With more than 15 million users, all kinds of companies have flocked to the app in hopes of establishing a following. Yes, another social network to cultivate, but I’ve found this is a fun (and moderately addictive) way to tell a story through creative photographs. Words alone fall short of giving a consumer the essence of a brand, so it seems natural for any business or organization to tell its story through photographs. Since the app launched in 2010, brands have been using the platform in innovative ways, testing the network’s ability to build an audience.

In my opinion, the most attractive companies on the app are those posting interesting lifestyle photos, trying to capture their piece of the world in unique ways. Even General Electric has a nice eye for turning combustion engines into works of art. On the other hand, Starbucks seems to be pushing product a little too hard but still has a huge following. NPR was one of the first media organizations to join the platform and has successfully created a personable and creative account where it informally engages with fans on a daily basis.

Like other social media outlets, the premise should be about cultivating a relationship with the consumer, not blasting products in their faces. There doesn’t seem to be a single method for a company to have a successful Instagram, but those staying true to Instagram’s passion for sharing brilliant moments-in-life photos are doing well.

Fashion companies have unsurprisingly created a massive following on Instagram for their visually sophisticated audience.  Aesthetically based brands like Bergorf’s, Nylon Magazine, and Free People post beautiful and funky pictures while giving a behind-the-scenes look at their company.

With millions of photos shared every second, Instagram is insanely popular yet still has an “indie” super-cool vibe about it. Regardless of the reason for attraction, used correctly, Instagram can be a powerful tool for engaging an increasingly design-savvy audience.

As I connect with more and more friends from long ago, I’ve come to an awareness that you can’t find anywhere else (simply because Facebook is where we all gather); confirmation that the snobby kids in grammar school are still snobby, the mean ones are still mean, and the cool fun kids are still magnetic.  All my juvenile judgments have been substantiated! Where else can you get a glimpse into the lives of all of your ex-boyfriends or girlfriends, how they are living, what they are doing, and what your life might have been like if you took the path of a lifelong journey with them. Choices of long ago are either validated or questioned.

Last night’s Facebook treat was a post by a high school friend who shared information about the meteor showers occurring last night and tonight between 10 p.m. and dawn. Normally, I might have given it a scant moment’s notice, but he provided so much data with such zest that I was compelled to walk outside at midnight and look up at the sky. I saw five meteor showers in about 15 minutes. It was the most amazing, naturally beautiful spectacle – long streaks of bright light flashing across the sky directly above me. Incredible. So, I thank Facebook and all the “posters” who share life, wisdom and enthusiasm.

About a month ago, we posted a blog titled Antisocial Media about the riots in London and other British cities that were amplified due to social networking. Let’s flip that coin.

There’s no question that it has altered the social scene, but it has also changed the way we deal with disasters. A Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog blog post recently examined how social media channels like twitter and facebook might have impacted September 11^th if – 10 years ago – technology had been what it is today. Survivors would have been able to tweet or update their status for relatives when the phone lines went down. Emergency evacuations could have been spread even wider via social media.

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan is a great example of the sheer power of social media. We too often think of it as a meaningless expression outlet, but I now view it as a lifeline.

My conclusion rests on good prevailing over evil. No one truly cares what you ate for breakfast or about that recent bout of insomnia, but we do care if you survived a disaster. Social media is a social tool, a business tool – and it can make the world a safer place.

As we have learned through numerous social media scandals, videos, tweets, facebook posts and photographs can spread like wildfire before someone has a chance to regret what they said or sent. By the time Coach David Bennet returned home from taking his son to a golf tournament, he was all over the internet, the topic of conversation of people who don’t even know in which state Coastal Carolina is located (myself included, admittedly).

ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption even hosted a poll about the coach’s wacky story, involving a cat, his dog Bo, his wife, and somewhere in there, his players (I think?). We assume the message of this rant, which has garnered over 600,000 views on YouTube, was for his players to stop worrying about being “flashy” and just play. But who really cares what he is trying to say – it makes zero sense and is hilarious.

It could be due to his southern drawl, quick speech or cat imitations, but we are dubbing this video as social media gold, even if it is a major public relations fail for Coastal Carolina…

Facebook is the prime example. It’s becoming almost secondary for a company to have a Facebook community page, leading to an eye-opening statistic: the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events, according to facebook statistics. With numbers this high, it is even more important to stand out. You are vying for the attention of a very stretched audience.

