The-Complete-Guide-to-Instagram.pdf

The Complete Guide to

Mainstreethost Written by Olivia Roat | Designed by Michael Biondo

The Complete Guide to Instagram About the Author

About the Author Olivia Roat is an inbound marketer at Maintreethost, a digital marketing agency in Buffalo, NY. She writes for the Mainstreethost blog on topics such as social media marketing, content marketing, branding, advertising, and grammar.

Check out Olivia’s articles on Mainstreethost’s Blog.

@OliviaCRoat

+Olivia Roat

01

The Complete Guide to Instagram Contents

Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................ 03

Chapter 7: Instagram on the Web ....... 43

Chapter 2: What Is Instagram? ........... 04

Chapter 8: Contests on Instagram ...... 48

Chapter 3: Instagram Timeline ............ 07

Chapter 9: The Instagram API .............. 53

Chapter 4: How to Use Instagram ...... 10

Chapter 10: Brands on Instagram ......... 56

Chapter 5: How to Take and Share Pictures and Video ............. 20

Chapter 11: Instagram Work-Arounds .... 63

Chapter 6: How to Interact with Other Instagram Users ................. 37

Chapter 12: Instagram Analytics ........... 66

02

The Complete Guide to Instagram Introduction

Introduction “The medium is the message.” ~ Marshall McLuhan With Instagram, the burgeoning phototaking and photo-sharing application, people convey messages through photographs. Instagram, and McLuhan’s famous statement, speak to the power of visual content. Maybe you’ve heard of Instagram but don’t really understand how it works or what it does. Or maybe you want to know how Instagram can be used to market a business. I’ll tackle both of those things in this ebook. Whether you want to learn about Instagram or see how Instagram fits into marketing efforts, this ebook is for you. Let’s dive into the world of photos, filters, and beyond.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 2

What Is Instagram?

The Complete Guide to Instagram What Is Instagram?

What Is Instagram? Instagram is a mobile application that lets you take and share pictures. It’s available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android phones. Users snap a picture, apply a filter, and share it with their followers.

Instagram debuted in November 2010. 130 million people now use Instagram on a monthly basis. Why did Instagram skyrocket to popularity? Part of it may be due to our interest in images: 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed in the brain 60,000x faster than text. 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text. Photographs offer up content that’s both easy to digest and easy to admire. They don’t have to war with attention spans and wage battle against our skiminclined society quite like text does. Despite its popularity (or perhaps more accurately, because of it), Instagram connotes certain stereotypes. On first blush, it seems like an app that allows people to parade as faux photographers and share superfluous pictures of food and self-portraits. In reality, food photos abound on Instagram, but the app is much more than a culinarycapturing tool.

05

The Complete Guide to Instagram What Is Instagram?

Instagram has more daily active users on mobile than Twitter. On Thanksgiving, Instagram users posted 10 million photos mentioning Thanksgiving and other related terms; at peak time, users posted 226 photos per second. In January 2013 Instagram revealed its monthly active user data for the first time. The numbers are pretty impressive:

130 MILLION PEOPLE USE INSTAGRAM

ON A MONTHLY BASIS

NUMBERS INCREASED BY 10 %

MONTH ON MONTH BETWEEN DECEMBER 2012

AND JANUARY 2013

40 MILLION PHOTOS ARE POSTED EACH DAY

1,000 COMMENTS

ARE LEFT EACH SECOND

8,500 LIKES

OCCUR PER SECOND DURING PEAK TIMES, THIS NUMBER INCREASES TO

10,000 LIKES PER SECOND 06

The Complete Guide to

Chapter 3

Instagram Timeline

The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Timeline

Instagram Timeline 2010 March November Released in Apple’s App Store

December Reaches one million users

2011 January February June

Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom raise $500,000 in seed funding

Raises $7 million in Series A funding

Adds hashtags Reaches Five million users

August September September

2012

150 million photos taken Reaches Ten million users

Version 2.0 goes live in the App store

April April April September

Android app released; one million downloads within a day Announces $1 billion acquisition by Facebook

Reaches 100 million users

Raises $50 million in Series B funding

08

The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Timeline

Now, before we dive into the features of Instagram, I want to mention the terms of service, which were changed in December 2012 and sparked some outrage from users. The point of contention was this sentence: You agree that a business may pay Instagram to display your photos in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions without any compensation to you. The idea that Instagram could sell its users’ photos didn’t go over well (and that’s probably an understatement). Articles appeared announcing a mass exodus of users. So what happened? In response to the brouhaha, Instagram reverted the advertising section of its new terms to the original terms of service that has been in effect since October 2010. It also stated in a blog post that Instagram has no intention of selling user photos and that each individual Instagram user owns the rights to his or her own photos. The updated terms of service went into effect on January 19, 2013. OK, let’s get into the app itself.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 4

How to Use Instagram

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

How to Use Instagram I. Download the app from the Apple App Store

(if you have an iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch) or the Google Play store (if you have an Android phone). Instagram is a free app.

