social media | Michelle J.

Three days ago, I embarked on a new plan to give up Instagram (“Instagram Fast”) for two weeks. Often, I’m glued to my phone while sitting at a restaurant or scrolling through my iPhone while walking a block behind everyone else because of this app. It’s rude, unhealthy, and limits my capacity to live in the moment.

Since Instagram’s launch date in March 2010, numerous bug fixes and upgrades to v3.1.2, integration with social networking services that include Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flicker, and Posterous, and growing device support from Apple iOS and Android, it has since seen its buyout to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and runaway success among top brands (read about the “10 Most Followed Brands on Instagram“) that use social media to engage with and market goods to its consumers.

Instagram’s success skyrocketed this past fall – as it watched Thanksgiving image uploads hit an impressive record high of over 10 million photos as well as a massive sharing of experiences during Hurricane Sandy. In fact, due to the expansive sharing of 800,000+ images in the face of calamity, Hurricane Sandy became the “most instagrammed news event ever” (click here to see about how Time’s photo journalists used the webstagram feed to uncover the event).

While I’d be lying to say that Instagram isn’t full of technical wonders – like speed/immediacy, an intuitive interface with stunning and high-quality filters, and high social engagement (likes and comments), I began to see its pitfalls.

Read my 3 tips on Instagram social etiquette:

1. Instagram is a poor replacement for friendship. Back in the day, friends communicated via snail mail, emails, phone calls that took place in the confines of bedrooms, speedy text messages, and good ol’ face-to-face quality time. Thanks to this photo-sharing application, friends are able to communicate their approval, affirmation, and likes by liking or double-tapping a photo as soon as it’s uploaded into a photo stream. However, when the flurry of likes don’t come or a photo of significance isn’t appreciated, a person falls into momentary panic. Yesterday, my friend said, “When I uploaded a pic of Marty (pet Daschund) last night, I was surprised you didn’t attack it.” I reassured her with my decision to temporarily break from Instagram and that I did indeed like Marty – to which she sighed a heavy sigh of relief.

2. The News Feed provides unwanted monitoring. Let’s admit it – the News Feed displays a wee bit more access to a person than we’d like. The News Feed displays real time stream of activity from users you follow – likes, follows, or comments left on mutual users’ photos. Inadvertently, however, it elicits unsavory surveillance or monitoring on the people you follow, whether you like it or not. On occasion, you’ll scan past provocative images, questionable follows, or just images you end up staring at – that you had no intention or desire to in the first place. As a result, the News Feed often puts a strain on interactions with friends. “She uploaded a picture just now but didn’t text back” or “I wasn’t invited to this birthday party? FOMO!” You could say it’s a fast and dirty way to get in someone’s head – without putting yourself through the trouble of face time or going on 10 more dates.

3. Constantly documenting events, food, and self portraits takes away from living life – and is obnoxiously #TMI. A few months ago, I heard a comment on the radio about Taylor Swift’s gratuitous Thanksgiving food photos uploaded last year. Since then, I always take a moment to ensure my image uploads of food are worthy to upload, unique and of high resolution. When Instagrammers upload countless snapshots of food and deem them as food porn (#foodporn), chances are, they aren’t all worthy of such a title. Recently, I was called out by my sister while waiting for my food – busy Instagramming, uploading photos, and checking my news feed every 15 minutes; since then, I realized Instagram deters you from actually living in the moment. Instead of soaking in the sun rays, seeping in the smells and tastes, or delving deeply in a conversation with friends, you find yourself busy – documenting a moment, scrutinizing its angles, selecting the perfect filter, and uploading it for display and a stroke of your ego (“ego analytics” as Scott Belsky, CEO and founder of Behance calls it in this video).

Due to this application, people can grow increasingly discontent over their own lives, dispositions, and circumstances. That’s no healthy way to live – and a misuse of a great photo-sharing application.

