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're sharing a quick-and-easy guide to posting on Instagram, to ensure you can begin attracting the attention of your audience with Instagram marketing.
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.
See that plus sign [+] in the image above? That's your starting point. Click that plus sign and you'll be ready for the next step, below.
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 Next button in the top right corner of the app.
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.
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 (play the video below to see it in action).
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.
Instagram offers a wide variety of 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).
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:
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.
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.Featured Resource
Get creative and write a nice, interesting Instagram caption to go with your photo. Since text can help optimize your post in Instagram's search, writing something can only benefit you.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Finally, if you want to share your content on your other, connected social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter), simply toggle the button from the left to the right.
When you're ready to post, click "Share" in the top right.
Instagram Saved DraftsIf 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."
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.
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
Instagram is the fourth most popular social media platform with over 1.4 million monthly active users. If your business hasn’t added Instagram to your social media strategy yet, we’re not surprised you’re now considering it.
But it’s one thing to create a random Instagram post. It’s another to fully flesh out your post and create a multi-faceted Instagram content strategy.
To help out, we created a step-by-step guide for how to post on Instagram: How to create your caption, how to post each different type of content that Instagram supports, and more.
Ready to dig in?
Posting to Instagram regularly is essential to make sure you create a consistent and high-performing Instagram marketing strategy. While there are several steps to creating high-quality posts, if you follow our guide, you’ll be able to master them in no time.
Your first step is to open up your Instagram app and then click the + sign in the top-left corner of your screen.
From here, you need to decide which type of content you want to create. There are four main types: a post, story, reel, or live video.
Select your chosen option from the drop-down menu and follow along with our how-to guides for each one.
Create an Instagram Feed PostThe first type of Instagram post you might want to create is a regular Instagram feed post. This could be either an image or a video—both are great options to add to your feed.
To get started, click the Post option from the list of options. Your camera roll will pop up so you can select a photo or video you’ve already created—although you do have the option to tap the camera icon and take a photo or video right in the app.
(Side note: we don’t recommend doing this. If you want to create a high-quality Instagram feed, you’ll want to create your content outside of the app and then post it separately.
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There are three types of feed posts you can create:
While in your camera roll, you can select the photo(s) or video(s) you want to add to your post. If the ones you choose are horizontal or vertical, you can choose to keep them that way or crop them into square images.
Tap Next to choose a filter. There are over 20 different filter options inside Instagram. Or you can tap the Edit tab at the bottom to access more customizable photo editing options.
Once your photo looks how you want it, tap Next again. This is where you’ll create your caption and add your hashtags—but more on that in a bit.
Instagram stories are temporary stories that stay on your profile for 24 hours. You can also add them to different story highlights that remain at the top of your Instagram profile for followers to check out after the initial 24 hours is up.
Stories can be great ways to engage even further with your audience. Because they appear at the very top of the Instagram feed, users may be more likely to see your stories than your actual feed posts.
To post a story, you’ll tap the second option from the “Create” drop-down menu. Or, you can swipe right on your home screen to access the stories camera.
From here, you can either take a photo or video right inside the app, or you can upload a previously created graphic, image, or video.
You can publish your story as is, or you can customize it in Instagram. There are several options in the top-left corner of the screen to help you decorate your story or add more information.
First, you can tap the “Aa” icon to add text on top of your story. There are a number of different fonts and font decorations to choose from—sticking to just one or two font choices across all of your stories is a great way to stay consistent and recognizable.
The second option is stickers. These range from fun GIFs and illustrations to a location sticker, hashtag sticker, question sticker, mention sticker, poll sticker, or link. You can even add a music sticker to attach a song to your story.
Next, you can add filters or animated effects to your story. Some of these work on any image while others are specific to images with faces.
If you click the icon with the three dots, you can choose to save your story (i.e., if you took the photo/video in the app and you want to save it to your camera roll) or you can access the draw feature.
There are several options: pen, arrow, highlight, neon, and eraser. You can choose from a number of different colors and even use the color dropper to pull a specific color right from your image or video.
Then, click the share button to add to your story. You can link your Facebook page to your Instagram business profile in order to share the story to both platforms at once.
An Instagram reel is a short-form video similar to TikTok videos. They help to engage audiences and build a bigger following on Instagram.
To create an Instagram reel, you’ll select the third option from the drop-down. If you have already created your 90-second or less video, you can select it from your library to upload.
If you expand all the customization options on the left sidebar, you’ll see the ability to add or adjust the video’s audio, length, speed, or layout. You can also set a timer before it starts to record or swipe through filter tiles and effects to add onto the video as you record.
