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Archive for category: Instagram

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Social Media, Step Up Your Social, Twitter

Likes On Social Media Are Free

This is a short episode, adapted from an article I wrote 5 years, about the importance of engaging with positive comments on social media. It’s as true today as it was the day I wrote it. So I wanted to share it with you, my podcast listeners.

​If someone goes out of their way to say something nice about you on social, and you can’t be bothered to smash that like button, you should re-evaluate why you are on social in the first place!

Listen to the full episode here or wherever you stream podcasts. And scroll down for a full episode transcript.

​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.​

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

I wrote a version of this post 5 years ago. It’s just as true today as it was then . So I wanted to share it with you, my podcast listeners.

On Friday night — five years ago — I went to see a Grammy winning bluegrass legend wow his crowd with songs spanning his 40+ year career.

Because I’m both a bluegrass nerd and a social media nerd, I streamed one of his songs via Facebook Live.

It was late on a weekend night and it didn’t get a lot of views in real time. But over the next 36 hours or so, it was watched a few dozen times. (And now I can go back and rewatch the band anytime I want on my personal Facebook page!) But truth be told, by Sunday night, I wasn’t thinking about the video anymore than I was about the drive to and from the show.

But then Monday morning, something interesting happened — my video was “liked” by the bluegrass legend it featured.

Now let’s be clear: I don’t think that this artist liked the post himself (although he might have). More likely it was a member of his marketing or management team.

But the notification that he had liked my video popped up, and I have to be honest — I got excited. Like, more excited than I probably should have.

I work in social media for a living. I know how this works. I know he probably has some marketing agency liking positive mentions of him online. But you know what: it still got its intended effect out of me!

Having him like my video felt like getting a high five or a quick hello from a bluegrass legend.

Does that digital high five mean that we are suddenly best friends? Of course not.
Does it mean I can suddenly shred  on the mandolin like he can? I wish!

Am I still excited enough that it happened that I immediately wanted to tell all my friends about it? Yup.

Liking that post cost him and his team literally nothing. Yet it added to my excitement about the show and about the artist overall.

Social media serves many roles, not least of which is customer service and community relations.

Think about yourself as a movie star. When you walk down the street, people are going to recognize you. You can’t stop and have lunch with every fan. You can’t even stop and take a picture with them all or you’d never get anywhere. But you can nod and smile to everyone who waves at you.

That’s what a “like” is on social media — it’s a head nod from a celebrity. It doesn’t suddenly make you best friends or ensure that they will buy your product/go see your next movie/buy your upcoming album. But it shows the fans that you are real, and that you respect them as people, not just as consumers. And it only takes as much time to create that connection as you need to give a single click of your mouse or tap on your phone.

If someone posts about you or your business online, respond. Or at the very least, smash that like button.

If they write you a review, thank them (or address any concerns as needed). But at the very least, like their post and let them know you see them and you appreciate them.

If you see a celebrity on the street, and you wave at them, you are going to tell your friends one of two stories:

“Oh my goodness, I just say this famous person on State Street. It was so cool!”

*** OR ***

“I just saw this famous person on State Street. He was kind of a jerk.”

​You’re the celebrity. Which would you prefer?

May 11, 2022/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2022-05-11 16:47:532022-12-28 14:25:11Likes On Social Media Are Free
Instagram

What Are Instagram guides and how can you use them to do more on instagram?

What are Instagram Guides

​Instagram has a new feature and it’s a fun one!

It’s called Guides and it allows you to batch posts to create compilations. For a platform notorious for keeping things “simple” (WHY can’t I add links to my posts?!), this new feature is a powerful new way to take your content further.

Think Pinterest meets blogging. That’s kind of where Instagram seems to be positioning Guides.

Instagram is a massive platform with a billion Daily Active Users. Understanding all the tools they have to offer is a huge step in standing out from the crowd. 

So let’s take a look at how Instagram Guides work and hopefully you can get some ideas for how to use them to grow your own brand.

How To Create an instagram guide in 3 easy steps

Getting started with Instagram guides

1. Tap the + on your profile

How to get started with Instagram guides

2. Tap Guide​

How to make Instagram guides

3. Choose Guide Type
​Like I said. Easy!
​

There are three types of Instagram guides

The three types are Places, Products, and Posts.

The primary difference is in determining how you search for content to add to your Guide. But all three are ultimately pretty similar and none of them limit your content options. 

Places lets you search locations to add content. 
Products lets you search shops to add content. 
Posts lets you search your own posts, as well as posts you’ve saved from others, to add content.

Editing each Instagram Guide type is a bit different, but they do have most basic features in common. Let’s start with Places.

Instagram Guides Types

What are the different types of Instagram Guides

Different types of Instagram Guides

​Once you’ve started a new Places Guide, you’ll see a search bar as well as some recommended places. Choose or search for a location to see posts geotagged in that location.

Select images to add them to your guide. Don’t worry if they’re not your posts — the image will automatically link to its creators’ account.

As with all location-based searches on Instagram, you can go super specific (Wisconsin State Capitol), more general (Madison, WI) or very general (Wisconsin).

A Capitol search will only find pics tagged at the Capitol.
A Madison search might find pics tagged at the Capitol, but also posts tagged in other places throughout the city.
A Wisconsin search could find Capitol pics, Madison pics or pics from anywhere else throughout the Badger State.

Go as specific, or as general, as makes sense for you.

How to add posts to Instagram Guides

If you choose multiple images, they will be added to your Instagram Guide as a gallery your followers can swipe through. To add a new item to your guide, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and tap + Add Place.
​

You’re well on your way to posting your first ever Instagram Guide — but don’t forget to write a title and description. 

Note: to edit the cover photo, tap Change Cover Photo below your Guide’s title.

​​
​Want to rearrange or delete a post from your Guide? No problem. Tap the three dots next to any image to edit, reorder, or remove that post.

Once you’re done, hit post. Don’t forget to share it to your Instagram Story (tagging folks if you’ve used their content of course!).

​Products is very similar to Places, except instead of locations, you can search through Instagram shops along with your Wishlist.

Posts is a bit more freeform, and as a result it’s the most versatile (and potentially most powerful) Instagram Guide type.

Products posts or places in Instagram Guides

The Posts Guide lets you search and select from your own posts along with, possibly more importantly, your Saved Posts. ​
​

Wait, How Do I save Posts on instagram?

To save any post on Instagram, simply tap the bookmark icon located to the bottom right of the post. Doing so adds it to your Saved Posts.

To organize your Saved Posts (for Guides or in general), head to your profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen. Tap Saved, and you’ll see your collections, including the default All Posts collection. Tap the plus in the top right to create a new collection. Here, you can choose posts to create a new collection of related posts. Boom — you’re in business!! 

I use Saved Posts as a way to find posts I want to be able to find again later. I have collections for fun gift ideas, interesting ads I see (#DigitalNerd! 🤓), pics of my cat… Saved collections are private, so think of them as a safe space to save things you want to come back to later.

It actually seems that after years of having private Saved Collections, Instagram is using Guides as a way to simply have public Saved collections as well. And I for one am here for it!

With well-organized collections, you’ll start to see how flexible Posts Guides really can be!

How Do I find Instagram Guides Once They’re Published?

How do I find Instagram Guides after they are published?

Once you’ve published your Guide, they’re actually super easy to find. Just head to your homepage and navigate to the map icon directly under your profile. If you haven’t yet created a Guide, you won’t find the option (the same is true for IGTV and Reels).

You can also visit other people’s profiles and click on their Guides the same way (if they’ve created any).

Want to see an example of an Instagram Guide? Here’s one I made that’s just pics of the Wisconsin Capitol. (Noticing a trend? I freaking love that building!)

Don’t forget, this feature is quite new as of this writing. There’s plenty to explore, and you can find your own way to use this tool uniquely.

Now… who wants to make a Guide explaining how to make Guides? Have fun and don’t forget to tag me (@jlemonsk) when you post your first Guide! I definitely want to see it!
​


Further Instagram Geeking Out

Want to know more about how Instagram has evolved over the years? Check out this Evolution Of Instagram I put together.

And then check out this episode of my podcast, Step Up Your Social, where I cover 10 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories.



​Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Social Media Training - Instagram

December 30, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-12-30 06:00:002022-11-09 12:29:34What Are Instagram guides and how can you use them to do more on instagram?
Instagram

10 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories currently have 500 million daily active users. Half a billion people — around one-and-a-half-Americas — use Instagram Stories every single day!

And Stories keep growing, both in their popularity and in their functionality.

So in this post, we’re going to cover some fun tricks, tips and hacks your can use to take your Instagram stories to the next level.​

If you’re not already posting Instagram Stories on a regular basis, check out Episode 3 of my podcast Step Up Your Social and get caught up on what they are and why you should be using them.
​

That short podcast episode (all episodes of Step Up Your Social are short — ~10 minutes or less) is the 101. This post is the 202.

So let’s dig in!
​

Instagram Stories: The basics

Instagram Stories launched in August 2016 — by October 2016 they already had 100 million daily active users!

  • Stories are ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours)
  • Initially you could only use pictures and videos for Stories that were taken in real time — that’s no longer the case
  • By late 2017, Stories started rolling out interactive stickers — they continue to introduce new ones regularly
  • In early 2018, they introduced GIF stickers
  • As mentioned above, at last reporting, they have 500 million daily active users (on a daily basis, more people use Instragram Stories than use any part of Snapchat)​

Instagram Stories usage versus Snapchat

​

Want a deeper dive into all the changes and added tools that have been rolled out by Instagram over the years, both for Stories and in their primary feed? Check out my Evolution of Instagram.

But needless to say, Instagram Stories is a vibrant platform and you should definitely be taking advantage of it. Here are some tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of your Instagram Stories
​

How to make instagram stories

How to create an Instagram Story

​Several Ways to Create a New Story:
Since Stories have become such a successful part of the platform, Instagram has made it all but impossible to miss them when logged into the app. Users’ Stories are spread out horizontally across the top of the screen, just below the Instagram logo.

Your’s is the first circle on the left. If you don’t have an active story, there will be a blue plus icon over your photo. Tap there to create a new Story. Stories last for 24 hours, so if you have made one in the past day, tapping here will show you your current story.

You can also tap the plus button at the top of your profile or home page and then select Stories from the bottom menu choices.

You can also swipe right anywhere in-app to create a new story. That’s right, this is such a popular tool, Instagram — known for their obsession with simplicity — has given us numerous ways to get to the same place.


How to use Instagram Story Filters

Spice it Up with Filters & Stickers
Adding filters can make an otherwise run-of-the-mill Story feel special. Take for instance this fun shot of my Turkish carpet. With a few quick taps, I  can easily add some fun flair.

Once you’re on the Story creation screen, you can see a menu of filters in small circles at the bottom of the display. Tap on one, or swipe through to see different filters applied to your photo or video.

Instagram cycles through filters often, so it’s worth scanning through to see if there’s anything new. This example was taken in June, so there were a bunch of cool Pride filters. Some filters like this one have different variations, which you can see directly above the filter list.

Next, there’s the sticker library. These are meant to be placed over your content, and they’re incredibly diverse — GIFs, location, @mentions, #hashtags, donation requests, and more.

To resize or move a sticker, just use two fingers to pinch or drag it, respectively. If you change your mind, drag it to the bottom of the screen, where a trash can will appear. Poof, it’s gone!

Want a deeper dive into some of these fun sticker types? We’ll cover a few of the specific sticker types in more detail below.

Sticker Quick Tips
-Pinch and drag to resize and move stickers
-Tap on a sticker to change what it does — feel free to experiment!
-Change color of some stickers with a tap
-Add a “sound on” button sticker to let viewers know to turn up the volume
-Explore the deep GIF library to find something that fits your personality or mood
-All text is customizable — from font, alignment, size, color, and more
-Tap the squiggle to draw: change line styles & color, add arrows, erase, and undo/redo

All of these powerful and fun tool are… literally at your fingertips.


How to check instagram story analytics

Check Your Analytics
Wondering who watched your Story and which Stories inspired actions on your account? Analytics aren’t quite able to read minds, but they are definitely the next best thing. 

During the 24 hours your Story is live, you’ll notice in the bottom-left of the screen “Seen by x,” so you know how many people viewed your story. Tap here to see more detailed analytics of how your Story performed.

On the analytics screen, you can see both who viewed your story and what actions they took (for example, if they skipped your story or watched the next one), Instagram will break that down for you. This can be helpful if you’re posting 20 times a day and want to know what’s connecting with your audience… and what isn’t!

Ok, now that we’re all caught up with the basics, so let’s talk hacks!
​
​


1. Increase Reach With The Location StickeR

How to increase your instagram story reach with location stickers

Adding a location sticker doesn’t just let your viewers know where you are, it can also potentially extend your reach beyond your current followers. How you use the location sticker is up to you.

You can be super specific — I’m at the WI capitol.
You can be a bit vague — I’m in Madison, WI.
Or you can be super vague — I’m in WI.

There are 2 reasons to use location stickers:
1) It helps people know where you are. And
2) and this is the important one,
 it could dramatically increase your Story’s reach. 

There’s no surefire way to get one of your Stories added to a public Story* — which will definitely increase your reach  — but not tagging your location guarantees that you WON’T be added to the public location’s story.

*What do I mean by public Stories? When you search for any place on Instagram, you’ll find a menu of images tagged in that location. You’ll also find public Stories that Instagram is highlighting to give a fuller peak at the spot you are checking out.
​


Instagram story location stickers - how and when to use them

And here’s something cool: Instagram is smart enough to know that the WI Capitol is in Madison and that Madison is in WI. So it’s possible you’ll wind up in the public Stories for all 3 of those places. Which is the main reason why specific location tagging is better than general location tagging. But any location tagging is better than none!

Two quick notes on this — 1) not every story should be tagged by location. If you’re sharing a screenshot of one of your tweets, or posting a Game of Thrones meme that got you laughing, it’s okay to skip the location. And 2) — and this is a big one — you don’t actually have to be at a location to tag yourself there. Now of course I’m not telling you to lie to your audience. In fact I’m straight up telling you to NEVER lie to your audience. But if you took a bunch of pictures at an event last night and you we’re too busy to share them to your Stories in real time, you can post them the next day, and tag the location after the fact. Just search for the location within the search bar, select it, and voila. You’re tagged.

You can then move that sticker around, make it bigger or smaller, or tap it to get different color formatting to better fit the feel of your story.
​


2. Increase Reach With Hashtags

how to use hashtags in instagram stories

 There’s a location sticker. There’s also a hashtag sticker. Use it! Just like you might be added to a public location’s Story when using the location sticker — thus increasing your potential reach — using a hashtag sets you up to potentially be added to a public hashtag’s Story.
​

Now on a general Instagram post, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Stories won’t let you go that far, but it will allow you to use up to 10 hashtags. The more hashtags you use, the better chance you have of getting added to public Stories.

You can only use the hashtag sticker once in a Story. But if it makes sense for you to add more, just pop on over to your text and start typing out relevant hashtags.

IF IF IF you are going to do this — and of course you don’t have to add 10 #s in every post — consider stacking and then hiding them, so that it doesn’t make your Story look… gaudy.
​


instagram story hashtag stacking

Try this:
Create each hashtag as a new piece of text, meaning that instead of just hitting space between tags, you hit done typing out tag one, and then start new text for tag number 2 and so on.

Then, stack them. Literally put them all on top of each other. Which will look awful. But fear not. Once you’ve got your hashtags stacked, head back to your stickers and find yourself a sticker or GIF to stick on top of them. Then no one will see them except Instagram… which in this case is the only one who really matters!


3. Increase Reach With The Mention Sticker

how and when to tag people in instagram stories

There’s a location and a hashtag sticker. There’s also a mention sticker. This sticker lets you tag someone(s) in your Story. This one won’t help you get into any public Stories, but it will give a public shoutout to the account(s) you are tagging, and just as important, it will send a notification to that account that you have tagged them in a Story.

As I always say — don’t talk about anyone on the internet if you wouldn’t want them to know. And talking about someone on social without tagging them is like talking to them on the phone without first dialing their number. Without it, they might accidentally come upon your post, but a tag all but ensures they see it!

Another reason to tag someone is that when you do so, they’ll get the option to share your Story with their followers. So you give them a shoutout, and then they help you reach new audiences. Win-Win!

