Overview
Instagram is a mobile app and social media network that lets you share photos and videos with friends. When you have taken a photo, you can choose a special filter to transform the image and then share it with your connections.
Key Facts
500 million monthly active users
In December 2011, Apple Inc. named Instagram "App of the Year" for 2011
Instagram was bought by Facebook in April 2012
Using Instagram
Instagram can help you increase the reach of your visual content quickly.
Instagram Glossary
Filters
Instagram offers a number of photographic filters that users can apply to their images to alter the final appearance of their photos.
Hashtags (#)
By putting a ‘#' symbol directly in front of a word/phrase, users can join a larger conversation around a particular topic (e.g. searching for #SoAmpli will display all posts that include this hashtag):
Direct Messages
Private messages, only visible to the user who is sent the message, can be sent via Instagram messenger.
You can also create group chats to have a group conversation with multiple Instagram users.
Setting up your Instagram
If you are not on Instagram but wish to create a personal profile to help your social media campaigns reach more people, you can do so in a matter of minutes!
To set up your profile, go to:
https://www.instagram.com/accounts/signup/ and fill in the form with your personal details. Please note that users can post images to Instagram only via iOS or Android apps.
Creating the perfect Bio
To create the perfect Bio on Instagram, you should:
Clearly outline the key points about your company
Explain what your business does
Show off your company's personality
Indicate how a customer can find you
Encourage visitors to take an action (using a call-to-action button)
Be creative, use of effective #hashtags, current trends, and links to blog posts, websites, or even links to a popular purchase on your website will help to make your bio standout from the crowd!
Username & Name
When choosing a username, it is important to:
Make sure that it's professional and relevant.
As your username and name are searchable on Instagram, if your username is random then it's likely that other users will have trouble finding you! Also, other users will use it to tag you.
Your username will appear at the top of your profile page, whereas your name will display in the bio section (in bold).
Profile Photo
In general, the best profile image size for Instagram is 110 x 110 pixels.
Profile pictures display larger when accessing Instagram via desktop. Therefore, it is best to use an image that is 180 x 180 pixels to ensure that the image displays in a high resolution on both desktop and the app.
Posting images on Instagram
When posting images on Instagram, the image size should be 1,080 x 1,080.