Once you’ve recorded or imported your video from your camera roll, you can add stickers, text, or drawings just like in your stories.
After you’ve finished customizing your reel, you’ll create your caption and share it to your Instagram account by clicking the blue button.
We’ll talk about creating a great caption in just a bit.
The last option is to go live on Instagram. This creates a live video broadcast on your Instagram account that your followers can tune into and watch. They can also leave comments, giving you a great opportunity to interact with your audience in real time.
To create a live video, you’ll tap the fourth option in the drop-down. At the top of your screen, you’ll get to see how many of your followers are currently active so you can gauge whether it’s a good time to go live or not.
You can create a title for your live video and link to a fundraiser if you’re partnering with a charity. Tap the Audience button to choose between going live in front of your audience or creating a practice broadcast.
Or you can choose to schedule your live video for a later date, but still letting your audience know when they can expect you to go live.
Scroll through the built-in Instagram filters if you choose, then tap the button in the button of your screen to start broadcasting.
Now that you know how to post each of the main content types to Instagram, let’s talk caption-writing. You’ll need to add an interesting caption to both Instagram posts and reels, but you can skip this step if you’re simply posting stories or going live.
To get you started, check out some of our Instagram caption ideas. Then we’ll go over strategy.
Your caption can be up to 2,200 characters, but you don’t want to use all of that. Research shows that posts perform best with around 70 words in your caption.
However, that’s not always the rule. If you don’t have a story to tell with your Instagram post, don’t force it.
We’ve put together a few tips to ensure your Instagram captions grab attention and get your audience interested in learning more about your post—and your business.
Don’t use words and phrases you would never say out loud. Instead, be relatable by creating captions that sound like something a human would actually say.Keep these tips in mind and start creating fun captions that your audience enjoys reading.
After you write your caption, you’ll want to add hashtags. Each Instagram post can have up to 30 hashtags, and a recent analysis showed that posts with 20-30 hashtags generate the most reach. 20 hashtags is the sweet spot, so try to stick around there.
So how do you find relevant hashtags that will help your post reach the most users?
First, search through the most popular Instagram hashtags to see if any fit your business or your post. Incorporating those can help you reach a much wider audience.
Next, consider using a hashtag suggestion tool to help you find even more great hashtags for your post. You can also check out competitor posts to see what hashtags they use. Click on each one to see how popular they are and if they’re worth adding to your post.
Another tactic is to search for keywords relevant to your business and see which top hashtags pop up in Instagram search.
Add a list of hashtags to a document or note on your phone or computer so that you can refer back to them each time you create a new Instagram post.
When you’re adding hashtags to your post, there are a couple different ways to make sure they’re hidden from view and don’t make your post look spammy:
This will ensure your hashtags don’t appear above the “See more” button so that your actual caption stands out most.
You’ve done it! You’ve gone through all of the steps to creating an awesome Instagram post. The last step is simply to hit publish.
Keep in mind that you can also use scheduling tools to create multiple Instagram posts at once and have them automatically publish to your profile on the dates and times you set.
Now that you know how to post on Instagram, it’s time to start creating stunning and engaging content for your audience. Grow your following and use Instagram to promote your products and services.
Yes, posting to Instagram from the desktop browser is a recent addition to the software.
To do so, head to Instagram.com on your desktop computer and click the + sign icon. A pop-up appears with an upload button or you can drag-and-drop your photo/video onto the screen.
Then follow all of the steps above to publish your post.
You can add up to 30 hashtags into the bottom of your caption or as a comment on your Instagram post.
To get access to the best features, post to Instagram from the mobile version.
If you see a colorful circle around a profile photo, that means that profile has posted an Instagram story in the last 24 hours. You can tap the profile photo to view the story.
Edit your profile, tap Business Information > Contact Options > Add an action button. From here, you can choose what type of button you want to add based on how you prefer potential customers to contact you or access your products/services.
Would you like to easily repost someone's Instagram post? Have you heard about the ability to add posts to your Stories?
In this article, you will learn how to add any public post to your Instagram story and how this feature will be beneficial for your business.
This feature is currently being tested and only available to a select audience. Not everyone has access to it yet. Even we don't have it, but luckily for us, our friends have it and they gave us access to their account to show it to you. nine0003
So, to find out if you have access, select any public post from any public account, including your own. Click on the Message or Send to button, it's the icon below the post picture that looks like a paper airplane. If you have the Add Post to Your Story option, then this functionality is available to you.
