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How do you make an instagram post


Creative Instagram tips: How to make posts and reels stand out

Learn how to make inspiring Reels, photos and carousels that can bring your brand to life and help grow your community.

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ON THIS PAGE, WE'LL HELP YOU:
Create engaging posts, step by step.Get inspired by real small businesses.Continue growing your business.

Share a post in just 3 steps.

Learn the basics of posting entertaining Reels and captivating photos.

Create engaging content
STEP 1

Create engaging content.

Every post is an opportunity to connect with your community, whether it be in a Reel, photo or carousel.

Get discovered with entertaining, original videos.

  • Engage viewers with transitions and effects.

  • Emphasize key points with timed text.

  • Bring your clips to life with audio.

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Photos

Show off your products with eye-catching imagery.

  • Highlight unique features by showing products in use.

  • Keep colors consistent with your brand.

  • Use natural light for bright, balanced photos.

Carousels

Tell a deeper story with up to 10 photos or videos.

  • Feature eye-catching content on the first slide.

  • Mix photos and videos for a compelling narrative.

  • Try different angles to highlight benefits.

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STEP 2

Write a compelling caption.

Once your content is ready, it’s time to craft a caption that captures what your post is all about.

  • Lead with the most important information.

  • Use a consistent and personal tone.

  • Keep copy short and to the point.

  • Encourage action with simple, direct text.

STEP 3

Add helpful tags.

You’re almost ready to post! Adding tags before you share helps customers discover and learn about your business.

  • Use hashtags to make posts more discoverable.

  • Tag partners to bring them into the conversation.

  • Add your location so customers can find your business.

  • Try product tags to make it easier to purchase.

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Ready to create your next post?

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Get inspired

Get inspired by small businesses like yours.

Now that you know how to create Reels and photo posts, try different posting styles to discover what resonates most with your audience.

Continue growing

Continue growing your business with posting best practices.

Use timesaving tools and helpful tips to make the most of each Reel and photo you post.

Stay organized with a content calendar.

Plan when, where and how your posts will appear in advance, so you can create content efficiently.

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Entertain your audience using Reels.

With tools like effects, music, and stickers, Reels can help you creatively share your story.

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Reach more people when you boost a post.

Turn any post into an ad that encourages potential customers to take the next step with your business.

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Track post success with Insights.

Get a detailed breakdown of how people engage with your posts and discover trends across your followers.

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Start creating your next post.

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How to Post on Instagram: A Step-by-Step Guide

With over 1 billion active users, Instagram is one of the best social media networks to advertise your business, reach new audiences, and grow brand awareness. So even if you aren’t active on the website yet, it’s never too late to adopt an Instagram strategy in your marketing plan.

If you're ready to start sharing content through this channel, we've got you covered. Here, we've cultivated a quick-and-easy guide to posting on Instagram, to ensure you can begin attracting the attention of your audience with Instagram marketing.

How to Post on Instagram

  1. Tap the + icon at the top of your screen.
  2. Choose a photo or video from your library or shoot one in the app.
  3. Post multiple images on Instagram.
  4. Crop the image.
  5. Pick a filter.
  6. Edit your photo.
  7. Type your caption.
  8. Use hashtags for post optimization.
  9. Tag friends.
  10. Add your location.
  11. Play with emojis.
  12. Share the post on other social media platforms.
  13. Edit the post.

Posting to Instagram consistently can help businesses find resonance with their audience and grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here's how to post to your Instagram account step-by-step.

Step 1. Tap the + icon at the top of your screen.

See that plus sign [+] in the image above? That's your starting point. See that post from our culture account? That's your endpoint. Click that plus sign and you'll be ready for the next step, below.

Step 2. Choose a photo or video from your library or shoot one in the app.

Instagram will show you the photos already saved to your phone. Choose one of those to post. Alternatively, you can click on the camera icon to take a photo or video within the Instagram app itself, if you don't already have an image you want to use.

Once you select and crop an image (or carousel of multiple images), click the arrow button in the top right corner of the app.

Step 3. Post multiple images on Instagram.

Do you have multiple photos and want to highlight them all? Instagram allows you to do this with its carousel feature.

As you go to tap a photo or video, first tap the icon just above your photos to the right that looks like stacked squares. Once you tap this, you'll see a number on the corner of every image or video you tap. This number notes where the content will show up in the carousel.

Step 4. Crop the image.

You aren't limited to just a square image on Instagram. You can actually share horizontal or vertical images as well. To get more of your image seen, pinch the screen of the photo you've selected on the Library screen.

However, while Instagram does allow vertical and horizontal options, the images still need to fit into some specific dimensions. So, you might still need to crop a tiny bit of your photo to get it to fit.

Step 5. Pick a filter.