Along with hoping your community shares your posts, definitely consider sharing relevant and interesting Stories from your audience that tag you. User generated content can be an amazing way to tell your brand’s story.

And, something cool about sharing other people’s stories — it’s more like a quote tweet than a retweet. Meaning you don’t just have to share their Story as is. You essentially are sharing their Story as a sticker, so you can add your own location, mention and hashtag stickers to it as well as GIFs, text and more. Have fun with it!


Instagram story tagging


Instagram story account tagging

The ability to share stories changed the whole concept of Instagram’s power of telling stories in real time. Take advantage of this tool, as it makes sense for you and your brand.
​​

4. Get Engaging With StickerS

What to do with instagram engagement stickers

​If you haven’t explored the loads of fun stickers available to you in Instagram Stories, you are missing out! Along with the ones we’ve already covered, and GIFs (which I love!), there are also some really cool engagement stickers built right into the platform.

You can use stickers to solicit questions from your audience (which you can then answer in follow up Stories), take polls, quiz your audience… there’s even a countdown clock available to you if you have an exciting event taking place and want to build some excitement.

​Explore and get to engaging your audience with stickers.


5. Create Your Own StickerS

Can’t quite find the perfect sticker for your story? Don’t sweat it: you can make your own. It’s surprisingly simple to do so.

create your own instagram story stickers

Find a photo you like. Whether it’s in your browser or saved on your phone, either will work.

In your browser, long tap the image until you see the option to save it. Once the image is saved to your photos, tap the Share button and then tap copy photo.

Now, head back to your story. The copied image should pop up in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Tap on it and bang! You’re good to go.

If you miss the pop up, don’t sweat it. Just open the keyboard, hit paste, and you’re back in business.

That was the tip—here comes the hack! You can save transparent images (.png files) like a Polaroid frame and use these as stickers too. This way, it’s easy to get really creative with a few basic building blocks. Add these in the same way you added those previous stickers, and you’re in business.

This is a super fun and interesting way to create your own content, and most importantly, to be able to do so in your own voice (and with your own colors and branding).
​

6. Add Any Instagram Post To Your Story

how to add an instagram post to your story

Did you know that you can add ANY public Instagram post — your own or anyone else’s — to your Stories? To do so is extremely simple: at the bottom of the post, next to the heart and comment icons, there’s a little paper airplane. Click it and you’ll see the option to “add to story.”

Click that and whatever you were looking at will appear as a sticker in your Story. When I say “whatever you were looking at,” what I mean is that if it was an album, you can only add one image, and if it’s a video, you will only be adding a screenshot of the thumbnail associated with the video.

But once you have the image in your Story, you can move it around, make it bigger or smaller and add all of the stickers, GIFs and text you want. And if you tap on the actual post, it will change the formatting from the clean image with a tag of who posted it, to an image that includes the handle and part of the post’s original text.
​


how to use the tap here button to drive traffic from your instagram stories to your posts

Here’s the coolest hack for this though — go to your GIF library and search “tap here.” You’ll have loads of options — pick one you like. Add your “tap here” sticker to your Story.

When someone taps it, they’ll get a seemingly magic option to visit the original post. Here’s the thing — they would get that option whether or not you point them to tap there. Most folks just don’t realize that it’s an option to click through.

The built-in call-to-action makes it super easy to drive people from your Story to your original post (or anyone else’s). It’s a big part of why more and more accounts are creating Stories from their posts. It’s a second audience you can engage around the same content, and you can potentially drive people back to the original content at the same time.

​I don’t recommend doing this for every one of your posts, but definitely a helpful tool for the posts you are particularly excited about.


7. Get Creative With Color

When I am building a new Story that’s not based on a picture, I’ll sometimes just snap a photo while covering the camera so I can start with a black background. This works fine, but if you want a different color background, there’s actually a really easy way to create one.

how to create instagram story backgrounds of any color


Take any picture and then tap the pen tool. Select the first pen, pick your color of choice on the bottom and then hold your finger down on the screen. The whole background will become that color.

If you want to add a transparent color over top of one of your pictures, you can do that too. Instead of selecting the first pen, select the second one, which looks more like a marker. Choose your color, hold down and you get a transparent overlay over top of your picture.

Want to get really clever with either of these — create your solid or transparent color over top of a picture, and then use the eraser to remove color from the selected areas. That can create a very cool effect!
​

8. Keep The Story Going With IGTV

If you have 10k+ followers, you can link a Story to an external link. This is a very powerful tool, but one that not a lot of users actually have access to.

For those of us with less than 10,000 followers, you do still have one option for linking out from your Story — you can link it to an IGTV video that you have previously posted.

IGTV, short for Instagram TV, allows you to post longer videos then you can post within Instagram proper. On Instagram, you are limited to one minute videos, but with IGTV, you can go up to 10 minutes (some bigger accounts can even go up to an hour).

It can be a great way to repurpose videos that you created elsewhere but couldn’t post to Instagram because they were too long.

How to link an Instagram Story to an IGTV

​Once you have posted something to IGTV, you can link directly to the video through a Story. To do so, simply tap the link icon at the top of your story. You will then be able to select from any of your pre-published videos in IGTV. Then anyone seeing your Story can swipe up and get to your IGTV video.

Like with the “Tap Here” hack, search the GIFs library for a “Swipe Up” call-to-action. so your audience realizes that your Story is intended to take them somewhere else to continue on in the fun!

You can also share an IGTV directly to your Instagram Stories. To do so, simply select it and add it to your story like you would any public post. This will not show the entire IGTV, but will let people stream a few seconds of it and give folks an option to keep watching your full video at IGTV.

how to share an igtv to instagram stories

​

​9. Make Your Own Drop ShadowS

how to make your own drop shadow text in instagram stories

Here’s a fun hack — while Instagram recently upped their font offerings, including a drop shadow option, it’s still a bit limiting as far as customizing your retro drop shadow text look. Want to create a drop shadow effect using the colors and fonts of your choice? Doing so is really easy!
​

Create your text. You can change the size but doing so makes this hack a little tricky. Position it right where you want it, and then create the exact same text again, just with a different color.

Then place one of the texts on top of the other, but just slightly off, enough to create your own… wait for it… drop shadow.

Want to see an example of this in action. Head over to my Instagram account — I’m @jlemonsk — and then check out my Story highlight titled IG updates. Whenever I create a Story about a new Instagram feature, hack, or strategy, I add it to that highlight. Scroll through and you’ll find one that shows this drop shadow hack in action.
​


10. Put a Pin In IT

I saved this one for last because it is just so freaking awesome! Want to add a sticker, text or GIF to a video and have it follow along with the video, rather than just remaining static in one spot? Doing so is actually really easy!
​

Create a video Story (either take a new video in the app, or add in a video that’s already on your phone). Then, select a sticker or GIF you want, or add even text. While the video is playing in the background, long press the sticker or text.

You’ll then get a scrollbar at the bottom of the screen. That scrollbar will let you move through the video at your own speed. Scroll to a spot that lets you clearly see where you want your sticker to stay pinned. Then move/resize the sticker until you have it where you want it. Hit pin and voila. You’ve pinned your sticker, text of GIF.

how to pin stickers to instagram story videos

pin stickers or text to instagram story videos


pin instagram story videos with stickers, gifs or text

This one’s a little complicated, so here’s a quick recap:
-Create a video story
-Select a sticker
-Tap and hold the sticker
-Scroll to a good spot
-Hit pin

Assuming your video isn’t too complicated for Instagram to handle, it should paste your sticker or text onto that spot in the video and then let it follow along throughout the duration of the video.

So in this example, I pinned a Like sticker to a little toy car. Let’s call it a Heart-Ford. (Fun pun to always remember the capital of Connecticut: the Heart Ford Connects a Cut 😂). Instead of the Like sticker just sitting in the corner, it zooms along with the car.

Pretty cool, right?
​

Bonus! Third Party Tools

Everything you’ve seen in this post can be created directly in Instagram. But if you want to take your Story game to the next level — or if you want to innovate some hacks of your own — feel free to try out some of these third-party apps.

These design tools are useful beyond Instagram, with templates and editing capabilities to make almost anything you need for your social media program. 