Please note that Instagram allows accounts to block this functionality. If you are checking the post and you do not have this option, then your account may have disabled this feature. You will need to check another account to see if you actually have access. nine0003
This new feature is a prelude to the official "regram" on Instagram.
This is not a fully functional regram, as many would like. In this testing version, you can share an Instagram post in your own story. You cannot reshare it to your Instagram feed.
The process of sharing a post is relatively quick and easy.
Select any post, including your own. Click on the Send To button and select Add Post to Your Story as mentioned above. nine0003
A new history post will open. Instagram's technology automatically selects color gradients for the background color based on the colors in the image. The original post in this case will be a square image with the account name below it.
Now that you have a story post, edit your story as usual to add more context to your reshared post. You can drag and resize a shareable post and add text, stickers and other components to it. nine0003
If you don't like the background color that Instagram applied to a post, you can change it. To get started, click on the pencil icon.
Unfortunately, in this testing version, although the username is indicated at the bottom of the photo in the story, the original user is not noted in the post itself.
That is, he will not receive notifications that you have shared his post.
In this situation, as a rule of etiquette, you need to indicate the proper copyright by adding text that contains the original user and tag him in the post so that he receives an alert. nine0003
Now complete your story by loading it in the normal way. Now you and your followers will be able to see it in your profile.
When a user has republished a post to their stories, you can click on the story and then click on See Post to go directly to the original post from that user.
Once you open the original post, you can interact with it as usual, like or comment on it. nine0003
By default, your account allows others to share your posts. Anyone should already have this option in their account settings by now.
There may be situations, however, when you don't want other accounts to be able to share your posts in their stories.
You can easily stop this, even if the republish functionality is not available to you yet.
Click on the mechanism icon in your profile and scroll down to the Allow Others to Reshare option. If the slider for this option is enabled, then people can currently share your posts. To disable this setting, click on the slider and it will disable this option. nine0003
There are always doubts about posting someone else's content on social networks. They own the copyright to the original work and you need access to reuse that content.
Many sharing features on platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow users to bypass copyrights by sharing the original post with the copyright. This new Instagram reshare feature works more like these share features and most users will use this tool without considering the rights of the original users. nine0003
Of course, it's always best to ask permission before sharing someone's content. Since this new feature in Instagram can make many users happy when sharing their content.
But that shouldn't stop you from asking permission.
This will be especially true when customers share content about your product or service. If you are sharing content that can generate financial benefit for your business, in the form of using posts as recommendations, then you will need to make sure that you have clear permission from the owner to republish their post. nine0003
Like many of us who love to repost on Instagram, this repost feature provides a variety of ways to leverage your Instagram Stories content strategy. If you have this functionality, then you will need to consider reshing in such ways.
Show how your customers use your product or service.
Highlight local events near your business. nine0076
Get industry advice from market leaders.
Share breaking news and updates related to your industry or audience.
Cross-promoting your own Instagram posts in your own stories will increase reach among your own audience.
Even if you don't currently have this feature, it will most likely be an advantage for your company to enable the resharing feature. If your followers or others have access to this feature, then they can easily share your posts to their audience. This can give you more reach and exposure to new audiences and can drive more engagement to your posts, potentially leading to more followers. nine0003
When this functionality is rolled out to all users, it will be a great way to run contests that require you to reshare your posts.
The republish feature is still being tested and most users do not have access to it. This has been a request from many users over the years and we can assume that this feature or something similar to it will be rolled out to the general public in the near future.
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Post-gallery can be posted on Instagram: several photos and/or videos at once in one post.
In such a gallery, there can be up to 10 photos and videos in total. First, we will tell you how to make a post from several photos, and then how to use it to promote on Instagram.
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When the first gallery post appears on your blog, there will be a few dots under the photo. These points mean that there are several photos in this publication. In your mosaic account, gallery posts will have a gallery icon in the upper right corner. To view the gallery, swipe from right to left. nine0003
You can comment and like a post with multiple photos and videos as usual. But these comments and likes will not be for each individual photo, but for the entire gallery.
Edit like a regular post.
Photos and videos, their order and tagged people cannot be changed. But you can geolocation and signature.
Beauty bloggers
Travelers
Sale of goods (shops, needlewomen, etc.
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Sale of services
Posts with several photos and videos are a logical continuation of stories. Nobody wants to spam their account with similar photos/videos, but they still want to keep them (stories disappear!). And for business, there is generally a huge field for development. Instagram will increasingly replace the online store, which not everyone can afford.