Company pages teeter dangerously close to less-than-effective billboards unless you have interesting and evolving content. Splash (or landing) pages attract viewers, visual elements appeal to them and content keeps them reading and returning. Splash pages should be graphically unique, and content should ignite a conversation to engage visitors with your organization.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, you can formulate and manage an online strategy by asking yourself three simple questions: Why should I create a community? Who’s the target audience? What’s in it for my target audience? The latter is the most important and the most difficult to answer. But when you fulfill the needs of your audience, you have captured long-term fans.

House of Reeves was one of those landmark businesses that people use as reference points for getting around town. The family-run furniture retailer in Croydon, an incorporated area in south London, was founded during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1867. It survived the Depression and two world wars, but earlier this month, a bunch of cretinous tossers did what the Nazi Blitz of London was never able to accomplish: reduce the furniture store to a smoldering pile of rubble.

In fact, large swaths of London and other British cities like Manchester and Birmingham were left feeling a bit shagged and fagged after four nights of the old-ultraviolence. Droogs poured into the streets in a free-for-all of rioting and looting.

While a vigil to protest the shooting death of an alleged drug dealer may have been the spark that ignited the violence, British authorities claim that social media was the fuel that fed the fire. They say social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook along with the Blackberry Messenger service were effectively used by rioters to assemble in various parts of London. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has hinted that the government is looking into blocking access to social media services during future internal disorders, and social media bosses from Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry have been asked to appear before a top British Parliamentary body to talk about the role their networks played in the riots.

I think there are a couple of things worth noting in the inevitable rush to jump to conclusions in the aftermath of the riots: For one thing , private messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger are much different beasts than social networking services like Twitter. It is an important distinction to make because private messaging, especially messaging that can’t be intercepted by authorities, has a history of being linked to criminality. But this has been the case with any type of “private” messaging throughout recorded history –  whether it be human couriers, carrier pigeons, or BlackBerry.

We also need to always keep in mind that social media is only a tool, albeit a very powerful one. It is a blank canvas that merely serves up a reflection of its users. In some cases, this reflection casts light in places that sorely need it. (Twitter’s role in the Egyptian revolution is a perfect example of this.) Social media did not create the sense of excited violence, the complete lack of empathy and the complete lack of civility that drove the riots. Just because social media is social doesn’t mean it spreads like a disease; it shouldn’t be quarantined like one.

Indeed, the effects of social media as a positive means to give and get information is already being felt in the aftermath of the riots. A group has formed on Twitter called “Riot Clean-Up” where Londoners are virtually gathering to organize community cleanups. The feed has more than 80,000 followers. London’s police department launched a Flickr page called “London Disorder – Operation Withern.” The page shows images captured from CCTV cameras during the rioting. Police are hoping the public can identify some of the looters and rioters showcased online.

So, in the rush to demonize social media, let’s remember it is the people who wield these social media tools that ultimately deserve the blame here. There were riots before cell phones, and there will be riots long after we’ve moved on to some new form of communication.

I admittedly should watch the news more often. But when I woke up on Monday morning, I pulled my iPhone off the charger, opened my Facebook app and began reading statuses. Comments like “OBAMA KILLS OSAMA” and “Osama bin Laden is dead!” were sprawled across the screen. This was how I first heard the news. This is the medium by which I have received breaking headlines a lot recently, like the tragedies in Tuscaloosa and the death of Elizabeth Taylor.

The celebrity obsession with Twitter has added a new dimension to the social media craze. We all remember when Charlie Sheen decided to finally join to the Twitter world. Gaining a staggering 1 million followers in 25 hours with witty hash tags (#WINNING, #TIGERBLOOD), Charlie Sheen set a new Guinness World Record (and I’m guilty of being one of those 1 million.) Tons of celebrities logged into Twitter Monday to share their thoughts of the Osama bin Laden news. And they were not in vain. Jimmy Fallon’s tweet, “Got Bin Laden AND interrupted Celebrity Apprentice? Win for Obama all around” was re-tweeted 7,000 times.