Adobe Photoshop: The gold standard of image editing, Photoshop now has a great mobile-friendly version of the app
Adobe Spark: A browser-based editor with thousands of fun templates
Canva: Similar to Spark, Canva is a user-friendly, browser-based image editor
InShot: A powerful video editing tool with cool filters

These next 3 apps focus specifically on Stories, and each has a free or paid option, so you can take your content as far as you can imagine.

Over:  Easy to edit templates for beautiful stories
Unfold: Story-editing tool with beautiful, designer-built templates
Instories: A personal favorite, this is imho the most fun story editor with dynamic and fluid titles and video frames that make your Stories look quite professional without much effort at all

Your Turn!
What are some of your favorite strategies, tricks or hacks that you have been using to step up your Instagram story game? I want to hear about them. Hit me up on Instagram (again, I’m @jlemonsk), or on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn where I’m Reverbal Communications.

Or… show off what you’ve learned! Make a cool Instagram Story and use the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

If you tag me in your Stories, you better believe I’m gonna share it! So hit me up!

Now what are you waiting for? Get out there and step up your Story game!​


Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Learn how to use Instagram

November 18, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-11-18 06:00:002022-11-09 12:38:5610 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories
Instagram

Evolution of Instagram: A TimeLine of New Features and major milestones

This post was last updated fall 2020.

You know the old saying that the only constant is change?

Well, that never been more true than when talking about social media.

You go to bed understanding exactly how a platform works — you wake up to find that everything has changed. There are new features, but also missing features, and moved features, and some features that are still there but no longer work. Arggghhh. It’s enough to make you logoff and go refill your coffee. But when it comes to the big platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit… they know you’ll be back. So you just have to sit back down, pound that coffee, and get used to their radical new designs.
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It’s been just shy of 10 years since Instagram was first launched in the app store. In a lot of ways, Instagram today is still very similar to the platform it was way back then (ten years is a lifetime in tech!). But while Instagram might feel pretty similar day in and day out, they’ve actually been rolling out new products and features pretty consistently year after year.

They have also hit some pretty big milestones along the way.
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So let’s dig in and breakdown some of those key new features and major milestones in this Evolution of Instagram.
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​Instagram Launches — October 2010

Instagram launches

The year was 2010. The Social Network was in theaters. Moves Like Jagger was on the radio. Lost was wrapping up its final season, disappointing millions of fans all over the world. And Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were rolling out Burbn, a mobile check-in app that was essentially a clone of Foursquare. Kevin and Mike realized they had a problem. So they did what anyone in their position — who had already raised a half a million dollars in funding — would do and they pivoted.

And thus Instagram was born. For those wondering, the name Instagram came from combining Instant (as in instant camera) and telegram.
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At the time, you had to access Instagram through a mobile device. Ten years later, that’s still the case. (It’s actually not, but it still feels that way.)
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Instagram Incorporates Hashtags — January 2011

Instagram Incorporates Hashtags

In 2007, a bunch of Twitter users inadvertently invented the hashtag as a way to more easily connect and converse at a conference.

Twitter leadership thought it was a “thing for nerds,” but alas, the hashtag was born.

Hashtags were eventually incorporated into Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and Google+ and of course, Instagram, where they made their debut in January 2011. (They have also FINALLY made their way to LinkedIn, which in the words of Verge reporter Casey Newton, is just “Facebook in slow motion.”)


Instagram Is Acquired By Facebook — April 2012

Instagram is acquired by Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg paid a billion dollars to buy Instagram, despite the fact that they had no revenue stream and were only 13 employees strong.

At the time, people panned the purchase. But not today! With over a billion active users, and long serving as Facebook’s primary growth platform for young people, that billion dollars now looks like a heck of a steal.


Instagram Rolls Out Explore — June 2012

Instagram rolls out explore

If you like logging onto Instagram, checking in on your friends and the few select brands you follow, and then getting out, you were good to go from day one.

But if you are looking for new accounts to follow or interesting content to peruse, well Instagram wasn’t really built for that. Until June of 2012 that is, when they rolled out Explore.

Explore let’s you rove around Instagram in a new way, not just by username or hashtag, but also by content suggestion, curated specifically for you.


Milestone: Instagram Hits 100 Million Monthly Active Users — February 2013

When did Instagram hit 100 million users?

Instagram picked up 100k users in the first week following their launch. It only took them a few months to get to a million users. It was six more months before they hit five million users and another three months before they hit ten million users.

They launched in October 2010. It took them less than 2.5 years to add that ninth digit to their user-base. By early February 2013, they already had more users than any European country had citizens.

Not bad for a platform that had just 13 employees a short ten months ago!


Instagram Adds 15-Second Video Sharing — June 2013

When did Instagram add video?

If you are an active user of Instagram, you might not even realize that there was once a time you could only upload images to the platform. But for their first few years of existence, there was no video to be seen in Instagram.

That changed in June 2013 when they rolled out the option to upload videos of up to 15 seconds in length. (Note: at the time of this writing, that’s the length limit of videos shared to TikTok — it will be interesting to see if they too “evolve.”)


Instagram Incorporates Ads — October 2013

When did Instagram start showing ads?

Despite paying a billion dollars to acquire Instagram, Facebook held off on monetizing the platform via ads for a full year-and-a-half.

Presumably, there was a lot of work to do on the backend to enable their ads program to synchronize with Facebook’s pre-existing advertising platform.

While the initial ad rollout was limited to sponsored posts, it set the stage for Instagram becoming a product with an estimated standalone value of $100 billion.
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Instagram Enables Direct Messaging — December 2013

When did Direct Messaging come to Instagram?

Instagram is a primarily public platform, as opposed to Facebook which for individual users tends to default to content being shared only with friends.

So while you could tag your friends in posts and comment on their content, you were doing so for the world to see. But those were pretty much your only options.

That changed in December 2013 when Instagram rolled out Direct Messaging.

Now you could have private conversations with friends, without ever having to leave Instagram.


MILEstone: Instagram Hits 200 Million Monthly Active Users — March 2014

When did Instagram get 200 million users?

While the first 100 million users took 2.5 years to acquire, the next 100 million joined in on the fun in just 13 months.

By March 2014, Instagram had a bigger user-base than the population of Russia, Mexico or really any country in the world save for a few.

Those 15-second videos really made an impression!


Instagram Expands Video from 15 to 60 Seconds — March 2016

When did Instagram video switch from 15 seconds to 50 seconds?

If 15 seconds of video is good, 60 seconds of video must be better, right?!

As of March of 2016, you could start uploading videos to Instagram that were up to 60 seconds in length.

Still not long enough to play the full version of that new song you just wrote, but at least now you can get through the whole refrain!


MILESTONE: Instagram Hits 500 Million Monthly Active Users — June 2016

When did Instagram his 500 million active users?

Instagram just keeps on growing. By June of 2016 they had 500 million monthly active users. Which, just to stay on theme, made their “population” bigger than any country in the world except for China or India.
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Instagram Introduces Stories! — August 2016

When did Instagram first introduce Stories?

There’s an old adage in the social media world: when a platform becomes popular, Facebook will aim to own it or clone it.

While they managed to buy Instagram and WhatsApp (as well as a slew of other companies that aren’t quite household names), a couple of the big players eluded them.

They desperately wanted Twitter. But Twitter wouldn’t sell. So in short order, Facebook introduced hashtags, verified accounts, trending content (now defunct) and a bunch of other features that were all “inspired” by Twitter. (Ie: they couldn’t own it, so they went to work trying to clone it.)

But Facebook’s appetite to consume Twitter was nothing compared to the newer kid on the block, Snapchat.

Snapchat, launched in 2011, was immediately popular with the youth, a demographic that Zuck knew he needed to keep satisfied and clicking if he wanted to remain at the head of the social media table.

In 2013, just two-years after launch, he offered $3 billion to buy them out. They refused. Facebook reportedly tried again shortly before Snap went public. He was again rebuffed.

That second attempt happened in 2016. Coincidently, that’s the same year that all the primary platforms in the Facebook universe (that’s Facebook itself, Messenger, WhatsApp and of course Instagram) rolled out Stories.

Stories are ephemeral content (they disappear after 24 hours) that are intended to be less perfectly quaffed, more fun and allow a user to post as often as they want throughout the day without worrying about bothering the almighty algorithm.

