Top 3 apps for Instagram
Does posting on Instagram stresses you out? Do you think it just takes to much time to create content to post or do you feel like everyone else has these beautiful feeds and you just don’t know how to make your feed look as great? Then read on for my top 3 Instagram apps to use for creatives.
Sure you can have a love/hate relationship with Instagram, I totally get that - with the comparison game, the infinite scrolling and the hunt for likes and engagement. I’ve seen a lot of creatives complain about Instagram during the years I’ve been an active user, but do you want to know a secret? Most of my licensing clients that I’ve got during this first year in my business have found me through Instagram. Pretty amazing isn’t it?! So without Instagram I probably wouldn’t have been a licensed surface designer by now.
It’s so easy to complain, isn’t it? But as Instagram is such a great platform to show your work, to attract art buyers and to build relationships with other creatives - I strongly believe that instead of complaining you could build a way of working with Instagram that suits you. You can ease the stress about posting by using planning apps, you can more easily create lovely photos by using photo editing apps AND you can decide what YOU do on Instagram. Trust me, Instagram is a great channel for us designers and artists to show your work to the world and get noticed.
With that said I want to give you my top 3 apps to use to improve how you work with Instagram. You can use as many apps as you wish, but for me these three is more than enough.
Later
Later is by far the best thing I’ve done for my Instagram usage. I used to be so stressed out about Instagram. I knew that it would be one of my best marketing channels if I did it right, but I just couldn’t find the time to constantly think of captions and figure out which images to post.
I use later to plan my feed, to schedule posts, to respond to comments and to get statistics. I recently upgraded to the paid plan, mostly because I wanted more statistics and also be able to schedule stories (as I’ve had such trouble with my Instagram app lately and sometimes I’ve been working on a story for an hour and it just disappears - not being able to save it, nowhere to be found). But I used to have the free plan and it’s amazing as well.
Some people are against planning feeds and think that everything on Instagram should be “in the moment”, that it’s not as authentic if you plan your feed in advance. I totally disagree. By planning my feed I can make sure that I post quality content and not just an image of a pattern without saying nothing in the caption - because I was too busy to think about what to write. I can make sure that my feed looks pretty, which some say isn’t that important - and maybe it isn’t for some. But for me as a creative who work with creating artwork I think that a beautiful feed shows my work in the best way possible - which could be a dealbreaker for a possible client who are interested in licensing my artwork.
If you also look at Instagram as a marketing tool it makes so much sense to plan your feed. I mean most solo business owners plan in advance with other events, launched, actions and tasks that are happening in the coming months or even up to a year in their business. So it only makes sense to plan your marketing accordingly.
Sometimes I plan the images that I want to post for up to a month in advance. Just to get a look at how my feed would look. It’s usually just a draft then and I don’t plan the captions until 1-2 weeks in advance - that way it’s current content as things always can change along the way.
One of the best features for me with Later is that I don’t need to write all of the captions on my phone - I can do it online. I don’t really like to type things on my phone, I’m not that quick, I think that the screen is to small to stare at for long and I actually don’t like to look at my phone all the time. It’s just so much easier to plan my feed online and then Later can post them automatically on the date and time that I want to post.
If you haven’t already go check out Later app at www.later.com . (I’m not an affiliate to Later and I don’t get anything if you sign up. This is just a tip from one creative to another, that hopefully will make you feel less stressed out about Instagram)
Lightroom
Lightroom is an image editing software which you can use to quickly edit photos taken with you phone. Lightroom can be quite intimidating at first, as it has so many options - but you only need to learn some simple photo editing skills to create amazing photos of your mobile photos with Lightroom.
I’ve found that the best way to use Lightroom is to either create your own presets or buy presets online and use them on your photos. Sometimes you need to adjust a little bit after using a preset - but over and all it will save your so much time editing photos.
The desktop version of Lightroom is included if you’ve got a subscription at Adobe Creative Suit. The mobile version of the app is totally free of charge.
Check out www.adobe.com for more information or just download Lightroom in App store.
Focos
Focos is a simple app that I only use to add a blurry background to my photos - as I don’t have a new version of an iPhone which I’m pretty sure that you can create that straight away when you take the photo. But as I have an older iPhone I use Focos. You can probably use the app for much more then this little feature, but for me this is enough.
Check in Focos here https://apps.apple.com/us/app/focos/
