I don’t know how often people save favorite Instagram posts, but I’ve found saving is a great way to compile references to ad campaigns (promoted posts), or keep something I want to find out more about, or simply keep because it’s exceptional in some way..
I’ve been taking a research class this quarter and the focus has been a small business that has a goal of launching as a CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscription service. I’ve seen a number of CSAs promote their subscription services on Instagram, so it was useful to keep them on file. If and when the CSA gets off the ground, being able to reference competitive marketing will be helpful.
But note saved ads or promoted posts only appear on your device and not on the website. Also, they don’t allow you to copy a link to reshare. That’s why I haven’t shared any of them here.
How to save a favorite Instagram post
It’s easy to save a post. Usually, the “badge” icon is directly below an image off to the right. So if you see something you want to save, just tap the badge. It goes from an outline to solid black. That’s it!
To access saved posts on an Android versus an iPhone are similar but varied. There is a navigation icon on the top right —either a hamburger menu or three vertical dots. Tap and scroll down to “Saved” to view saved posts.
On the desktop (I’m on a Mac) there are a series of icons on the profile page. Just click “SAVED” to view.
Sometimes I see something that strikes me as funny, and I save it so I can show my son or husband later. Note, this is a bit of insight into my weird sense of humor.
Special moments are worth tagging because I’m pretty sure I’d have a hard time digging up this post from 7.5 years ago. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was doing a recruitment event at the Seattle Facebook offices and I was lucky to be sitting in the front row.
And this post shared by a friend that captured some of the excitement of #SPF30, (30th anniversary of SubPop Records) which happened last summer across the street from our store, Alki Surf Shop.
And finally, once in a while I see something that looks useful, like a recipe or some kind of hack. I’ve been parallel parking for a long time, but when I saw this, I was like, Ohhhh. So this is what I should be doing.
“Saved posts” is a great bookmarking feature built into Instagram. You can keep track of whatever you want! Just remember, if you save an “ad” or promoted post, it will reside only on your device.
Here are a couple of posts that might be of further use:
If you’re on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed some people post multiple Instagram photos at once.
There are several reasons why it’s useful to post more than one photo. Sometimes you might be attending an event and shoot a number of photos that are similar. You can post a progression of images that follow throughout the event. Or maybe you’ve shot variations of your garden, but can’t decide on a single photo.
It’s super easy to post multiple Instagram photos at once, and I’m going to try to explain it now.
To begin
Choose two or more photos that you would like to share in the same post. If you want to take the images and first edit in an app like Pixlr, go ahead and do that first!
Once you have the images selected, go to your photo album and choose the first image in your multiple-image post. Hit the double square icon in the lower right corner. This tells Instagram that you intend to choose other photos.
In this example, I’m going to add a total of three images. Notice the first photo has a “1” over the ghosted preview.
Now the second photo has a “2” showing it is the second picture in the post.
Now The third photo has been selected. Notice Hunter is moving in the lower right corner! Hit “Next.”
The third image has been added to the series, denoted by “3.”
After selecting your images
At this point you can change the order of the images pressing on the white circle with diagonal hashmarks in the lower left corner (see example below). This will allow you to move a photo from one position to another.
And this is the time to apply various Instagram filters to the images if you haven’t already pre-processed it elsewhere. If you don’t want to use a filter, no worries! Just move on to the next image by hitting “Next.”
I think I used the “slumber” filter on the first image and “hefe” on the next. You can tweak the filters if you change your mind, and you can apply different filters to each photo.
Final steps
Time to insert a caption and hashtags! Also, you can designate your location as well as cross-post to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. In this case, I chose to cross-post to Facebook.
The final post shows the name, location and first photo with “dots” ••• underneath. The dots indicate the number of photos in the post.
Multiple image posts are seen more than once
Sometimes I see my instagram friends post single images from the same event. The thinking could be they want each image to be seen.
Multiple image posts have a longer than normal viewable life than a single image post. Multiple image posts will re-appear if a viewer sees only your primary image. The next time around, the second photo in the gallery will show up, and so on.