While Snapchat is still doing its thing, there’s no doubt that the rollout of Stories slowed their growth considerably.
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Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 100 Million Daily Active Users — October 2016

When did Instagram Stories hit 100 million daily active users?

Instagram Stories were popular almost immediately. They rolled out in August 2016 and by October of that year they already had 100 million daily active users. That’s 100 million people  who were using Stories. Every. Single. Day!
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Instagram Stories Launches Boomerang — November 2016

When did Boomerang come to Instagram?

At first, Instagram Stories only allowed users to share pictures or short videos taken in real time. Then they expand that to allow you to share pictures and videos you had shot within the last 24 hours. That limitation quickly went away as well, as Instagram enabled the ability for users to share anything on their phone roll (well any photo or any video up to 15 seconds in length).

But Stories also quickly started rolling out fun filters and camera tricks (very similar to Snapchat, who had been providing such offerings for quite some time).

One early and popular such feature was Boomerang — which enables a user to take a short video which is then popped it back and forth, like a boomerang.

While they aren’t as popular today as they were when they first rolled out, you would have a hard time spending 10 or 15 minutes scrolling through IG Stories without coming across at least a couple such clips.


Instagram Enables Albums — February 2017

When did Albums come to Instagram?

From 2010 until early 2017, you could only share one piece of content to your Instagram timeline at a time.

That changed in February 2017 when Instagram rolled out Albums. Albums made it possible to share up to ten pieces of content at once. (You can mix and match photos and videos in a single album.)

This made it easier to share bigger stories to the timeline without having to pump out a bunch of separate and disjointed posts.

Learn more about Albums, and how to use them, with this explainer piece I made when they first launched using… what else? An Instagram Album!
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Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 200 Million Daily Active Users — April 2017

When did Instagram Stories hit 200 million daily active users?

Less than a year after being introduced, Instagram Stories had already hit 200 million daily active users.
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Milestone: Instagram Hits 800 Million Monthly Active Users — September 2017

When did Instagram Stories hit 800 million active users?

And just a few months after that, Instagram as a platform hit 800 million active users.
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Instagram Gets Engaging With Their First Interactive Sticker — October 2017

When did Instagram first roll out interactive stickers - poll stickers?

Instagram has rolled out loads of fun features to Stories over the years, but it was in October 2017 that they rolled out their first interactive stickers with the introduction of the poll sticker.

You could use it to have people weigh in on a simple multiple choice question of your liking (simple because you were — and are — limited to only two answer choices). Once a user votes, they can see the breakdown of how everyone else has voted.

Like with all Stories, those containing polls still disappear after 24 hours. But it was the first of many stickers that Instagram Stories would offer intended to help bring your audience into the conversation.
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Instagram Lets Us Keep Our Stories With Highlights — December 2017

When did Instagram first tell us keep Stories with Highlights?

It didn’t take long for Instagram to realize that people were putting a lot of time and effort into their Stories, and that while some should just go ahead and disappear after 24 hours, it would be nice if users could keep some of them around.

And with that was born Highlights. (I’ve always thought this feature would have been called Albums, if Instagram hadn’t already used that name on a product less deserving of it).

Highlights are very important — first of all, they let you keep select Stories public indefinitely.

But even more importantly, they let you flesh out your account’s profile page, which has always been quite limited.

For your Instagram profile, you get a pic, a short bio, a location and a link to a website (the only active link you can use on the entire platform!). Now suddenly, if you choose to use them, the next thing someone sees while looking at your profile, after your photo and brief bio, is your Highlights. So if used well, they can really do a lot to help you tell your story in a more in-depth and relevant way for your audience.

Let’s say you own a restaurant. You might have one Highlight for salads, another for entrees, a third for desserts and a fourth showcasing the awesome artisanal cocktails you create in house.

Or let’s say you run a boutique. You could have a Highlight for hats, another for skirts, one for accessories, and one for handbags.

Highlights are a great way to show your audience what you do in a way that simply isn’t possible through the limitations offered in the Instagram profile section.
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Instagram Stories Get Active With GIFs — January 2018

When did GIF stickers first come to Instagram Stories?

I’m not gonna lie — I’m one of those people that’s reluctant to update the iOS on my phone for fear of messing with something that’s not broken.

I was probably a year behind the current iOS when Instagram Stories introduced GIF stickers (GIFs are short videos that play on repeat) and I was so anxious to get access to them, I updated my phone.

My phone was fine, but alas, it was months before the amazing GIF library found its way into my account. Why? That’s just the way it goes sometimes. Instagram and Facebook don’t typically rollout new features to everyone all at once.

But suffice to say, I eventually got them and two plus years on, the novelty has still not worn off. Not even a little bit! 😉 ​
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Instagram Stories Introduces Type Mode — February 2018

When did Instagram Stories first introduce Type mode?

Instagram Stories was initially limited to sharing real-time photos or videos. But right from the beginning you could type or draw on top of them.

Well in February 2018, Instagram Stories rolled out Type Mode, enabling the option to share JUST text, without any associated media.

While it might not be the most engaging kind of content to share, there are certain times when all you need is text, and it’s nice to have the option.
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Music Comes to Instragram Stories — June 2018

When did music come to Instagram Stories?

This one is controversial y’all.

In June 2018, Instagram Stories partnered with Spotify to enable the sharing of short clips of songs directly into a Story.
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That part is is simple enough. But do a Twitter search for “why can’t I share music on Instagram?,” scroll through the endless steam of angry, frustrated or just plain sad users, and you’ll see where the controversy lies.

Because here’s the thing: only personal accounts can share music, not business accounts (more on that in a bit). But really, even that isn’t exactly true! Sometimes business accounts can share music, usually however they can’t. Or that’s my experience anyway.

Why? Because Instagram is a website and there are glitches. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ​
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Instagram Stories Hits 400 Million Daily Active Users — June 2018

 When did Instagram Stories hit 400 million daily active users?

By June of 2018, Instagram Stories — less than two years after their rollout — had more daily users than there are people in the United States (or again, any other country on the planet save for India or China).

Not bad for a product that was initially designed simply to slow down a competitor!
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Instagram Doubles Down on Video With IGTV — June 2018

When did IGTV start?

​Facebook has been extremely invested in video for quite some time. So it is no surprise that Instagram would find ways to allow users to share videos longer than one minute.

In June 2018 they rolled out IGTV, short for Instagram Television (yup) enabling users to share videos ranging from 61 seconds up to ten minutes. Some accounts could go as long as an hour, but in my experience, most are limited to ten minutes.

The IGTV rollout was extremely flawed from the outset and widespread use has been so limited that they actually rolled it off into a standalone app where it could sit quietly and not bother anyone.

You can still watch users IGTVs (two points to anyone who knows who to do so!), but mostly it serves as a tool to let people trying to upload longer videos to be able do so. Of course if you do so, people can watch the first minute of your video in their feed, but then they have to switch over to the IGTV version to continue.

The biggest mistake Instagram made with IGTV bar-none (in my opinion of course) was limiting IGTV search to only apply to the handle of the user who uploaded the piece, and not to the accompanying descriptive text.

I’m clearly a huge social media nerd — when a platform rolls out a new product or feature, I’m going to try it. When IGTV launched, I quickly headed to the search bar and searched for bluegrass (I’m a bluegrass musician and fan). What did I find: content from a bank in Kentucky… and not much else. Because the search term only applied to the name of the sharing accounts, despite the fact that just like with any other post, you could describe the video you were sharing with accompanying text. Hell, you could even use hashtags, but since they were unsearchable, they were completely worthless.

For example, lets say Del McCoury or Punch Brothers upload a video to IGTV, and introduce it as their “new bluegrass track,” I still couldn’t find it by searching bluegrass, because their name doesn’t have bluegrass in it. They could even tag it as #bluegrass and still nothing! Pretty silly, don’t you think?!
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Milestone: Instagram Hits 1 Billion Monthly Active Users — June 2018

When did Instagram Stories hit 1 billion active users?

Despite IGTV not giving them the bump they surely hoped for, less than eight years after launching, Instagram did what few have done before — they hit the billion active user mark.

Quite a feat for a company whose initial launch was just a knockoff of Foursquare!
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Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 500 Million Daily Active Users — January 2019

When did Instagram Stories hit 500 million daily active users?

