Are you Sure you Know All Instagram Features?

Are you sure you know all the Instagram features? Find out everything you didn’t know by increasing your knowledge to excel in social.

Social media platforms, particularly Instagram, have become the focal point of modern communication and self-expression. With billions of users globally, Instagram has evolved from a simple photo-sharing app in 2010 to a powerful cultural force, inspiring trends, aspirations, and fostering unparalleled connections.

Main Instagram Features

Instagram offers a range of features that cater to various aspects of visual sharing, social interaction, and online expression. As a result, here some of its main features include:

• Photo and Video Sharing: At its core, Instagram allows users to upload and share photos and videos. Users can apply filters, edit their media, and craft visually appealing posts before sharing them with their followers.
• Stories: Instagram Stories are short-lived photo or video posts that disappear after 24 hours. Users can enhance their Stories with stickers, text, drawings, and various interactive elements. This feature is widely used for sharing more spontaneous, behind-the-scenes moments.
• Reels: Instagram Reels allows users to create short, engaging videos set to music or other audio. It’s Instagram’s response to the rising popularity of short-form video content on platforms like TikTok.
• Direct Messaging: Instagram offers a direct messaging feature called “Direct.” Users can send private messages, photos, and videos to individuals or groups, fostering more personal connections.
• Shopping Features: Businesses can tag products in their posts and stories, allowing users to purchase items directly through the app.

Logging in and registering on Instagram is really very easy and intuitive. For users who already have a Facebook account, these tasks will be even easier since it is possible to link the two socials and be able to create an Instagram account without having to go through the normal registration steps of the app.

Upload, Post, Edit

Since the centrality of this social is photos, you may have a desire and curiosity to make your world known by means of the photos that most represent you. In fact, the Instagram community is based on sharing, liking and commenting on pictures that may portray yourself or something you love or want to communicate with other users.

Following are some steps to complete your first publication:

1. Access the Post Creation Screen: Tap the “+” button located at the bottom center of the app’s main screen. This will take you to the post creation screen.
2. Choose a Photo: You’ll be presented with your device’s photo gallery. Browse through your photos and select the image you want to share. Tap on it to open the editing interface.
3. Edit the Photo: Once you’ve selected the photo, you’ll be taken to the editing screen. Here, you can enhance and adjust the photo using various tools. Some common editing options include filters, adjustments, crop and rotate and some effects.
4. Description: You have two options for your post: write a description of the photo to explain its meaning or send a message to your community. You can also use hashtags to connect with others using similar keywords, although their effectiveness on Instagram has diminished in recent years and they are not as commonly used now.

Following and Followers

This image-based platform has a really large community of users. In fact, according to some statistics, Instagram connects an average of 2 billion monthly active users. But, how do users connect and share content on this platform?

Mainly Instagram offers the possibility to stay in touch with users, whether they are your friends or celebrities you would like to follow to see their daily routine or the content they decide to post on this social. In fact, each profile has its own number of “following” who are the people the user has decided to follow; and “followers” who are the users who have decided to follow the user.

As you gradually begin to follow your favorite friends and users, they may in turn begin to follow your profile, and all of this is public and monitorable from the profile itself since on its own page there will be (next to the icon with our photo) the number of posts published, followers and following

Technical Features Skills

SEO: as mentioned in another article,  optimizing your content is crucial for effectively reaching a broader audience on various apps. This process involves improving a website or online content to boost its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO aims to increase organic traffic by making the content more relevant and appealing to users and search engines alike.

How to Use SEO Skills on Instagram

SEO techniques can be very useful in reaching lots of users who share the same passions as you so you can create a real community of individuals with things in common.

– Name and Username: choosing a fitting name which best describes your content, this will help users to look for your profile
– Bio: this is a fundamental space where to describe in a catchy way who you are and what you will be creating on your profile. Use keywords in your bio to let the engine index the words.
– Write Keyword-Optimized Captions: writing descriptive Instagram captions with relevant keywords will improve your chances of showing up on the Explore page of relevant users.
– Alt Text: Instagram offers a valuable function that allows users to provide detailed alternative descriptions for their photos. By doing so, these descriptions are read aloud by a screen reader, enabling those with visual impairments to comprehend the visual content shared on the platform.
– Tagging: increasing your visibility on Instagram can be accomplished through the process of getting tagged. When users mention your account it opens up the opportunity for others to click and visit your profile. Consequently, this can lead to a larger audience as more tags come your way.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Instagram is a powerful tool for building an online community and gaining visibility. However, it’s essential to take breaks and remember that the platform presents a curated version of reality, not to be taken too seriously.

In fact, Instagram exposes users to mechanisms which could possibly damage their mental health, as for instance: perfection pressure, social comparison tra, FOMO, cyberbullying and harassment, sleep disruption and so on.