Instagram offers 24 filters — scroll to the right to peruse your options, and click on one to preview how it will look on your photo.

By default, the filter will be applied by full strength. However, if you want to scale back the intensity of the filter, double click the filter tile once it's been applied, and a scale selector will appear, allowing you to downplay the effect.

You can also tap the magic wand at the top of the screen to adjust the photo further.

(Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters to learn more).

Step 6. Edit your photo.

You can also click "Edit" at the bottom right to adjust the image to your specifications.

Here are the editing options that come built into Instagram for you:

  • Adjust - This helps subtly rotate the image along the center plane, giving it a tilt either to the left or right according to the linear scale at the bottom of the screen.
  • Brightness - This helps lighten or darken the image. All you have to do is pull the selector to the left to darken or to the right to lighten.
  • Contrast - This helps to increase or decrease the intensity of the image's colors. Pull the selector to the left for less contrast (a dulling effect) or to the right for more contrast (a higher intensity effect).
  • Structure - This helps to add an HD-like effect to the image, bringing out specific details in your photo. Drag the selector to the right to help the image "pop."
  • Warmth - This helps you adjust the temperature of the photo. Drag the selector to the left to increase cool tones in the image, or drag the selector to the right to increase the warm tones in the image.
  • Saturation - This helps you adjust the saturation of the colors in your image. Drag the selector to the left to desaturate the image (all the way to the left if you want a monochrome look), or drag the selector to the right for extremely saturated colors.
  • Color - This gives you a number of color options to overlay over your image for interesting color effects. Simply select your color choice and see how it changes the image in the preview box.
  • Fade - This softens the intensity of the blacks in your image to create an "aged" photo effect. Simply drag the selector to the right for a higher degree of fade.
  • Highlights - This helps you control the intensity of the highlights in your image. Dragging the selector to the left will darken the highlights in your image while dragging the selector to the right will lighten the highlights in your image.
  • Shadows - This helps you control the intensity of the shadows in your image. Dragging the selector to the left will darken the shadows in your image while dragging the selector to the right will lighten the shadows in your image.
  • Vignette - This darkens the corners of the image, leaving a circle shape in the center. Drag the selector all the way to the right for the most dramatic vignette.
  • Tilt Shift - This helps blur the edges of the image in a radial or linear way, drawing focus to the details in the center of the image.
  • Sharpen - This helps sharpen certain details of the image, bringing a more dramatic look to subtler elements in the photo.

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Step 7. Type your caption.

Get creative and write a nice, interesting caption to go with your photo. Since text can help optimize your post in Instagram's search, writing something can only benefit you.

Step 8. Use hashtags for post optimization.

With Instagram's search feature, users can search by hashtags. So, you should make sure to write relevant hashtags in your caption. If someone does a search of a hashtag you placed in your caption, they might find your post as well as others that included the same one.

Step 9. Tag friends.

Want your friend or their followers to see a photo that you posted of the two of you? Tag them!

On the new post page, you can click "Tag People" to tag other Instagram accounts in your post. Alternatively, you can include their handle (or their username beginning with an @ symbol) in your caption.

Step 10. Add your location.

If you're on a fun vacation or at a neat event and you don't feel like including that information in your caption, you can mark where you are in another way. On the new post page, tap "Add Location" to put a location on your image (which makes it easier for people to find your post).

When you post an image or video with a location, it will show up between your name and the block of content on the feed.

Step 11. Play with emojis.

Emojis are fun and can make your caption more eye-catching. If you know of a few relevant emojis that could fit with your post, stick them in the caption area. For example, if you're posting a vacation photo, you could include a palm tree 🌴 or a plane ✈️ to show you flew somewhere.

Here are the top Instagram emojis you can use:

  1. ❤️
  2. 😍
  3. 😘
  4. 😂
  5. 😊
  6. 😎
  7. 💕
  8. 😉
  9. 💋
  10. 👍

However, keep in mind that there's a multitude of choices to add flair to your posts, from keeping it real 💯 to the cringe face 😬.

Be sure not to go overboard and post emojis just for the sake of posting them. If you post a bowling emoji along with a photo of a beach, that obviously won't make sense to people. Similarly, if you post 20 emojis that loosely relate to a post, you might just annoy your followers or come off as desperate.

Step 12. Share the post on other social media platforms.

Finally, if you want to share your content on your other, connected social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter), simply slide the bar from the left to the right.

When you're ready to post, click "Share" in the top right.

Instagram Saved Drafts

If you're not ready to post right away, you can also save it to your Instagram Saved Drafts. Simply go back to the filtering and editing step, tap the back arrow in the top left, and select "Save Draft."

Step 13. Edit the post.

Typos happen to everyone! If you just posted something and notice a glaring spelling error, don't panic. Simply tap the three dots that appear on the right across from your name, then tap "Edit."