And not too long after that, Instagram Stories hit the 500 million daily active user mark. Expect this number to continue rising in the coming years.
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While Instagram didn’t invent the concept of ephemeral content, they have certainly perfected it. This is one feature that I don’t think will be going away anytime soon.
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Instagram Adds Reels in response to growth from rival tiktok

Instagram adds Reels

Stories was Facebook’s response to Snapchat. So when TikTok raged onto the scene in the summer of 2020, it was clear that Facebook would have to respond. They initially created a standalone app called Lasso, mimicking many of features of TikTok. But that app was shut down before anyone had really even heard of it. (Honestly, had you heard of it?)

When that didn’t work, they decided to stuff the complexity of an entire other social channel directly into Instagram. After all, it worked with Stories – why not try again?!

Thus Reels was born.

Reels hasn’t seen the same kind of fast usership growth as Stories, mostly because it’s more complicated to use than Stories and doesn’t do as good a job at actually solving a problem for users.

Stories enabled users to worry less about creating a perfect take before sharing a picture or video. Reels… kinda does the opposite. Videos have to be a very specific amount of time (15 or 30 seconds) and have to tell an entire story in a way that Stories didn’t require. Stories can run together to show the happening of an evening or a campaign. Reels standalone and have to start and conclude, while ensuring something interesting happens in a very short and concrete amount of time.

There’s clearly an appetite for creating and consuming such content (see: the explosive growth of TikTok!) but it doesn’t naturally compute than everyone on Instagram is going to take the time or effort to join in on the content creation.

That said in November of 2020, Instagram rolled out a massive redesign of the app, placing Reels front and center (it literally took the place of the button that, since day one, was used to create a post!). So clearly Instagram is invested in its success.

Side note: this redesign also added a shopping tab, as Instagram continues to invest in the ecommerce side of social.

Whether or not Reels can ever claim the kind of standalone success as Stories is to be determined, but it’s clear that Instagram will continue to invest heavily in this internal spinoff. And as long as the political future of TikTok continues to remain murky, that decision from Zuck and co. makes sense.


What’s Next?

Evolution of Instagram. Instagram timeline. How has Instagram changed over the years?

The above list of product rollouts and milestones is far from exhaustive. Very far in fact!

Despite Instagram retaining its simplicity year after year, it is actually constantly changing.

If I wanted to make this post twice as long, I easily could have done so! But for your sake and mine, I’m not going to do that.

That said, here are a few highlights we didn’t cover, but that are worth noting.

February 2016: Since Instagram has always been a mobile-first platform, it has bothered people to no end that you couldn’t login to more than one account at a time. Back at the beginning, if you wanted to share content from more than one account, you had to logout of one and login to the other to do so. In 2016, they added the option to be logged into five accounts at once (but no more). This was a much appreciated feature for anyone who works in social media!

March 2016: Instagram switches its feed from chronological, where you see whatever was posted most recently by anyone you follow, to algorithmic, where Instagram determines what content you see and in what order, based on what they think you will like.

May 2016: Instagram introduced a business account, which looks and feels identical to a regular account but comes with a few extra tools, the most important being analytics!

July 2016: They began to enable the ability to better moderate comments on your threads.

January 2018: Instagram added an “Archive,” storing all of your Stories even after they have disappeared. They are only visible to you, unless you have them shared in a Highlight. But with the Archive, you can go back and add old Stories to Archives, even if they’ve already disappeared from your profile.

September 2018: Instagram’s founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, resigned from the company. Notice how closely this follows the rollout of IGTV. Wonder if they’re related? #JustSaying

October 2019: Instagram removed the “Following” activity tab, which let you see the activity of the people you were following, breaking the hearts of exes and creeps everywhere!

This post could go on and on. But we’ll stop here.

What have been your favorite features Instagram has rolled out over the years? Are there any you wish they would retire from the platform?

Have their been any changes that you think should have been on this list but weren’t? Share them in the comments or hit me up on social.

In case it’s not obvious, I never get tired of talking about this stuff!

I hope this post was as helpful for you to read as it was for me to write.

If you enjoyed it, connect with me on Instagram (@jlemonsk). I regularly share platform updates, tricks, tips, hacks and the like. As well as the occasional pictures of my kids and my cat. (You know, all the good stuff!).

See you there.
​



Ready to Become an instagram champion?

I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Learn how to use Instagram

April 18, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-04-18 19:40:202022-11-09 12:57:59Evolution of Instagram: A TimeLine of New Features and major milestones
Instagram, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social EP.11 – 10 Tricks And Hacks To Step Up Your Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories just keep getting more popular. Over 500 million people now use them every… single… day!

And their functionality keeps growing as well.

In this episode of #StepUpYourSocial, we cover ten tips, tricks, hacks and strategies that you should be using to take your Instagram Story game to the next level.

We cover:

  • Growing your reach by tagging location, hashtags and other accounts
  • Using Stories to create and foster User Generated Content
  • Using stickers to directly engage your audience
  • Increasing a post’s reach by sharing it to your Stories
  • Creating solid and transparent overlays
  • Linking your Story to additional content
  • Creating drop shadow text
  • Getting your stickers, gifs or text to move along with your video
  • And a whole lot more!
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Are there any tricks or hacks you like that we didn’t cover?
We want to hear them!

Share them in the comments, hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, or share them online them using the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.


​​​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

In episode 3, we  did a “deep dive into instagram stories.” But stories keep on growing, both in their popularity and in their functionality. So today we’re going to cover some fun tricks and hacks to take your Instagram stories to the next level.​

If you’re not already posting stories on a regular basis, head back to episode 3 and get caught up on what they are and why and how you should be using them.

And now let’s dig in!
1) Use the location sticker to say where you are. You can be super specific — I’m at the WI capitol. You can be a bit vague — I’m in Madison, WI. Or you can be super vague — I’m in WI.

There are 2 reasons to use location stickers: first, it helps people know where you are. And 2) and this is the important one, it could dramatically increase your story’s reach. There’s no surefire way to get one of your stories added to a public story — which will definitely increase your reach  — but not tagging your location guarantees that you WON’T be added to the public location’s story.

And here’s something cool: Instagram is smart enough to know that the WI Capitol is in Madison and that Madison is in WI. So it’s possible you’ll wind up in the public stories for all 3 of those places. Which is the main reason why specific location tagging is better than general location tagging. But any location tagging is better than none!

Two more notes on this — one) not every story should be tagged by location. If you’re sharing a screenshot of one of your tweets, or posting a Game of Thrones meme that got you laughing, it’s okay to skip the location. And 2 — and this one’s a big one — you don’t actually have to be at a location to tag yourself there. Now of course I’m not telling you to lie to your audience. But if you took a bunch of pictures at an event last night and we’re too busy to share stories in real time, you can post them the next day, and tag the location after the fact. Just search for the location within the search bar, select it, and voila. You’re tagged.

You can then move that sticker around, make it bigger or smaller, or click it to get different color formatting to better fit the feel of your story.

2) There’s a location sticker. There’s also a hashtag sticker. Use it! Just like you might be added to a public location’s story, thus increasing your story’s reach, using a hashtag sets you up to potentially be added to a public hashtag’s story.

Now on a general Instagram post, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Stories won’t let you go that far, but it will allow you to use up to 10 hashtags. The more hashtags you use, the better chance you have of getting added to that public story.

Now it will only let you use the hashtag sticker once in a story. But if it makes sense for you to add more, just pop on over to your text and start typing our relevant hashtags.

IF you are going to do this — and of course you don’t have to go for 10 in every post, consider stacking and then hiding them, so that it doesn’t make your story look gaudy. To do that, create each hashtag as a new piece of text, meaning that instead of just hitting space between tags, you hit done after each one, and then start new text for tag number 2 and so on. Then you can stack them, literally put them all on top of each other. Which will look awful. But fear not, head back to your stickers and find yourself a sticker or a gif to stick on top. Then no one will see them except instagram… which is the only one who matters here!

3) There’s a location and a hashtag sticker. There’s also a mention sticker. This lets you tag someone in your picture, or any relevant public account you want. This one won’t help you get into any public stories, but it will give a public shoutout to the account you are tagging, and just as important, it will send a notification to that account that you have tagged them in a story.

