Instagram is a really cool social media tool that allows you to take photos, use great filters to make them look amazing, and then share them on a photo stream with your friends. You choose who shares your photo stream so you can keep your circle as small an you want. Instagram quickly becomes a photo journal of your life.

I love Instagram for families! Let me tell you why…

1. Take Fun Photos! You can take really fun photos and easily manipulate them with filters. It can be addictive!
2. Share Your Photos: You can share photos with select friends/family/others–you choose!
3. Photos Are Available Immediately: The photos you share show up on your photo stream immediately so people can share your experiences and see what you are up to. Even grandparents can keep up to date on what’s happening in your family’s life via your photo journalism.
4. Photos Are Archived: you can always look back for photos you took.
5. Print Your Instagram Photos: You can now create great photo prints with your Instagram images.
6. Keep Tabs On Your Kids: You can follow your kids and even their friends–essential for the teen crowd! If you have a teen you know what I mean.
7. Share Via Email or Other Social Media Sites: After you snap an Instagram photo you can share those photos via email or many other social media sites. It makes it easy to integrate these images into your life.
8. And Now Video: Instagram just added up to 15 second video capability with some of the same great filters to make your videos look great!

Instagram Example 1: This weekend we went camping with some friends. The kids and I snapped Instagram photos and uploaded them immediately. It was fun to share the journey with our friends and family! I use the photos to document our adventures.

Instagram Example 2: My husband travels a lot for work. I snap Instagram photos and he can follow what we are up to in almost real time. He can “like” or “comment” on all the photos so he can interact with me and they kids too.

Instagram Example 3: The other day I set my mom up with an Instagram account [took under 5 minutes]. She can now follow her grandkids and our whole family. She does this on her iPhone, but she could do it on another mobile device [iPad, iPad Mini, etc…]. She loves it!

Want to get started on Instagram? Here is how.