Make the adjustments you see fit and save them so it reflects on your Instagram. Otherwise, your post is complete and live for everyone to see.

Grow Your Audience on Instagram Today

Now that you know how to post to Instagram, you can begin creating content for the platform and connecting with your audience. If you're a business or brand, you'll want a solid strategy for earning engagement and awareness.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Topics: Instagram Marketing

Don't forget to share this post!

How to make a post on Instagram from your phone using an app or gallery

Do you want to make a post with photos on Instagram, but you have never done it before? Our small but useful guide on this topic may be useful to you.

How to make a post through the Instagram app*

Posting a new post on Instagram* takes a little time and is not difficult. How to add a post to Instagram* from your phone: first you need to go to your profile through the official application, then follow the steps.

  • In the upper right corner, to the left of the three vertical bars, click on the plus sign in the square. It is visible on the main tab (house) or in the profile. If you opened rails or search, they will not have the icon we need.
  • After clicking on the plus sign, the "Create" tab will open. Select "Publish".
You can publish stories in much the same way, but now we are talking about the post
  • Here are files from your gallery that you can select and publish. Up to 10 photos and videos can be uploaded.
  • Select multiple photos and click on the blue Next arrow. It is located in the fourth photo in the upper right corner.
All selected photos will have a blue circle with a number - the order of the photos inside the publication
  • If you don't want to choose ready-made photos from the gallery or there are no suitable ones, you can always take a fresh photo or video. To do this, you need to swipe to the right.
  • When you have chosen a photo that you like best, you can apply any filters, levels of brightness, contrast and saturation to it.
  • You can also edit these photos by changing the contrast, brightness, temperature, etc. If you don't like the result, you can undo the changes, in which case the picture will return to the way it was before editing. You can change all photos in the same way, each in its own way, only part of the frames from the post or not change any photo.
  • After applying filters or editing, you need to click on the blue checkmark in the upper right corner, as shown in the sixth photo.
Instagram* has a variety of filters and photo editing options built in.
  • Next, add a location or tag people in the photo if you like. To do this, select any of these items, for example "add location". How to search for people marked in the photo, we analyzed in the article “How to search for posts and people by hashtags on Instagram *: instructions”.
  • Instagram* will prompt you to find the location. Settlements that are in close proximity to you or the place where you took this photo will appear. For the function to work properly, geolocation must be enabled in the smartphone settings.
  • In this case, you can select any location. No one forbids you to take a photo in a odnushka bathroom in Syzran and add a Monte Carlo geotag. The only question is that it will be quite difficult to find a suitable quality bathroom. On the other hand, bathrooms may well be the same anywhere in the world, right? :–) We talked about locations and hashtags in English in the article "Popular hashtags in English: topics and examples of use." You can peep popular and not only hashtags there.
It's still better to put the correct location, this will help you find the target audience nearby
  • After choosing a geolocation or marking people, you can start writing text to complete the picture. Is your post about something? So tell people about what you feel or suggest.
  • To fill the post in the line "Enter a signature" you need to add a description and hashtags. It is desirable that the caption and hashtags match your post. If the text is large, no problem. We talked about this in the article "Large texts on Instagram *: why are they needed and how to design."
  • So, all manipulations with the future post are completed. Click on the blue tick in the upper right corner, as shown in the picture with number 10.
Among other things, you can share a post on several social networks at once, you just need to move the slider in the right direction. Until this process is completed, the post will not appear in the feed of your friends and followers. Picture 13 shows a finished Instagram post*

We looked at how to post on Instagram* from Android. If you have iOS, the intuitive process will be the same, just some functions will be called differently.

How to post via device gallery

There is another way to post from your phone. This is very convenient, for example, when you scroll through your gallery and find a photo that you urgently need to share with other users.

Step by step how to add a post to Instagram* from your phone through the gallery:

  • We find the "Gallery" of pictures in our phone, open it. We are looking for those photos or videos that we want to publish for our subscribers. At the bottom of the screen in the center there is a "Share" button. On Android, it often looks like an unfinished triangle with circles at the ends.
  • After clicking on the triangle or the "Share" button, social networks, mail and other applications installed on the phone will appear through which you can share the publication.
  • If the system hangs a little after clicking, it's not a big deal. Your phone needs to launch Instagram* to fulfill your request and create a post.
A post on Instagram* is called Instagram* Feed, and a story is called Instagram* Stories, don't mix it up :–)
  • You can apply different filters to a selected frame or several. For each your own filter or one for everyone - just like when publishing simply through the Instagram application *.
Many filters and image editing at your disposal

You can also crop unwanted parts of the frame to make it more accentuated in the right place in the photo. Or do nothing, don't edit, just click on the blue arrow to go to the next block.

