Nearly every smartphone user these days has the popular photo sharing app, Instagram. However, Facebook Inc. is planning to integrate relevant advertisements into Instagram users’ home feed, much like they successfully did to Facebook’s timeline.

My friend Shomas reasons that these ads will not interfere with Instagram’s growth, and that it will follow in the same path as Facebook. Read about his opinion here.

However, while Facebook users compete to have the most friends, likes on a page, and pokes, Instagram users do quite the opposite. Instagram profiles can be private. Only those who you approve of may view your photos. When you choose to follow somebody, it is not certain that they will follow you back, unlike Facebook friend requests, where you and your new “friend” immediately have full access to each other’s profile. As a whole, Instagram is more selective and personal. Facebook news feeds can be filled with status updates of people you have only met once, and pages you clicked “like” on just to try and win a contest. That being said, it is more natural to scroll past an advertisement in the never-ending Facebook newsfeed of your 500 friends.

Instagram users value their “follow-to-following ratio” by making sure they are truly interested in the profiles they follow. Integrating advertisements into their home feed strips away the users’ power to only view what they think is worthy.

Check out Shomas’ Blog!

Read the full article here

Picture from here