I hope you’ll give it a try and tell me what you think! Enjoy!
_______________________
Here are a couple of posts that might be of further use:
How do you “Like” or Comment on Instagram? Engaging with followers is one of the most fun parts of being on Instagram. It is gratifying when you share an image and people respond to it by liking it, commenting or even reposting it.
But in order to engage with followers, you first need to have some! Even a few will work to start! If you’re new to Instagram, you can check out recommended follows, or simply follow brands or celebrities you like. Many brands and celebrities don’t reciprocate with likes or comments but you can get the flow of what happens on the platform, and later tweak the list of people whose content you follow.
Engagement
But how to “Like” or Comment on Instagram? When scrolling through your feed, it takes only a moment to “like” and leave a comment. Some people post the exact same comment on various images so they can rapidly post comments! It’s disingenuous and think most people can tell. Furthermore, if engagement is a goal, making the same comment over and over is more like a bot than a person. Still, any kind of comment takes more effort than a simple “like.”
I will often scroll through a newly followed account and like three or four photos, and if one warrants a comment, I’ll leave one. Likes can lead to engagement. If someone sees you’ve liked a number of their posts, often they will visit your feed. Then if they see something they like, they’ll offer likes or comments. That is simply how it can start.
Likes and Comments
A comment like, “Beautiful shot!” or “Your cat is too funny” means a lot to the photographer, and the likelihood of a response is high. How high? I haven’t personally measured, but even a short comment can lead to back and forth conversations. That’s how you become acquainted with people.
Another way people engage (especially true if you are following people who live in non-English speaking countries) is by using emojis. It’s surprising how much can be communicated via emoji.
There are apps you can buy to “fake” your engagement. Software can automatically go through and “like” posts. But simply “liking” a post isn’t considered engagement. In fact, there have been adjustments to the Instagram algorithm to determine whether a comment is considered engagement or not. I found this fairly recent post that says a 4-word comment is required in order for it to be recognized as “post engagement.”
@LuzzietCastilho has 256 likes and 123 conments on this image! Nice!
Use content as a catalyst
Your content and description will be the single best catalyst for soliciting feedback. Despite the quick-scan nature of Instagram, a keyword, phrase or comment along with a good image often will catch someone’s eye. So if you decide to post pictures of what you’re eating for dinner, make sure you say something about it, like @Alaskanamber’s caption:
Most people on Instagram are friendly and are looking for reactions to their photos. If you take a moment to give a compliment, you will most likely be rewarded with a response, and in time, could find yourself with a new friend in Sweden or the Arctic Circle, like my friend, @_wildernesslife_in the Arctic Circle. She offers Arctic experiences to guests. It looks amazing!
Now that you know how to “Like” or Comment on Instagram, as Nike says, “Just do it!”
What if you didn’t know the real names of your doctor, lawyer or accountant? Transparency matters!
Most social media acquaintances aren’t exactly on a parallel plane with professional or collegial relationships — but how about your friends?
In 2008 when I began on Twitter, it wasn’t unusual to see people using descriptive monikers instead of their real names. I viewed it as a holdover from the days of bulletin and message boards. When the internet was young, “screen names” were de rigueur. This practice is still somewhat true on Instagram.
In the early 2000s, major personalities on social media who were using pseudonyms realized they were gaining traction, and their major growth was still ahead of them. Instead of building recognition in an abstract name, they started to use their real names. It enabled them to build equity in their personal brands.
It’s about trust
I think most of us appreciate it when connections on social media are transparent about who they are. If I’m being honest with someone, I appreciate when they afford me the same courtesy.
A cloak of secrecy signals more than mystery. There are reasons people want to remain anonymous. It could have something to do with their pasts or their concerns about how their opinions could reflect on their jobs. But generally speaking, withholding one’s real identity is a form of deception.
There is a trend among millennials I’ve noticed where many of them use pseudonyms. When I’ve asked why, they’ve given a variety of reasons, but the main one seems to be they don’t want to be identified, judged or held responsible for the content they post. In other words, they don’t want to be held accountable.
