. Also, Tweeting in general is just something that is much easier to do than posting pictures to Instagram. For most people who utilize both social media services, one Instagram picture is equivalent to about four Tweets. For me, the ratio is a little lower, probably one Instagram picture to every three Tweets. Even at that ratio, I knew I needed to slam on the brakes when it came to Tweeting and amp up my Instagramming if I was going to hit both milestones at the same time.

Yesterday came and I found myself 10 tweets away from 15,000 and 19 Instagram pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time where I really needed to buckle down and force myself to tilt the scale towards Instagramming more. But I couldn’t control myself…I tweeted a few times when I didn’t really need to and then mindlessly replied to my followers via twitter as well. When I got to my 11 a.m. meeting I realized I was three tweets from 15,000 but 15 pictures away from 1,500. Now was the time more than ever to get serious.

I put myself on a “Tweeting Freeze.” I mapped it out and made a plan. I told myself that I would only tweet once that night to promote my blog post, once the next morning (today) to send out my daily “Life’s Little Instruction,” and then finally of course my dual Twitter/Instagram post that would commemorate the benchmarks. So obviously I had the Twitter half of my plan but what about the Instagram half? Well, that part was very simple…post like crazy!

I get annoyed when people Instagram continuously in a short amount of time, filling up the feed with several of their own pictures in a row. However, when it came to Tuesday and today, I became a hypocrite. I started posting the most insignificant content possible. Oh, is that a milk truck? Let’s Instagram it! Should I take a second picture of our office’s blown up dinosaurs? Definitely. Go take a picture of my boss’ mini Christmas tree? You bet! How about snapping a picture of my key chain? Trashy, but I better do it anyway! It went on and on like this until at about 10 a.m. this morning I had caught up and was finally ready to send out my ground breaking post. I was at 14,999 Tweets and 1,499 Instagrams.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do to commemorate the milestone visual wise. I have always laughed at the Wilt Chamberlin photo of him marking his 100 point game by simply holding up a piece of paper with a hand written “100” sloppily depicted on it. Although extremely tacky for such an amazing feat, the picture has lived on in history. In a tribute to Will, I wanted to go for the same thing. On a piece of printing paper I jotted down “15,000 TWEETS” and “1,500 INSTAGRAMS”. Off to the side in small letters I wrote “Don’t Blink”. My co-worker Jerek snapped the picture for me and then I drafted the text to go with it: Thank you for your support! This is my 15,000th Tweet and 1,500th Instagram. Don’t Blink. I then sent it out to the world via my two favorite social media outlets, successfully completing my 15,000/1,500 campaign.

I apologize to everyone who follows me on Instagram. I cluttered up your feed simply for the pursuit of my own personal milestone. Rest assured that I will go back to posting at a more normal rate. As I said in my post this morning, thank you all so much for following me through social media. It has and will continue to be a fun ride. Don’t Blink.

Instagram #HashTags

Posted on by
2

Hard to believe, but there is now something that I love even more than Twitter hash tags. After I sang my praises about them and even devoted a whole blog post to the usage of hash tags on Twitter, I have found something that I love even more: Instagram hash tags!

I admit it, I am head over heels for Instagram hash tags. I could (and actually have) spend hours jumping from one hash tag to the other on Instagram. But let’s back up for a second…

If you are not familiar with Instagram or have never used the service before, you need to get it. Since last December it has been my favorite iPhone app and I really don’t see it changing for me anytime soon. Over the past nine months I have posted 1,100 photos on the service, I seriously can’t get enough of it (search me @BrentReser). It is the Twitter of pictures, a way to express yourself in rich detail that 140 characters could never touch. Instagram is so amazing and revolutionary that Facebook bought it for $1 billion dollars. That is saying something. I could go on and on about how much I just love the whole concept and idea behind Instagram but I have actually already written a post on that subject too. Instead, I want to talk more about a specific feature of the app, hash tags.

Just like Twitter, you can use hash tags each time you post. They follow the same basic principle for both services…namely to put a subject or theme to the tweet or picture. So obviously if you took a picture of a cat, you would use the hash tag of #cat. This is at the very basic roots of hash tagging on Instagram. Just like Twitter, many people will abuse the hell out of hash tags and post twenty to thirty different ones per picture. Keep in mind, there is no character limit for Instagram captions so people can take the abuse up several notches. One girl I know can take a simple picture of herself and come up with twenty-five different hash tags to accompany it! Of course, using a great deal of hash tags is a great way to gain followers as the more HT’s you have, the greater the chance is that someone will find you.

But enough about the excessive use of hash tags, I want to talk more about the beauty of them, more about why I can spend so much time searching them. Instagram has over 50 million users. With this very large user base, millions and millions of pictures are posted to the service each day. When you have a picture pool this gigantic, you are going to have pretty much every single subject, activity, hobby, and concept covered. Softball fan? Search #softball and browse the ridiculous amounts of softball pictures that come up. Like koalas? Type in #koalas and prepare yourself to see pictures of koalas in all the zoos across the nation. Want to go to school at Notre Dame? Get an idea for campus life by searching #NotreDame.

The appeal of doing an Instagram hash tag search is that you will find real, personal, and creative pictures. You aren’t doing a Google images search where you will find a bunch of boring, commercialized photos of whatever subject you typed in. Instead, you will get pictures from around the world taken at the front lines by people just like yourself who used the exact same device as yourself to take the picture. Better yet? You can interact with the people who took the pictures. I say it freely, I have no problem asking a question or making a comment on someone’s picture that I find fascinating. I love the dialogue that ensues and the social networking that occurs. It is also a great way to gain followers and learn more about the world.

But what do I love to do the most when I search Instagram hash tags? Look up food! I like nothing more than to type in a certain food and see the different versions, creations, and presentations that are captured. Last week I searched #froyo and just went nuts looking at the crazy desserts that people have made across the nation. I thought I was a froyo pro but after searching on Instagram I learned that I am a mere amateur. With all the different filters that Instagram offers, capturing something like froyo is really art. Sorry if that sounds corny but it is true. I must have “liked” fifteen different pictures while going through the thousands that were pulled up as the result of my search. Here is another fun one…this past Sunday I ate at HuHot (a Mongolian grill). I searched #HuHot on Instagram and once again I was blown away by the plates that people had made for themselves at HuHots across the country. Even though by the time I looked at the pictures I had already finished my meal and was stuffed, I still appreciated the array of different plates that people were digging into at the time. Last night I bought popcorn at the movie theater and because I like popcorn you can probably guess….I looked up #popcorn. Again, the different variations of buttered popcorn, colored popcorn, candy popcorn, and even frosted popcorn just made me happy. Today I really went on a limb and searched #corndog….some real interesting pictures there!

We have dubbed #GoGriz as the official hash tag of Grizzly Athletics at work. I look the tag up daily to see the pictures our fans are submitting. They are so awesome and I have been able to connect with more people in the Missoula community because of it. If you are visiting a new city be sure to search the name of it. You will find great ideas on what to do and you will even get to know people who are currently tourists as well. This again provides a great opportunity to interact with people who are undergoing the same experience as you are and even offers chance to actually meet up with someone if you are daring enough. The possibilities are endless.

Instagram is building on what Twitter first created and, to use a cliché that I absolutely hate, is actually taking the concept of connecting strangers to a whole new level. Instagram is hip, it is trendy, and it is fun…but most importantly, it is useful. Start utilizing the hash tag feature and see how it really can add something to your life. Don’t Blink.