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Gnip hits the social media data jackpot with API access to Instagram, Bitly, and Reddit

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Various companies trying to tap into the power of social media for whatever reason will be happy to know that Gnip – a company that prides itself in being the “largest provider of social media data to the enterprise” – has branched out to various startups that offer public APIs. They already have a pretty impressive collection of sources to begin with; the six newest sites to join the bunch announced just today include Instagram, Reddit, and Bitly. In their official blog post, Gnip explained why these recent additions to their Enterprise Data Collector would prove extremely beneficial to their clients, who collectively receive monthly reports on around 100 billion social activities from Internet users.

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  • The Facebook-owned Instagram still reigns supreme as the photo-sharing app – it has 100 million monthly active users, and receives 40 million posts per day, 8,500 likes per second, and 1,000 comments per second. Crazy, right? That’s basically why Instagram’s public API is so valuable; the site’s geotagging function is especially important because it can be used to give geographically inclined social data that will aid in better targeted online marketing efforts. Those who hope to use Gnip’s Enterprise Data Collector will be able to immediately access popular posts as well as search for certain hashtags and locations.
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  • Reddit needs no introdiction. In 2012, it reportedly received 37 billion page views, 400 million unique visitors, 4 billion votes, 30 million posts, and 260 million comments. With all that traffic, single posts can easily be buried in a multitude of comments. By having access to Reddit’s public API, it will be easier for clients to sift through hot topics and keywords and make sure their online presence (and overall reputation) is well-maintained.
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  • New York-based Bitly is not only a well-known link shortener for Twitter – which is already a leading Gnip source of social data – it also can provide website traffic information, tell you what’s trending. Every day 80 million new Bitly links are created and each month, Bitly links receive over 8 billion clicks. A total of 75 percent of the world’s largest media conglomerates use the tool. Gnip clients can easily search keywords, page titles and URLs, even content and header tags through Bitly’s public API, making it easier to understand online trends and keep watch of brand-related social activity.

That’s only three of the six new public APIs it has recently gained access to – not to mention 17 other sources, most of them used by consumers on a daily basis – and it promises even more in the future.

Jam Kotenko
Former Digital Trends Contributor
When she's not busy watching movies and TV shows or traveling to new places, Jam is probably on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or…
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