You can use any suitable hashtags and geotags of your choice

Our blog has a lot of articles about the benefits of hashtags and how to use them correctly in publications. For example:

  • How to put hashtags in social networks correctly: guide
  • How many hashtags can be put on Instagram* - answer
  • Hashtags for gaining followers on Instagram*: varieties, effectiveness, examples
  • Popular hashtags on Instagram* about children and kindergarten
  • Popular hashtags about nature: how and why to use

And if you just need to quickly find hashtags for publication, you can use our bot "Gennady". You give him a photo or a word for which you need to pick up hashtags, and he gives you a whole cloud of hashtags that can be attached to a post. But we digress. While we were thinking about hashtags, our post has already been published.

The post is ready, you can do other things

Why the photo is not added to the post

Let's say you tried both options, but the photo still doesn't want to be added. What to do in this case? Determine the cause and try to fix it:

  • Out of memory . Sometimes utilities that also run in the background use a lot of device memory. If they don't have enough memory, they don't function properly, malfunction, or become unstable. The application looks normal, but some of the functions do not work. To solve this problem, you need to check the settings and the amount of memory used. Sometimes a simple reboot of the phone helps.
  • Outdated version of application . If you miss several app updates, some features may stop working or start to work incorrectly. To fix this error, download the new version of the application from the Play Market or AppStore.
  • Obsolete version of OS . If the phone's operating system is outdated, some of the functionality may also not work correctly. For the correct operation of the entire device, it is important to update the OS regularly.
  • Unstable internet connection . If you are far away from Wi-Fi or there are too many people using the network, for example in a shopping center, it is better to switch to mobile Internet. If the photo does not load in this case, it is possible that the traffic is running out. The balance can be checked in your personal account on the website or in the application of the mobile operator.
  • Instagram* is blocking the download or the app is crashing . It happens that the post does not allow Instagram itself to be published * due to network congestion or too many users. In this case, you need to try to publish a post a little later.

We have figured out how to post to Instagram* from your phone using the Instagram* app or photo gallery. We talked about how to change settings, edit images and their number, add geotags and tag people. We studied why the photo might not be added to the post, and what to do in each of the cases. You can find more information about Instagram*, posts and promotion in our blog.

How to post on Instagram

How to post on Instagram

Instagram is a mobile social network. Therefore, all posts are made only from a mobile device. There are services for downloading records from a computer, including for delayed posting. But they don't always work well. You will have to constantly check whether the post is out or not. Plus, many of them do not have access to filters. And these services are often paid.

Types of Instagram posts

The main types of posts are:

  • Photo
  • Video
  • Carousel
  • Collage
  • boomerang

How to upload an image to Instagram

To upload a photo to Instagram on your home page, click the plus icon on the bottom taskbar.

Next, you will be prompted to select a photo from the gallery.

You can also immediately take the desired photo or video with the camera.

After selecting the desired photo or picture, click next. Here you can select a ready-made filter. If you double-click on it, you can increase or decrease the filter settings by a percentage. We do not recommend you to use filters from Instagram, as they are not of very high quality. If you really want to take cool pictures, read our article on photo editing apps and give them a try. See, the difference is huge!

You can also change the basic characteristics of a photo in the Edit tab. These include the following functions:

  • Align - it can be used to change the curvature of the image.
  • Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Details - make the image more detailed
  • Warm - cooler or warmer tones will be displayed.
  • Saturation
  • Color (shadows and highlights) - here you can set the color scheme of dark and light areas.
  • Burnout
  • Highlight
  • Shadows - setting the depth of shadows
  • Vignette
  • Blur (radial or linear)
  • Sharpness

After editing the images, click "Next" In the next window, add a description to the image and hashtags (you can put no more than 30), but we do not recommend getting carried away with high-frequency hashtags and using only branded or navigational ones. You can also add locations and label people or products in the photo. The same post can be shared on the social network to which your account is linked. In advanced settings, you can turn comments on or off. Next, click the "Share" button and that's it. The post is ready.

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How to upload videos to Instagram

Uploading a video is not much different from uploading images. Choose from the gallery or shoot here and now. The main thing is that the video should be no longer than 1 minute.

Click Next. We trim the video, if necessary, using a kind of track in the "Trim" tab.

We apply filters, as in the photo. We select the cover - the one that will be shown at the start of the video - by video frames. Click "Next". We write a description, put down hashtags. You can’t designate people, but adding geolocation is quite possible. As with the photo, you can share it on other social networks and disable / enable comments.

How to make a carousel on Instagram

To make a Carousel (several photos and/or videos in one post), you need to click on the corresponding icon. Select images or videos in the order you want them to be viewed. Further, everything is the same, except that a different filter can be applied to the elements of the carousel.

How to make a collage on Instagram

Collages are made using a special program from Instagram Layout.

Learn more