How people perceive your brand
Transparency matters when you’re establishing yourself as a brand. Your name and avatar and consistency are important. Your behavior both on and offline matters. When using your real name, you invite people to trust you. And by maintaining a consistent and positive presence across channels, you can build relationships with people, and reinforce the belief that you can be trusted.
People acting on behalf of a company will often append their initials for identification purposes. Knowing who is tweeting is a good thing. Most people would rather tweet with a person, and there is also an element of accountability. In this era where it’s possible to engage in a customer support call with a chatbot, it’s nice to connect with humans.
Descriptive moniker + plus + your name
Highly recognizable and respected people very successfully use screen names but self-identify using their real names. Reg Saddler, or @zaibatsu is well-established across social media channels. He uses a memorable handle that evokes a strong image of his brand.
If you’ve been using a name for a long time and have earned recognition in it, it makes sense to maintain it. But it’s helpful and important to include your real name somewhere in your profile. Here are several reasons why:
First —You are creating a climate of trust by using your real name.
Second —It allows people who know you to find you by name. or by moniker.
Third — exchanges with someone whose name you know is more personal and engenders the creation of relationships.
Fourth — By using your name, rather than building equity in a pseudonym, you are building equity in the recognition of yourself and your personal brand.
At the end of the day, in all social media, recognition is a form of currency. If a brand wants to enlist your collaboration as a micro-influencer, it needs assurance they’re working with an authentic person with a respected reputation.
Short and easy versus long or difficult
Clever handles can be fun, but if they are not exactly memorable, it can be problematic. This is particularly true if you don’t include your real name SOMEwhere. For example, I had a Twitter friend who lives in the Baltimore area. I was there on a business trip in 2016, so we met for dinner.She was from Ethiopia and had an unfamiliar name, plus she didn’t use her real name on Twitter. So we have lost touch and I have no way to find her.
The substitution of numbers for letters may be good for building a password, but expecting others to remember quirky configurations is unrealistic. Also—adding characters that require changing case on a smart device (phones, tablets) makes it inconvenient for someone to type your name on a device. (Included are underscores and numbers or other special characters.) Some applications will “autofill” a name if it’s previously been typed once. But still—isn’t it easier to simply avoid extra keystrokes?
Changing your moniker
Once you’ve established your handle, try to keep it. If you change it, your account will retain your friends and followers, but unless you’ve prepared them for the change, they may not recognize you.
Help your followers recognize you by posting something in your profile. You could include “formerly @whatevermynamewas. You can also post something that announces your intention, tagging both names in the caption. People who are searching for you by name or former name will be able to find you. Success depends on whether enough people will remember your name in the first place. So remember—use a name that is short and easy to remember.
Maintaining consistency
Establishing a consistent presence across social media channels — with hope, both in name and avatar — reinforces the identity and recognition of your brand. Think of it this way—your avatar is your social media logo. If “Starbucks” changed its name or logo from location to location, how would you recognize it?
You might know someone on Twitter by “@whatever,” but if they send a friend-request on Instagram using another name, they undermine the chance of connecting.
Across the majority of my social media accounts, a version of the lime green avatar below will be associated with my brand, and since it is my “Gravatar,” it appears here on my blog. The lime green was strategic. When my avatar appears on the feed, it is instantly recognizable. I don’t use the branded version on personal accounts where friends and family are present.
By using your real name, you are inviting people to trust you, too. By building recognition of your name and avatar, you establish a “brand promise” that sets up what others can expect when they encounter you or your company online.
Relationships matter in personal life and in business. People DO want to know who they are dealing with. By being transparent, the potential gain is greater than the risk.
Do You Think transparency Matters?
Are there good reasons for obscuring one’s identity? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
For a long time, it wasn’t possible to use automation for Instagram scheduling. People could use an application called Buffer that would send reminders that it was TIME to post an Instagram update, but that was as far as it went.
Other applications got into the game. One of the main issues is, it is hard enough to manage content on your phone, so apps like Buffer made it possible to control things from your PC. It was a big game changer as it also allows collaboration by members of a team.
