Update: The links to Statigram and Hashgram are no longer active.
Let’s talk about Instagram for a minute. I really love Instagram, and I think it should be a place that more people turn to find images about what’s happening in the world. But Instagram.com isn’t the site you should go to find Instagram photos online.
Instead, turn to Statigram. It’s a place to view your Instagram feed online, and it’s also a place to get stats about your own Instagram account. (Are your photos getting liked? Are they getting commented on? Statigram can tell you.)
It’s also a good place to search for photos around a particular hashtag. So let’s say you’re in San Antonio this morning, looking for photos of basketball fans going crazy after last night’s Spurs win. You go to Statigram and search for the Spurs hashtag: #gospursgo.
What Statigram gives you is that hashtag, plus other popular hashtags that start with that phrase — sometimes, it’ll give you something you’d otherwise miss entirely.
And if you search for a user — say, “San Antonio Spurs” — it’s dig up every user who has that name, which is surprisingly useful. (So many official accounts have strange usernames — @officialspurs, for instance — but have their actual name listed, too.)
Plus, from Statigram, you can actually right click and save on an individual image — something you can’t do from Instagram.com.
All of this becomes pretty helpful during a big news event — especially during breaking news. If there’s a riot after a basketball game, or a flood in town, Statigram is a good place to start your search for images.
Now, the big question: Is it okay to re-use someone else’s Instagram photos?
The short answer is…. sometimes.
I think we’re moving toward a place where Instagram photos are more like YouTube videos. There’s almost no news organization that won’t run with a public YouTube video — many TV stations will even air those videos — but these same organizations are hesitant to use Instagram photos.
The difference is that Instagram is far more personal than YouTube. Instagram feels like something that belongs to you and your friends. YouTube feels like something that is supposed to be broadcast to the world.
My personal opinion, though, is that if someone is tagging a photo, or if someone is taking their photo and putting it onto another social platform, like Twitter, that’s a sign that they want their photo to be seen, discussed and considered as part of the larger conversation happening around that photo. And in those cases, I have no issue with using an Instagram photo in a story — as long as I attribute back to their account.
But the rules really do vary based on what you do and how you’re using these photos. If you’re just a blogger looking for an image of a winding road, pulling a photo from Instagram isn’t going to cause much harm. If you’re CNN, and you’re putting a photo on air — and not giving it the proper context — there’s a chance to do damage to the people involved in that photo. Be careful, and make sure you have a discussion at your office about what’s kosher and what isn’t.
One more thing: If you don’t have an Instagram account, or you just want to search without logging into your account first, try Hashgram. It’s an equally easy place to search for a user or hashtag, but it’s not quite as clean as the Statigram search function.
Now get out there and tell some great stories today!