The End of @Instagram As We Know It?
I’m generally not one to shout “the sky is falling!” when free social media sites make moves toward monetization.
They’re free, after all, and at some point, they need to make some money. How they choose to make money is up to them. And if we don’t like it, we can go elsewhere.
With Instagram, though, it always seemed a bit different. Especially when Facebook shelled out gazillions for the app – that would seem to be the best monetization strategy, no?
And, it should be noted, Chirpify’s integration with Instagram isn’t a way for Instagram to make money, but rather a way to allow Instagrammers to buy and sell products beyond just their images (through services such as Instacanvas).
Sorry, let me back up. Chirpify is a web commerce platform. With the addition of the hashtag #InstaSale, Instagrammers will be able to buy and sell through the app without having to pull out their credit card or type in all sorts of security information. (It might be noted that you’ll want to be SUPER-careful who you let use your Instagram account if you have a Chirpify account.)
They’ve done something similar on Twitter, and just hooked into the Instagram API.
Speaking with some friends this morning, I was asked why this would be a bad thing. Those with Instagram accounts would still have to have quality images that would make people want to follow them and engage with them if they wanted to sell to them. Spammers wouldn’t be able to just drop in images to their nonexistent followers and peddle their wares, after all.
Except they would. There are many and varied hashtag communities on Instagram. Here in New York, probably the biggest and most vibrant is #igersnyc. Photos such as mine, in this post, taken in New York City, are hashtagged with #igersnyc and a huge community of photographers – professional and amateur – peruse them daily.
The community holds meetups and photography shows and is a true community that’s sprung up around the hashtag. While many professional photographers may have known one another before the advent of Instagram and gained large followings there, there also are many amateur photographers who’ve proved to have an excellent eye and find themselves to be active and popular members of the Instagram NYC community, founded by photographer Brian DiFeo (full disclosure – I moderated a panel that included him at Columbia University’s last Social Media Weekend).
While I don’t think anyone would be able to successfully hijack such a large and vibrant community as #igersnyc – it’s simply too large and spammers would be quickly reported and dealt with, I can see spamming of certain hashtags by people wanting to peddle their wares and not caring about the communities. Much like spammers attack trending topics on Twitter, could this happen on Instagram? Maybe Chirpify has things they do to prevent that from happening. I would hope so. But I do see problems for the lovely communities that have arisen on Instagram.
Maybe I’m being reactionary. Maybe I just have a problem with bringing commerce into Instagram when I haven’t with other platforms because I use it more personally. Maybe this was just my breaking point – does absolutely everything have to be about making money? Especially when it’s not the platform that’s going to be making money off this? Perhaps I’d have less of a problem with this if it were Instagram instituting this as opposed to a third party.
Many other photo apps have sprung up and do what Instagram does, even more attractively – tadaa, EyeEm, TinyPost – if Instagram becomes too commercial, could people begin moving to those platforms?
Or, just maybe, the sky won’t fall and everything will be fine.
They’re free, after all, and at some point, they need to make some money. How they choose to make money is up to them. And if we don’t like it, we can go elsewhere.
With Instagram, though, it always seemed a bit different. Especially when Facebook shelled out gazillions for the app – that would seem to be the best monetization strategy, no?
And, it should be noted, Chirpify’s integration with Instagram isn’t a way for Instagram to make money, but rather a way to allow Instagrammers to buy and sell products beyond just their images (through services such as Instacanvas).
Sorry, let me back up. Chirpify is a web commerce platform. With the addition of the hashtag #InstaSale, Instagrammers will be able to buy and sell through the app without having to pull out their credit card or type in all sorts of security information. (It might be noted that you’ll want to be SUPER-careful who you let use your Instagram account if you have a Chirpify account.)
They’ve done something similar on Twitter, and just hooked into the Instagram API.
Speaking with some friends this morning, I was asked why this would be a bad thing. Those with Instagram accounts would still have to have quality images that would make people want to follow them and engage with them if they wanted to sell to them. Spammers wouldn’t be able to just drop in images to their nonexistent followers and peddle their wares, after all.
Except they would. There are many and varied hashtag communities on Instagram. Here in New York, probably the biggest and most vibrant is #igersnyc. Photos such as mine, in this post, taken in New York City, are hashtagged with #igersnyc and a huge community of photographers – professional and amateur – peruse them daily.
The community holds meetups and photography shows and is a true community that’s sprung up around the hashtag. While many professional photographers may have known one another before the advent of Instagram and gained large followings there, there also are many amateur photographers who’ve proved to have an excellent eye and find themselves to be active and popular members of the Instagram NYC community, founded by photographer Brian DiFeo (full disclosure – I moderated a panel that included him at Columbia University’s last Social Media Weekend).
While I don’t think anyone would be able to successfully hijack such a large and vibrant community as #igersnyc – it’s simply too large and spammers would be quickly reported and dealt with, I can see spamming of certain hashtags by people wanting to peddle their wares and not caring about the communities. Much like spammers attack trending topics on Twitter, could this happen on Instagram? Maybe Chirpify has things they do to prevent that from happening. I would hope so. But I do see problems for the lovely communities that have arisen on Instagram.
Maybe I’m being reactionary. Maybe I just have a problem with bringing commerce into Instagram when I haven’t with other platforms because I use it more personally. Maybe this was just my breaking point – does absolutely everything have to be about making money? Especially when it’s not the platform that’s going to be making money off this? Perhaps I’d have less of a problem with this if it were Instagram instituting this as opposed to a third party.
Many other photo apps have sprung up and do what Instagram does, even more attractively – tadaa, EyeEm, TinyPost – if Instagram becomes too commercial, could people begin moving to those platforms?
Or, just maybe, the sky won’t fall and everything will be fine.