As I always say — don’t talk about anyone on the internet if you wouldn’t want them to know. And talking about them without tagging them is like talking to them on the phone without first dialing their number. Without it, they might accidentally come your post, but a tag all but ensures they see it!

4) Another reason to tag someone is that when you do, they then get the option to share your story with their followers. So you give them a shoutout, and then they help you reach new audiences. win-win!

Along with hoping your community shares your posts, definitely consider sharing relevant and interesting stories that tag you. User generated content can be an amazing way to tell your brand’s story.

And, something cool about sharing other people’s stories — it’s more like a quote tweet than a retweet. Meaning you don’t just have to share their story as is. You essentially are sharing their story as a sticker, meaning you can add your own location, mention and hashtag stickers to it, gifs, text and more.

The ability to share stories changed the whole concept of instagram’s power of telling stories in real time. Take advantage of this tool, as makes sense for you and your brand.

5) If you haven’t explored the loads of fun stickers available to you, you are missing out! Along with the ones we’ve already covered, and gifs (which I love!), there are also some really cool engagement stickers built right into the platform.

You can solicit questions from your audience (which you can then answer in follow up stories), take polls, quiz your audience… there’s even a countdown clock available to you if you have an exciting event taking place and want to build some excitement.

6) Did you know that you can add any Instagram post, your own or anyone else’s, to your stories? To do so is extremely simple — at the bottom of the post, next to the heart and comment icons, there’s a little paper airplane. Click it and you’ll see the option to “add to story.” Click that and whatever you were looking at will appear as a sticker in your story. When I say “whatever you were looking at,” what I mean is that if it was an album, you can only add one image, and if it’s a video, you will only be adding a screenshot of the thumbnail associated with the video.

But once you have the image in your story, you can move it around, make it bigger or smaller and add all of the stickers, gifs and text you want. And if you click on the actual post, it will change the formatting from the clean image with a tag of who posted it, to an image that includes the handle and part of the post’s original text.

Here’s the coolest hack for this though — go to your gif library and search “tap here.” You’ll have loads of options — pick one you like. Add your tap here sticker to your story. When someone clicks it, they’ll get a seemingly magic option to visit the original post. Here’s the thing — they would get that option whether or not you point them to tap there. Most folks just don’t realize it. So the built-in call-to-action makes it super easy to drive people from your story to your original post (or anyone else’s). It a big part of why more and more accounts are creating stories from their posts. It’s a second audience you can engage around the same content, and you can potentially drive people back to the original. I don’t know that you should do this for every post, but maybe the one’s you are particularly excited about.

7) When I am building a new story that’s not based on a picture, I’ll sometimes just snap a photo while covering the camera. So I get a black background. Which works fine. But if you want a different color background, there’s actually a really easy way to create one.

Take a picture — of whatever’s in front of you — and then click the pen tool. Select the first pen, pick your color of choice on the bottom and then hold your finger down on the screen. The whole background will become that color.

If you want to add a transparent color over top of one of your pictures, you can do that too. Instead of selecting the first pen, select the second one, which looks more like a marker. Choose your color, hold down and you get a transparent overlay over top of your picture.

Want to get really clever with either of these — create your solid or transparent color over top of a picture, and then use the eraser to remove color from the selected areas. That can create a very cool effect!

8) If you have 10k followers, you can link a story to an external link. Which is a very powerful tool, but one that not a lot of users actually have access to.

So for those of you with less than 10,000 followers, you can’t link to an external source. But you do have one option for linking your story — you can link it to an IGTV video that you have posted previously.

IGTV, short for Instagram TV, allows you to post longer videos then you can post within Instagram proper. In Instagram, you are limited to one minute videos. But with IGTV, you can go up to 10 minutes, and some bigger accounts can even go up to an hour.

It can be a great way to repurpose videos that you created elsewhere but couldn’t post to Instagram because they were too long.

And once you have posted those longer videos, you can link directly to them through a story. To do so, simply click the link icon at the top of your story. You will then be able to select from any of your pre-published videos in IGTV. Then anyone seeing your story can swipe up and get to your IGTV video.

Consider searching through the gifs library for one that creates a call to action to swipe up to help your audience realize that your story is intended to take them somewhere.

9) Here’s a fun hack — while Instagram offers a handful of cool fonts, they don’t provide many options in terms of formatting your text. But want to create a drop shadow effect? Doing so is really easy! Create your text, ideally not changing the size at all (you can change color and placement, but if you change size you are going to struggle to get the drop shadow text to match perfectly). Once you have it exactly how you want it, create it again with a different color. Then place one of the texts on top of the other, but just slightly off, enough to create your own… wait for it… drop shadow.

Want to see an example of this in action. Head over to my Instagram account — I’m @jlemonsk — and then check out my story highlight titled IG updates. Whenever I create a story about a new Instagram feature, hack or strategy, I add it to that highlight. Scroll through and you’ll find one that shows this drop shadow hack in action.

10) I saved this next one for last because it is just so freaking awesome! Want to add a sticker, text or a gif to a video and have it follow along with the video, rather than just remaining static in one spot? Doing so is actually quite easy! Create a video story (either take a new video in the app, or add in a video that’s already on your phone). Then select the sticker or gif you want, or type in the text. Now, while the video is playing in the background, hold your finger down on the sticker or text.

You’ll then get a scrollbar at the bottom of the screen. That scrollbar will let you move through the video at your own speed. Get to a spot that works for you and then move and/or resize the sticker until you have it where you want it. Then hit pin. Assuming your video isn’t too complicated for Instagram to handle, it should paste your sticker or text onto that spot in the video and then let it follow along throughout the duration of the video.

So for example, instead of your train sticker just sitting in the top corner of your video, you can pin it to the front of the train and as the train moves through your video, your sticker will move through with it.

Pretty cool, right?

Your turn — what are some of your favorite strategies, tricks or hacks that you have been using to step up your Instagram story game? I want to hear about them. Hit me up on Instagram (again, I’m @jlemonsk), or on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn where I’m Reverbal Communications. Or share it online using the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

And if you tag me in your stories, you better believe I’ll gonna share it! So hit me up!

Now what are you waiting for. Get out there and step up your story game!


Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.
Master Instagram
May 22, 2019/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2019-05-22 10:04:462022-11-09 13:26:08Step Up Your Social EP.11 – 10 Tricks And Hacks To Step Up Your Instagram Stories
Facebook, Instagram, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 3 – A Deep Dive Into Stories

“Stories” are the Facebook response to Snapchat — fun, quirky bits of content that disappear after 24 hours.

Throughout the Facebook Universe — WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, people are currently sharing over a billion stories every day!

Instagram Stories alone has over 400 million daily active users — more than twice as many as Snapchat.

Stories have all kinds of fun and interesting capabilities built directly into the platform.

In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we cover the what, the when and the how of Stories along with a bunch of tips, tricks and fun things you should try.

Listen today and let us know if you have any questions, or anything to add to the conversation around this fun topic!


​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

STEP UP YOUR INSTAGRAM!

Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Improve my Instagram

December 26, 2018/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2018-12-26 10:34:572022-12-13 10:44:19Step Up Your Social Ep. 3 – A Deep Dive Into Stories
Instagram, iPhone Functionality, Twitter

How to Hit ‘Return’ On Twitter or Instagram

I use Twitter and Instagram a lot. Like a lot!

Both of these platforms require precision with limited text. Sometimes it’s easier for people to follow what you are trying to say by turning your short text into more than one paragraph.

For a long time, I didn’t know how to do that natively (in the app). So when needed, I’d draft my tweet or Instagram post in notepad and then copy and paste it into the platform.

And that worked just fine.

But it’s annoying.

Then one day, I noticed something that had been right there at my fingertips all this time. It’s so obvious, I felt silly for not noticing it. I didn’t want to tell people about it, because I assumed everyone else already knew. But I recently shared it on social and so many people let me know how excited they were. This little trick (if you can even call it that) solved a problem they had struggled with for years. Clearly it wasn’t just me missing this little Twitter and Instagram hack.

So many people told me they found it helpful, I just had to throw it up on the blog.

So without any further ado, if you want to hit “Return” (or “Enter”) when composing a tweet or an Instagram post, just hit the “123” button. (The same one you hit to get to your number keypad or your punctuation.) And the “Return” key will be right there waiting for you. That’s it.

