Every business I know is building their brand on Instagram. Whether you are an artist or an interior designer, whether you have 100 or 100,000 followers building your Instagram is one of the keys to building your business. As a professional artist I have worked hard on my Instagram account. Any shortcuts that make posting to Instagram easier I am all about! As an Instagramer, I thought I would share 5 apps that I use almost daily. Hopefully one or two of them might help you.
There are a billion Instagram users every month. And according to Hootsuite, 75% of users take action…like visiting a website after looking at a brand’s post. Got amazing work you'd like to show off? Instagram is the place to show them off. 8 out of 10 subscribers follow a business. With some planning and some "hacks" you can have the right followers following your business.
The first hack or app you should know about is Planoly.
Planoly is an Instagram visual management platform. It helps you manage your content and marketing campaigns. You can visually plan using their drag and drop feature to arrange your content before posting it live. If you've seen Instagram feeds that are visually beautiful, Planoly is one way to accomplish that. I use Planoly to store my hashtag groups so I can copy them easily and add them to a post. Planoly does have a free version that you might want to start with but the more features that you want to use, the more the plan costs.
Did you know that video posts receive 38% more engagement than image posts? Which brings me to my second hack, the Splice app.
If you have less than 10,000 followers, your videos on Instagram need to be less than a minute. I shoot video with my iphone and quickly edit it in Splice. Splice is a free app that is simple to use. It also lets you edit in portrait format which is what Instagram stories uses. You can easily add music and type as well as speed the clip up and edit the length with ease. When you save it, you can either upload it right to instagram or Facebook or to your photos. I usually save it to my photos until I am ready to post it on Instagram.
The next two hacks are for creating quick, fun Instagram Stories. The first app is Word Swag.
Word Swag is a cool app for stories because it has a built in template for IG stories. You can use their camera, your own photo or any of the free photos that they offer. They also have ready made quotes that you can plug in and really cool fonts and you can even add your logo. You can save it to your camera roll or post it right to instagram. Did I mention that it is free?
The next app is Unfold.
Unfold is also for stories. It comes with 25 free templates to easily add several photos into the same story. It's kind of like different size photo frames that you can drop your photos into. If you need more templates, there are packages of 15 that can be purchased for $1.99. They also have some cool stickers to use and different background colors.It's also free.
The last hack might be the coolest! It's an app called When to Post.
When to Post is just that. It tells you the best 3 times to post everyday. I see no reason to pay to unlock the other features on the app. When to Post is free.
These five apps I use all the time. I attempt to post to my feed once every day of the week. I try to do stories 2-3 times a week.
What do you post in your feed and what do you post in stories? Your feed is to educate and illuminate your tribe about your business. Your stories are more for your personal story. Since they only last one day, that is where you put that delicious dessert, cute pet pic, or inspiring quote. If you do use it to tell your tribe about your business, then start a highlight and save it there so it stays around for longer than a day.
Would you like to see what I post on Instagram? Click here and please follow me to see behind the scene in my studio and updates about my artwork. I would love it if you could help me get to 10K followers!
If I could help you with any of your clients need, please email me!