From the Kitchen to Instagram: Learn to Cook with Tyler Florence

Celebrity chef Tyler Florence (@tylerflorence) can be seen cooking on the set of the Food Network (@foodnetwork), in his world-renowned restaurants, and now from his very own kitchen. Through Instagram, Florence is bringing followers into the kitchen with him to demonstrate some of his favorite recipes.

Florence starts by posting an image of the ingredients required and a description of the dish he is about to prepare. He posts photos at every step in the preparation so that fans can follow along. The end result typically consists of 8-12 photos per recipe, topped off with a mouth-watering image of the finished product.

Florence showcases a broad range of recipes, from German Pancakes to Ricotta Gnudi. He also gives followers a glimpse into his daily life, highlights of the projects he’s working on, and previews of the dishes he serves up in his restaurants. Follow along with the Peach-Blackberry Pie recipe above and get your fix of Florence’s behind-the-scenes shots on his Instagram profile page.

The Making Of: @Mastersons Selvedge Denim Shirts

The Making Of… Local businesses are using Instagram to give followers a peak behind the scenes and to showcase their handiwork. Check out more examples on the Instagram Blog.

Michael Masterson, who has spent the past 3 years making clothes by hand, is embarking on his latest venture—Masterson’s, a limited-run batch of US and Japanese selvedge denim and chambray shirts—and bringing his Instagram followers along for the ride at @mastersons.

“I have a collection of over 25 machines, most more than 50 to 70 years old. It takes a lot of finesse and dexterity to keep the machine and stitch working properly,” he says. “Instagram is a quick and easy way to share the production process with people during a busy day. And I think it also helps give people an idea of the time that goes in to producing these shirts.”

To get a peek at the process, visit @mastersons. Because of Masterson’s limited production capacity, they will only be available through Trove General Store.

CBS InstaMeets on the set of VEGAS

Visit the Instagram Blog to get tips on hosting an InstaMeet and to view photos from past events or visit Meetup.com/Instagram to find an Instagram Meetup group near you.

CBS kicked off the new television drama VEGAS by hosting a set of InstaMeets. The series, based on the life of former Sherriff Ralph Lamb, is set in Las Vegas in the 1960’s. Before the series premiere, CBS held two simultaneous Instameets - one 60’s themed photo walk on the film set in Santa Clarita and one modern-day photo walk on Freemont Street in Las Vegas.

On set, participants were given behind the scenes tours and exclusive access to the set. Actors Dennis Quaid, Jason O’Mara and Taylor Handley dropped by to take photos. Executive Producer Greg Walker gave a tour and provided exclusive details about the lot. In Las Vegas, Sheriff Ralph Lamb himself met with the group to share some of his own personal stories.

CBS announced the events on both the CBS and VEGAS Instagram accounts (@CBSphoto and @Vegas_CBS). InstaMeet participants were encouraged to tag photos with the hashtag #InstameetCBSvegas.

Tips for News and Media Organizations

Millions of people around the world are documenting their lives on Instagram every second of every day. From personal moments to major world events, Instagram is the place to instantly communicate through images.

As a news or media organization, the ability to tap into the conversations and the content that people are sharing around the world can be incredibly powerful. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your Instagram presence:

Use compelling images to drive traffic: Capture users’s attention on Instagram and direct them to your site for deeper engagement

• Post compelling photos that capture attention and generate excitement
• Use your Instagram account to build your brand and establish connection with your audience through images
• When posting a photo on Instagram, include links to articles or photo galleries in the comment and share to other social networks. View the links on Twitter, Facebook and Webstagram

Leverage the Instagram API to crowdsource photos: Use hashtag and location targeting to find relevant user generated Instagram photos for news reports or articles

• Create on-going conversations or repeated calls to action
• Use hashtags and location tags to source photos surrounding breaking news and world events

Curate images to tell a story: Curation is more powerful than aggregation. Use tagged photos to gain insights and present the content in a meaningful way.

• Create galleries of images or interactive maps to show where photos are being taken
• Use Instagram photos in your print publications
• Feature guest photographers

API Highlight: Tiffany’s #TrueLovePictures

For 175 years, Tiffany & Co. has played a role in the world’s greatest love stories. The spontaneous expressions of romance by Tiffany’s Instagram fans and the company’s belief that some of the most romantic love stories come from real life inspired its #truelovepictures campaign.

For this campaign, Tiffany (@tiffanyandco) asked its audience to share their love stories through a series of photos and captions with the hashtag #truelovepictures. Tiffany provided romantic phrases like, “My heart skips a beat when…” inviting users to creatively fill in the blank and share photographs inspired by these unique captions. Users were also able to submit their moments of true love through Tiffany’s iPhone app and its microsite, WhatMakesLoveTrue.com. To kick off the campaign, Tiffany launched the gallery with images by The Sartorialist and Garance Doré and invited Instagrammers with a romantic sensibility to participate, too.

For a brief time during the campaign, Tiffany offered to turn users’ digital submissions into physical postcards—and mail them “to that special someone.” Later, it introduced Love Notes, a personalized way for fans to send their photos and captions via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. All of this content joins other celebrations of true love on WhatMakesLoveTrue.com. One recent highlight is #TiffanyPoetry, a romantic poem written by three poets exclusively for Tiffany and unveiled this month on Twitter. The site also offers Love is Everywhere, an interactive map that allows users to share places important to their romance.

Tiffany accepted thousands of submissions for #truelovepictures. The effort created such memorable, moving stories that Tiffany has launched a follow-up campaign called #TimelessTrueLove, which invites users to share images with a nostalgic feel.

View more #truelovepictures in the True Love in Pictures gallery.