Instagram Now Available for Federal Agencies

Instagram is the latest mobile and social media tool available to federal, state and local governments to better engage with the public, with a newly negotiated government-compatible Terms of Service (TOS) agreement. GSA collaborated with Instagram to negotiate the amended terms, which brings the total number of tools with federal-compatible agreements to 65.

Instagram is a free online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that allows its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. It’s one of the fastest growing digital services, with over 130 million users.

Instagram can be used by federal agencies as part of an overall social and mobile strategy to ensure citizens can access valuable government content anywhere, anytime, on any device–including widespread access to photos and video content. As one example, the White House just launched an account on Instagram to share images of the President’s diplomatic trip to Africa, attracting nearly 100,000 initial followers.

Instagram is now listed on HowTo.gov among the more than 60 other tools and apps with federal-friendly terms of service, and will be added to the Federal Social Media Registry. Share your ideas on how agencies can use Instagram in the comment section and using the #socialgov hashtag on Twitter.