Jessica Howell is the CEO and Founder of Social Studio Shop, a company that offers social media marketing workshops and webinars for bloggers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and marketers. We are thrilled to have her on the blog sharing her 3 tools to up your Instagram game. Thank you, Jessica!
A little about Jessica…At fourteen, Jessica unintentionally fell in love with photography. Since then, she has lived in the creative world and had a passion for capturing and making connections with people. Fortunately, her love for photography and need to make a living led her to the wonderful world of social media marketing. Jessica spends her days consulting small business owners and entrepreneurs on digital strategy. She contributes to various blogs and is constantly sharing tips on social media marketing. Besides all things social, Jessica has a sweet spot for cats, running, coffee (lots of it!), and experiencing all that life has to offer.
courtesy of Ashley Kelemen
Three Tools to Up Your Instagram Game
There’s no doubt that since it’s launch in 2010, Instagram has become one of the fastest growing social platforms to date. With over 300 million active monthly users (Simply Measured, thousands of brands are turning to this visually-focused platform as a means to connect with their ideal customer and clientele.
If you’re wondering how you can up your Instagram game, build awareness, and bring in more business, I highly recommend checking out these helpful Instagram tools…
Iconosquare
At my company, Social Studio Shop, we believe in posting with a purpose. When I say posting with a purpose, I don’t just mean having a passion-fueled approach, but rather a measurable approach to your social efforts. Iconosquare is one of the most popular and easy to use Instagram tools that lets you manage your account via desktop and track your analytics. If you’re interested in learning more about Iconosquare, check out this post for three ways you can improve your Instagram with this awesome tool. [pullquote]Don’t just be on social media just because everyone else is. Break the cycle of monotony and post with a purpose.[/pullquote]
VSCOcam
One factor that makes Instagram such a unique platform is that there is no shortage of strong visual content. If you want your account to stand out, you’re going to need to put your best content forward. Think, quality over quantity! VSCOcam is a photography app that allows you to capture, edit, and share your photos. I personally like to use this app primarily for editing purposes. Visual Supply Company originally offered presets and camera profiles to give digital images the “film” look. Eventually, the company became so popular they decided to launch an app — VSCOcam, to provide similar presets to smartphoneographers. This app is perfect for taking quality images to the next level.
Latergramme
For those of you who are fans of scheduling your content on Facebook and Twitter and wondering how you can do the same on Instagram, this app is for you! Let me preface this by saying that completely automating your posting is in direct violation with Instagram’s Terms of Use. If you are using some kind of automatic posting service, your account could be at risk of getting banned! Latergramme allows you to get around this Insta hitch by uploading your photo and creating a caption. You can then save your post to go out a specific time, then LG alerts you when it is for YOU to post to Instagram.