Short-Lived App Firegram Used Instagram Loophole to Deliver More Likes

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For a fleeting, wonderful moment, it seemed that all of our Instagram popularity dreams were coming true. Released two days ago, the app Firegram used some automatic magic to get your photos way more attention than they would ever have gotten on their own. When Roi Carthy of TechCrunch tried it out on one of his photos he got a whopping 56 likes (%1500 increase) in no time.

Alas, if it seems too good to be true, that’s because it wasn’t meant to last. As of now the app has been “discovered” by Instagram and denied access to its API — no likes for you.

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Worth noting is that you can still use their techniques, albeit manually, to generate the same kind of attention. The secret behind Firegram is that the app would add tens of randomly generated general hashtags (probably related to the one hashtag the app asked you to create) to a comment on your photo, let them attract likes and followers for a few seconds, auto-delete them, and repeat.

It requires a little bit of footwork (or thumbwork?) now that the automatic option is down, but it’s totally free and, like it or not, it gets you real exposure from real people. Of course that would be a lot of work to promote a photo of this morning’s meal; but if you’re serious about Instagram photography, it may just be worth it.

(via TechCrunch)

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