Return on Twitter or Instagram

Enter on Twitter or Instagram

​Pretty simple, right! 👍😀🎉​If you haven’t already, connect with me on Twitter and Instagram.

And if you have any hacks you think everyone would like to know, send them my way. I’d love to give you a h/t.


READY TO TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of their social media program. I teach classes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Get better at Facebook

Get better at Instagram

Get better at Twitter

I also do consulting and training on other platforms and pretty much anything else related to your digital marketing program. Want to talk about digital ads, blogging, email or any other platforms – drop me a line and let’s make it happen!
April 25, 2018/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2018-04-25 11:13:422022-11-09 14:34:48How to Hit ‘Return’ On Twitter or Instagram
Facebook, Instagram, Social Media, Twitter

Three Exciting Social Media Updates

I always say that the only constant in social media is change. I don’t write to tell you every time any little thing changes on a social channel — if I did you’d hear from me literally dozens of times per week. But not every update is worthy of a blog post or an email.

Recently though, a few exciting updates have rolled out that are worth sharing.

Instagram Hashtags
You can now “follow” a hashtag on Instagram, just like you would follow an account.

Once you follow a hashtag, Instagram will include top posts using it directly into your feed.​

To follow a hashtag, simply search for it on Instagram.

Follow a hashtag on Instagram

​Then click “follow.”

Search for the hashtag on Instagram

Then you will start seeing relevant content showing up in your feed.

See posts in your Instagram newsfeed


Twitter Threads
I’m very excited about this update, although it’s a bit hard to follow Twitter’s logic. They recently doubled the character length for tweets from 140-280, thus making threads, and therefore this update, much less relevant. But they’re not irrelevant, so it’s still an exciting update.If you aren’t familiar with the concept of threads, check out this blog post where I explain what they are and how they work (along with a bunch of other fun Twitter tricks and tips).

Before, when you created a tweet thread, you had to keep responding to previous tweets. Which is fine, but can be clunky. If you don’t reply to the most recent tweet in your thread, they get out of order and your thread becomes hard to follow. It can take a few moments for your tweet to post, meaning you have to sit tight with your thoughts, waiting for it to catch up.

Now if you want to create a tweet thread, simply start typing your tweet. Below, next to the “tweet” button, you will see a plus. Click it and Twitter will open up another tweet for you. Keep going until you are finished and then you can send them all as a single unit.

Tweet threads are here

BIG IMPROVEMENT, ​even if it’s a little less relevant that it might have been a few months ago.

Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories aren’t new, but they have pretty much been getting ignored. Stories were Facebook’s response to Snapchat. They are small pieces of content — pictures, short videos or text — that disappear after 24 hours.They have all the fun Snapchat-style filters built in, along with a lot of other fun tools. Spend a few minutes in there and you will find tons of fun toys. And they are updated regularly.

While Stories aren’t new, what is new is that they are now available to Brand Pages. (Until recently, only personal pages could create Stories.)

To access Facebook Stories for a Brand Page, you can use the new Facebook Creator app. Or, open the Facebook app on your phone or tablet (currently, Stories only work via mobile), and go to your Brand Page. Underneath where you it lets you “write something,” click “create story.”

Facebook Stories are now available for Brand Pages

Once you have finished creating your tiny, disappearing masterpiece, add it to your Story. ​

Start using Stories for Brand Pages today

Then anyone who likes your page will see it at the top of their Facebook page anytime they login for the next 24 hours. It’s a great way to get in front of your audience and to cut through the clutter of the newsfeed.

Quick note: you can also use Stories for Groups, and Events for which you have said you are attending. The Event feature in particular has the potential to be huge, in my opinion. Once people start using them, it will give everyone at a party, a concert, an event, etc. a way to create content and see what everyone around them is doing in real time. The engagement possibilities for that one are HUGE!


Those are the three social media updates I’m most excited about at the moment. Your turn — any to add?
December 13, 2017/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2017-12-13 15:36:102022-11-09 14:48:47Three Exciting Social Media Updates
Instagram, Social Media

Become an Instagram Champion

Instragram Champion

Instagram finished 2016 with a billion monthly active users. 500 million of them are active on a daily basis. Five. Hundred. MILLION!

That’s 1/3 of ALL internet users.

And they are active. Everyday, users post an average of 95 million posts. And they like over 4 billion posts. (Yes, that’s billions with a “B”.)

Brands are a big part of the fun. And with good reason: according to Instagram’s Advertiser Statistics, HALF of all users follow at least one brand on the platform. Of those, “60% say that they learn about a product or service on the platform, while 75% take action, such as visiting a website, after looking at a post.”

So here’s a simple question: Is your brand making the most of this platform?

Whether this is:
-the first you are hearing about this interesting-sounding platform,
-you have an account but you’re not sure how to get started, or
-you use IG daily, but you just aren’t sure you’re getting everything you can out of it,
the time has come for you to Become an Instagram Champion!

We’ll cover topics like:

  • Getting started with an account, including finding the right avatar and drafting the perfect bio
  • Hashtags
    • What are they
    • How they work
    • Using them to grow your reach
  • Tagging
    • What it is
    • How to do it
    • Why it matters
  • Using filters and easily accessible editing tools to bring your photos and videos to life
  • Searching the platform by hashtag, user, location and more
  • Engaging with your audience
  • Easily toggling between different Instragram accounts
  • Making the most of Instagram Stories and Instagram Stories Live, including getting started and finding ways to powerfully tell your story through these fun, disappearing posts that can leave a big impression
  • Great native apps that will help you create super fun and engaging content
  • Your accounts free analytics
  • And more!

Trainings for you and your team can be conducted on-site or remotely.

I’ve worked with local, statewide and national political campaigns, nonprofits, small businesses, bands, artists, authors and journalists and more who wanted to better tell their digital story. Ready to tell yours?

CONTACT ME TODAY AND LET’S GET STARTED

I also train people to become Facebook Ninjas, Super Twitterers and more.
Learn more about how we might work together.
​

​WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT WORKING WITH ME

“Josh is a social media maven who wants to help others improve. I have benefited from Josh’s expertise firsthand, and as a result feel more confident using social media to empower more good in the community. Josh is an effective and patient teacher, responsive, thoughtful and practical.”
-Renee Moe, President & CEO, United Way of Dane County“Josh is a wizard. We just had a three hour training with him and feel like we have more than a clue how to promote our band and stay in touch with music lovers everywhere.”
-Sims Delaney-Potthoff, Mandolinist and Bandleader, Harmonious Wail​Received a few hours of consulting from [Josh] today. Best money I’ve spent in a long, long time.
-Philip Crawford, Manifestly and Political Strategist”My staff and I attended your training… and were absolutely blown away by the presentation and quality of content. To say we took away a ton is a vast understatement! I don’t think I’ve ever been in a training more engaging and insightful, PLUS my team is beaming with motivation and excitement to hit the ground running!Massive THANK YOU, Josh, for your wisdom and expert advice on how to use social media to grow Jenerate Wellness. You’re top-notch!”
-Jen Rudis, Jenerate Wellness

SEE MORE TESTIMONIALS

January 18, 2017/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2017-01-18 11:41:072022-11-10 09:04:01Become an Instagram Champion
Instagram, Social Media, Twitter

Social Media Tips from Madison’s Experts

Social Media Tips from Madison Experts

Spencer X. Smith asked Madison’s social media and marketing experts to share their top advice from 2016. He then published their responses in In Business Madison Magazine.

I am very honored to have been included as one of Madison’s social media and marketing experts.

Here the advice I offered:
“Don’t sell; build. Build trust, communities, and relationships. Remember that every Like or Follower is a real person and treat them as such.

“Add value to the lives of your audience, both current and potential. Make it clear it’s not all about the sales funnel.

“Encourage your audience to join you in telling your story. Do this by engaging with their content, responding to their questions and comments, and by sharing/retweeting content they write about you and your brand. It’s always better to let others say how great you are than to try and say it yourself.”

Anything you would add? Any questions?

Check out what Madison’s other experts had to say and feel free to comment here with any tips you would add to the list.

December 8, 2016/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2016-12-08 11:38:572022-11-10 09:04:37Social Media Tips from Madison’s Experts
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