check out my article which was published yesterday in the sunday independent

Facebook Releases Instagram Clone

Less than two months after announcing its plans to acquire photo app company Instagram for $1 billion, Facebook has released an iOS app that looks and functions almost identically to Instagram’s.

Facebook Camera, which is now available in the App Store for free, sincerely improves upon the photo capabilities offered by Facebook’s primary app for iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Like Instagram, your friends’ latest photos are displayed in a single scrolling feed. You can also now simultaneously upload multiple photos to Facebook; Facebook’s main app only allows you to upload photos one at a time. And like Instagram, the app allows you to crop, rotate and apply filters to your photos.

Interestingly, none of the app’s 15 filters were developed by the Instagram team, Facebook product manager Dirk Stoop told The New York Times. The app, the Times suggests, has been in development for much longer.

The Camera App is the second mobile app dedicated to one of Facebook’s key features. The first, a dedicated messaging app, was released last April. These apps, we feel, are smart ideas: Facebook simply has too many features and tools to bundle into a single mobile app.

It’s likely more such apps will be released this year. In an address to 200 investors leading up to Facebook’s IPO earlier this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that mobile is Facebook’s number-one priority.

Give to Get: How to Spice up Your Twitter

A community is only as great as the sum of its individual parts. In order to keep your community intrigued, engaged, and interactive, it would be in your best interest (and your followers interest) to reevaluate how you approach the platform. It’s easy to get into a social slump, especially when you only have 140 characters to work with, so here are 5 ways to liven up your tweets and spice it up a bit.

1. Post Media Live
You’ve probably noticed by now that Twitter changed the way images and videos are shared within the community (for the better in our opinion!). Now, users can see an embedded photo right below the tweet, rather than being directed to a third party site, like ow.ly. The only downfall is in order to create this cleaner, more powerful way of tweeting, you must do it live. There isn’t a plethora of analytic research to compare which method is stronger, but it is certainly easier for your followers to see your content right there, instead of an annoying window popping up. Additionally, start tweeting more often and with more variety. Share at least three posts a day. Maybe tweet a relevant article, trickle in your blog posts, ask a question - switch it up with a variety of content throughout the day. Check out our 3 Ways to Create a Higher Twitter Engagement for more.

2. Remove Auto Responses
When was the last time an auto response genuinely attracted your attention? A good analogy would be to describe auto-responses like mass promotional text messages - they are fluffy, impersonal, and unoriginal. It isn’t worth the three people that may be interested, to the hundreds that will be totally turned off, is it? We didn’t think so. Do your followers a solid, and be one less spammy brand on Twitter. You’ll still want to thank new followers, but doing it manually and using their name, rather than their Twitter handle, is much more powerful and effective in building an ongoing relationship.

3. Be More Generous
Take a few minutes a day to dedicate to your Twitter community. See what’s going on with your followers. Maybe mention someone who is doing something admirable and RT to share with your community. You can also check out your Twitter lists to view people you often interact with. Take the time to RT, mention, or fuel a conversation that has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with them. Karma is pretty instantaneous on this real-time platform.

4. Respond Publicly
Try to steer clear from always answering via DM’s. Rather, take the conversation public. Obviously, there are unique conversations that require privacy, but for the most part you want to answer questions about your brand publicly in order to attract and reach new followers.

5. Occasionally Stray Off the Beaten Path
Social media in its core is about relationships. Sometimes saying something completely unrelated to your brand generates a huge response. It’s like any form of viral content on the internet, there is no precise formula for what works and what doesn’t. Quotes, trending topics, pop culture and music are all popular go-to topics. Start slowly to see if this non-traditional strategy works for your brand.