As you may have inferred from my last post, I’m getting pretty into Instagram. I love it so much. In fact, you should follow me. I’m @williambahiabay.
As mentioned in the previous article, I use Latergramme to schedule my posts at the beginning of the week and then just acknowledge them as they come up on my phone. That’s still working fantastic.

But to view other people’s Instagram posts, I prefer to use my iPad with an app called Flow. The pictures are much larger and I can sit back, see more in a bigger grid. It’s easier to comment and like as well. So interaction with other Instagram-ers is easier too.

Yesterday morning, while I was perusing through my Instagram feed (which consists of lots of Surfers, Cafe Racer motorcycles and fine art black and white photographers), something gave me a bit of a shock. I saw on Kelly Slater’s latest post about his new clothing line OuterKnown that he included a link. AND IT WAS A LIVE LINK!

In the Flow app on iPad, you can actually see live links in an Instagram post.

Well, most folks familiar with Instagram know that the links you post, don’t work. But in Flow, the app is set to actually show them as live. You can click through and it will open Safari and take you right there.

I confirmed this with Padgram as well. Although you have to click the text area first, and then you can see the live link.

Live link in Instagram on the Padgram App.

So what does this mean for Instagramers?

Well, I wouldn’t shy away from adding your links to your posts anymore. They could be showing up to certain people. But I would add them judiciously and not get too link crazy, as it is Instagram’s policy not to display them. If you are adding links en mass, I do believe they have the right to shut down your account.

I also think that you’re dealing with a very small group of people that would be using Flow or Padgram, and while a little extra traffic is great, it’s nothing to get crazy over.

So it looks like for some people, they can see your links. But be selective with what posts you are putting those links into.

Update: Analytics

I did some testing on my own to see how the referral source came up in Google Analytics. Knowing if it was a specific referrer would help to measure how effective putting your links in for Flow and Padgram users.

Unfortunately, what I found is that there is no Referrer or even Social source. So the traffic is likely to be lumped in with all Direct traffic, and it’ll be near impossible to track the effectiveness of posting links. But this shouldn’t be a deterrent to doing so.