Are we beginning to replace credible news sources with social media for our information on world events? When Michael Jackson died, I was at a barbeque with some friends. I listened while the conversation took an interesting turn:

“I won’t believe it until it’s on FOX.”
“I won’t believe it until it’s on Wikipedia.”
“I won’t believe it until it’s on Perez Hilton.”
“I won’t believe it until it’s on Facebook.”
“I won’t believe it until Ashton Kutcher tweets it.”

While I agree social media has wonderful aspects, especially in the advertising and PR world, it could become a problem if people begin taking all posts and tweets at face value. The best, most responsible method I have found is to be alerted on Facebook and Twitter, but then follow up with a more accurate news source, like the Wall Street Journal or New York Times. But for now, as long as you are getting some source of world events, even if it’s in celebrity form – like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton on Twitter – it’s better than not knowing what’s going on at all.

While I was pretty surprised by the sudden shift across my Pages, here are my thoughts about some of the changes thus far.

THE GOOD
“Login as” Page: With this new feature, I finally have my autonomy back. I’m now able to post a comment on the Pages I manage without it coming from the Pages themselves. I get to have my own opinion! This feature also allows me to receive notifications on comments, likes, and updates to the Page, much like I do on my regular profile. As I’m an admin for multiple Pages, this is both a help and a hassle. It took me awhile to rediscover my Insights as well.

THE BAD
Tabs (Custom or Otherwise): The new layout has removed the tabs that we’ve all gotten to know and love. Custom FBML is still active, but cannot currently be set to the default landing page, which means that custom tabs are now lost in the shuffle. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Facebook resolves this issue quickly.

THE ANNOYING
No warning: Facebook launched the new layout without an announcement. We were given no warning, and I have some pretty strong feelings as to why. The Page/Place merger was a beta test to see how people liked the new layout Facebook would soon be unrolling. Most people weren’t thrilled at being stuck with the new layout and made a fuss. Facebook as determined to move ahead with the new layout, regardless of the user experience and desire, and didn’t want to have to fight opinions on their decisions to push out the old and welcome in the new. I hope no one was under the misunderstanding that Facebook worked as a democracy.

And that’s pretty much that. I’ll post an update when I’ve had a chance to explore the change further. I’ve been having spotty access to Facebook since they made the switch.

In a new ad campaign, Philips Electronics takes this constant worry of losing the power to our lifeline and gives it a name. The campaign created Dead Battery Anxiety, or DBA, a fake illness with a slightly self-serving solution: ChargeOn, a travel battery pack to use for a boost of energy when you can’t find an outlet. In a nutshell, the concept is elaborately simplistic.

The entire interactive website is dedicated to the “treatment” of DBA, complete with “subject files” of DBA sufferers and a test which proves the taker is in denial about this universal plague. Using the tag line “Don’t Let It Drain You,” a simple idea is launched into a monumental initiative. The campaign also utilizes social media like Facebook and Twitter, encouraging younger customers to share the “Faces of DBA.” Visiting the website leaves you laughing but thinking, “when is enough, enough?”

Whether or not you support an entire campaign based on a phony infirmary, you have to appreciate the time spent focusing solely on humor. So ultimately, is the idea brilliant or a few steps too far?

In the seven seconds or so that it took me to fully awaken and take in my surroundings, I’d also compiled a shortlist of the possible disasters that might’ve struck while I was nestled snugly in the land of Nod. It looked a little something like this: a family member locked themselves out of the house on the way to get the paper, my brother  finally announced the departure date for his next deployment, or one of the animals escaped and the family was out preparing a search party.

Nothing quite prepared me for the mystery that necessitated the call. It was a crisis of utmost importance, I was told grumpily by my husband. Turns out my mom-in-law was on the phone with a Facebook emergency, and it was painfully obvious we had very different ideas for what constituted an emergency.

Now don’t get me wrong, we don’t mind helping my family and friends with their social networking/computer issues. But calling us during wee hours of the morning to help you delete your status update due to a crisis that I eventually find out is nothing more than a typo is going to leave me feeling slightly put out and irritated.

Thankfully, due to the genius of some folks from Google, there’s now a solution to those ill-timed requests. Called Teach Parents Tech, it’s a website that allows you to send how-to videos to those less technologically inclined folks in your family. The videos cover a variety of topics, from taking a screen shot or sending an attachment, to setting up a video chat or creating an online calendar.

You can currently choose from about 50 or so videos, and based on the popularity of the site thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone started launching spin-offs catering to social sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!