Bottom Line: Reality doesn’t come with filters, likes, and follows. After three days of being Instagram-free, I noticed a few welcome side effects by the end of the day: undrained battery life, more time on my hands, obliviousness to society, and joy. While sitting in traffic, I’ve been forced to choose the lesser of the two social media evils on my phone – reading articles in my Twitter news feeds. I’ve already listened to two podcasts in the past two days.

Life comes in much more beautiful hues in real time – without technologically enhancing photo filters, captions, and tongue-in-cheek hash tags. Life is better lived without a device to capture every moment, gloat about wins, or envy others about being in better scenarios.

But don’t get me wrong. The occasional photo uploads of milestones, moments of striking beauty, personal significance, and inside jokes, or the share-worthy dish at an exclusive restaurant or a unique cityscape in a distant town have the capacity to speak a trillion words. The sky, in Lo-Fi filter, is your limit.

Recently, I had the sheer luck of managing client websites that used Facebook to implement their marketing.

Stepping into the mind of on-site developer Joseph, I got to see implemented social media hubs, social plugins, newsletter/e-mail sign-ups, the “Like” functionality, and the “Share” button. After hours of debating scenarios, user experiences, and testing share buttons with my trusty, fake Facebook account (which has only one friend – my actual account), I learned how Facebook can be a premier way to effectively market your goods to a captive social audience.

Toro Toro Miami’s new Facebook page

Facebook should add social value to your website without replacing it; it increases brand awareness, builds customer loyalty and retention, and makes king social media engagement between users, their friends, and your brand itself. If Facebook is now the Number One U.S. website, no wonder companies are flocking over to create their own presence.

1. Create a custom Facebook page. Present new updates and specials without losing the general layout, feel, and presentation of your current website. Upload a standard logo, memorable cover photo, photo albums, a guide or introduction destination for new visitors, events, and a call to action (booking, RFPs, requests for more information, checkouts, email/eblast/newsletter sign-ups).

2. Engage your social audience with social plugins. Implement the “Like” functionality for the user to stay abreast of your latest and greatest updates on events and specials. Implement a “Share” button directly from your website that allows a customer to share an item or deal to his or her friends’ news feeds. In order to do this, here are two helpful tips:

Get in the mind of a Facebook user. All users want to be the first to shout from the rooftops about a thing they really love. All users like to see how loud their shout reaches – who sees the posted content? Most users are narcissistic; they then want to see how their shout sounds to their relative group of friends – what does their post look like on the news feed? Lastly, all users want to see how their shout makes them look – how does this post look on their Timeline?
Use Facebook Developer code. Facebook does a great job of laying out the groundwork with template code with which you change variables to carry over. Facebook even gives you example code for you to test out on your page. Here is a helpful page to get you started: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/dialogs/feed/.

3. Place your call to action “front and center”. As an e-commerce merchant, you may want to use Facebook to lead to direct conversions or checkouts. Here’s an example of how a client, The Dunes on the Waterfront, implemented a reservation booking widget front and center on their Facebook page – seamlessly carrying over their custom website images along with their very own booking widget (or social plugin).

4. Add a sign up for e-mails or newsletters. Users like to walk away with more information. Be sure to allow the user to sign up for a newsletter. The client, Visit Aurora, wanted a destination at the top of their Facebook page to allow a new user to sign up for information – with a pre-selected opt-in to receive newsletters.

5. Add a social media hub to consolidate on your website. If you can combine your social media efforts in one stop, why not? I recently worked on one client’s site that had a social media hub that combined all their social media platforms into a single feed widget. Each tab opens up to a different social media feed. Check out the site’s social media hub.

Most social media hubs aren’t so fancy and follow a basic “box” format, where all the social media icons are clumped together. Popular social media platforms commonly used for marketing are Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Trip Advisor, Yelp, and Pinterest.

Once you incorporate customizing your page, promoting it from your website, posting status updates, cross-marketing your Facebook presence from your own website (with “Like” and “Share” buttons), the fans and “likes” will start trickling in. And if all else fails, the most traditional way to market your company is through display ads on Facebook.