I am sure you have heard of Instagram. Instagram is made for sharing your photos and videos from your smartphone. Similar to other social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, you create a profile and start your news feed.
When you post a photo or video on Instagram, it will show up on your profile. Users who “follow” you will see your posts and you will see the posts of those that you follow. It’s pretty simple, it emphasizes sharing on your mobile device and is all visual. Just like other social networks, you can interact with other users on Instagram by following them, being followed by them, commenting, liking, tagging and private messaging.
Instagram can be downloaded for free on Google Play and the App Store for iPhone. You can set up your account on an actual computer, but you can only upload and share photos from your smartphone. You can sign up using your Facebook account or your email. You can customize your profile with your name, photo, and a short bio, and a website link if you have one. You can also go to settings and make your Instagram account a business account if you are interested in it working for your business. Looking for something specific? Use the search bar at the top to look for specific users or hashtags.
Applying Filters and Editing Your Instagram Posts
You can post both directly through the app or from existing photos/videos on your device. You can also post both photos with extra filter options plus the ability to edit your photos.
When you tap the middle Instagram posting tab, you can select the camera or video icon to let the app know whether you want to post a photo or a video. Capture it through the app, or tap the photo/video preview box to add one from your device.
Instagram has about 20 filters you can choose to apply to both photos and videos. Tap the Edit option at the bottom of the photo editor, you can also apply editing effects that allow you to edit adjustments, brightness, contrast and structure. For videos, you can trim them and select a cover frame if you choose.
Sharing on Instagram
Once your photo or video is ready to go simply hit next and you can add a caption, tag other users, ad your location and also post it to your Facebook, Twitter, or your Tumblr account.
Once it’s published, your followers will see it in their feed and comment or like it.
Viewing and Publishing Instagram Stories
Similar to Snapchat, Instagram recently introduced its new Stories feature, which is a secondary feed that appears at the very top of the main feed. Tap any one of the photo bubbles at the top to see that story published over the last 24 hours. To publish your own story, all you have to do is tap your own photo bubble from the main feed or swipe right on any tab to access the stories camera tab.
There is so much more you can do with Instagram, check back for using Instagram for business in the next few days!