Instagram’s New Privacy Policy Paves Way For Further Integration With Facebook

Today, Instagram published its new Privacy Policy, keeping most of the document the same, but adding a couple of new passages regarding data sharing with Instagram’s affiliates and partner companies.

In a blog post announcing the change, Instagram makes it very clear that the changes have been made in collaboration with Facebook to better help users make the most of the combined service provided.

“Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups”, explains the blog post. “This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.”

The first new passage in the Privacy Policy document lists the information that Instagram will share with Facebook:
“We may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Instagram is part of, or that become part of that group.”

The ‘group of companies’ mentioned clearly refers to Facebook and their affiliates, meaning that when the change comes into effect, Instagram will have the right to exchange its users’ personal data with Facebook.

The second new paragraph clarifies what use Instagram’s affiliates will have with the data:
“Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates’ own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences). But these Affiliates will honor the choices you make about who can see your photos.”

The constant inclusion of the word “affiliates” insinuates that, at some time soon, Instagram will be further integrated with its affiliate Facebook. The final sentence of the paragraph suggests that, in light of the change, Instagram users will be able to reset their photographs’ privacy settings at some point soon.

The change will come into effect on January 16, 2013.

Instagram: the Most Powerful Sales Platform on the Internet?

Recently Business Insider ran the provocative headline: “One Statistic That Should Convince Every Small Business To Get On Instagram.”  The statistic (according to an analytics company SumAll) is that Instagram generates 10% more engagement than Facebook or Twitter.  The article goes on to declare that this increase in engagement leads to direct sales.

I’m convinced.  For law practices, convenience stores, jewelry stores and coffee shops – every single one of them should be on Instagram.  It’s a literal no-brainer.

Just to play Devil’s Advocate….

Let me backtrack for just a second.  I don’t know if it might be prudent to take a look at demographics before deciding to go all-in on Instagram?  It seems to me that engagement (even if it is truly as high as reported) may not be as helpful if I don’t have an appropriate audience to engage:

By Gender

68.2% Female

31.8% Male

By Age

23.5% Under 18

34.4% 18 – 25

30.7% 26 – 35

8.2% 36 – 45

2.1% 46 – 55

1.0% Over 55

By Country

53.5% United States

6.9% Brazil

6.0% Thailand

4.0% United Kingdom

3.5% Australia

26.3% Other

(as of May 25, 2012)

Even though Mark Zuckerberg claims that Instagram users are 100 million strong and growing, if a business isn’t selling almost exclusively to Gen M it’s tough to understand how an Instagram account will reach its intended audience.  Of course that’s probably an apt assessment of any social platform that isn’t named Facebook or Twitter, but seems to contradict the assertion that all small businesses should use the platform.

Also, ten times Facebook and Twitter engagement is 10 percent.   For this statistic to be true, every picture you put on Instagram would have 10 percent of your followers interact with it.  How much time would users actually spend “engaging” with your post when they have 10 times the amount of engagement to accomplish?   And how would a more fleeting interaction drive an increase in sales?  In order for this to be true and actionable, it should really be supported by a few data sets.

Nothing is universal and social media isn’t magic

Anything purported to be a cure-all probably isn’t.  Any standalone social media platform purported to drive sales probably doesn’t.  I cringe when writers make these assertions, because they never hold water.

Why did Forrester conclude (from a wide data set) that email and AdWords were a much more effective ways of driving sales than social media?   It could be that those channels have more targeted reach and are more reliable delivery mechanisms.  There’s probably more to it, but that’s irrelevant.  It’s irrelevant because there is good data supporting their findings.

There is evidence of a movement (particularly for Gen Z) away from Facebook to platforms like Instagram and Tumblr.  Anecdotally, I love Instagram.  But taking the giant leap in logic to say that it may have been successful for a few businesses (bearing in mind that there is no available data supporting this), and saying that all businesses should use Instagram is ludicrous.

That said, if a business isn’t using AWeber and AdWords (or their equivalents, audience-depending), I’m going to say that going all in Instagram may be a little reckless.