It has been shown a regular posting window can be beneficial in terms of one’s audience on Instagram. You begin to encounter some of the same users in a specific time window. For example, I have a tendency to post pretty late at night (anywhere from 9 PM up until midnight), so that means many of my followers and those with whom I most actively engage are either night owls in the United States (except Hawaii, which is 3 hours earlier!) or those in Asian, Europe or even in the southern hemisphere.
So predictable posting times can work in one’s favor if cultivating a dedicated audience is one of your objectives. Buffer is able to schedule photo posts as well as video updates including captions and hashtags.
Deck Platforms
There are scheduling and monitoring/engagement “deck” platforms similar to Twitter’s Tweetdeck, with Hootsuite being a long-established and versatile application for scheduling/monitoring; engagement with content; and allows oversight of specific account streams, hashtags and more.
Hootsuite is an expansive tool and allows connection to myriad social accounts if you have a paid subscription. Otherwise, free account users are allowed three connections and basic analytics reporting and message scheduling. Some of the additional social profiles that can be used with Hootsuite include Facebook profiles/pages/groups, Twitter pages, LinkedIn profiles/groups/companies, YouTube, WordPress and Instagram accounts. It’s also possible to connect to Tumblr, Flickr and others.
A few other Instagram scheduling apps you might wish to explore include SkedSocial, OnlyPult, BufferGram (soon to relaunch as BUSY.IO) and AutoGrammer.
If you are new to Instagram, or work as a social media assistant to a small business, it is important to note many apps have free versions for a single user.
If you are working with a team with numerous people curating content, it may be worthwhile to investigate Enterprise or Team options. Also, depending on your needs, services such as Buffer and Hootsuite allow scheduling and monitoring across many platforms. Click the links to find out more.
After you create a new account, you might wonder how to build your Instagram following?
Instagram will provide you with a list of people you might want to consider following. In your settings, under “Follow People,” it could take you to “Discover People” and several tabs which could include “Suggested” “Facebook Friends” or “Contacts.” Suggested people often are people who are new to Instagram. They might not have many followers yet, so maybe you’ll be among the first to discover their photos.
You can follow those you know
Maybe you’ll be more comfortable adding people you know, in which case you might choose to add from “Facebook Friends,” or “Contacts.”
If you choose to follow the accounts of friends, then find you aren’t interested because you already see their content on other platforms, you can quietly “unsee” their content by “muting” them. They won’t know.
Search “landscape”
You can search for hashtags
Hashtags are great for attracting people to the topics you are sharing, or for you to find. If you go to “search” and type in a word or two that reflects what you are interested in, you’ll be able to find accounts to follow. In many cases, a percentage of people will follow you back. For example, if you are interested in landscape photography, search for #landscape. You’ll be presented with popular images associated with that hashtag. You can take a look and see if there are any interesting accounts to follow.
You can also look at the people who are liking or commenting on the content of those you follow. If you were to follow them, there is a possibility they’ll also be interested in your content.
quickly build An Instagram following
Another strategy I’ve noticed new accounts employing is to follow as many people as possible. The reason I don’t recommend this is, in discussing with various users on the platform, new accounts with apparent imbalances between “followers” and “following” are frequently perceived as spam accounts. For example, if you have 50 followers but you have followed 1,500 people, many will look askance and avoid you, or even report you as spam. Spam accounts are frequently blocked. If enough people regard you as a spammer, you could find yourself locked out of your account.
Don’t buy fake followers
The final, and worst strategy is to buy followers to make your account look more successful than it is. Lots of famous people, under the misconception that the more fans and followers they have make them seem cooler. But platforms like Twitter and Instagram, periodically go through and clear out fake followers. This means accounts that inflate their popularity through artificial follower numbers benefit in only a temporary way, and have to reinvest money to maintain the illusion.
There are also tools and apps that users can deploy to automatically follow people, and apps that will unfollow people if they don’t follow back.
Bottom line – start slowly and have fun!
A best practice is to let your account grow naturally through organic following and engagement. And importantly, it needs to be fun. If you enjoy it, you’ll stick with it. And if you stick with it, you’ll succeed!
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