II. Open the app and press Register.

Register Sign In

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

III. Create a username and password. Welcome

REGISTER

Done

ACCOUNT

Username PHOTO

Password

Business Tip: If you can, make your username the same as your Twitter handle. This keeps your branding consistent across different social media platforms.

PROFILE

Use Your Facebook Info Email

@neimanmarcus

@neimanmarcus

Name Phone (optional) By clicking Done you are indicating that you have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

You’ll see on the Register screen an option to use your Facebook info. If you press this, Instagram will pull your profile picture, your name, and your email from Facebook.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

IV. Set your profile picture. You have four different options for choosing a profile picture: importing a picture from Facebook, importing from Twitter, taking a photo using Instagram, and choosing from your library.

Import from Facebook: Instagram will pull your Facebook profile picture Import from Twitter: Instagram will pull your Twitter profile picture

Change Profile Picture Import from Facebook

Take a photo: Use the Instagram camera to take a brand new photo Choose from library: Choose any picture you already have on your iPhone’s camera roll

Import from Twitter Take Photo Choose from Library

Cancel

V. Fill in your name and email, and you’re all set!

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

Instagram has five tabs: Home, Explore, Camera, News Feed, and Profile.

Home Tab When you open up the Instagram app, you’ll by default land on the Home tab. This shows a feed of the photos posted by the users you follow.

matchbookmag

13m

The feed displays these photos in chronological order (like the Twitter timeline). You can like and comment on photos right from the Home tab.

EXPLORE

28 likes

Search users and hashtags

Camera Tab The center button is the Camera tab. It lets you take, edit, and share pictures. (I’ll cover in detail how to take and share pictures in the next chapter. (Jump to the Next Chapter)

Explore Tab The compass-like icon opens the Explore tab, which showcases top photos and allows you to search users and hashtags.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

News Feed Tab The heart-like icon opens the News Feed tab, which has a Following tab and a News tab. The Following tab shows activity by people you follow: photos they’ve liked and users they’ve started following, etc. It also shows comments among users you follow, i.e. if one user whom you follow leaves a comment on the photo of another user whom you follow. Instagram’s theory behind showing only these types of relevant, pertinent comments is that it makes it easier for people to follow discussion among their family, friends, and peers.

Following

News

clubmonaco liked 2 photos.

15 minutes ago

starbucks liked dallasclayton’s photo. 16 minutes ago millybymichelle liked 2 photos.

16 minutes ago

neimanmarcus liked bonnietsang’s photo.

The News tab tracks every time someone interacts with you. This tab will tell you when people like your photos, when people comment on your photos, and when people follow you.

NB: The Following tab doesn’t work for people who follow more than 1,000 users.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

Profile Tab

The tab on the far right opens up your Instagram profile. Here’s where you can:

View your photos in a grid layout:

Grid Layout is the default setting on Instagram. Any time you look at your profile or another Instagram user’s profile, photos will display in a grid.

Edit Your Profile: OLIVIAROAT

19

photos

24

followers

64

following

You can change your username / bio / email here. You can also add the URL for your website here.

Edit Your Profile

View photos of you:

Instagram lets you tag other Instagram users in photos. If someone tags you in a photo, that photo will appear on the Photos of You tab on your profile.

View your photos in a list layout:

List layout displays photos just like how they look on your Home tab.

Access your Photo Map:

The Photo Map is explored further in Chapter 5. (Jump to the Photo Map section in Chapter 5)

Feed

Business Tip: Put the link to your website in your bio. URLs in profile bios are the only clickable links on Instagram. A website URL in a profile looks like this:

FREEPEOPLE

3377 photos

610k

followers

234

following

Following

The official Free People Instagram. The Free People woman lives free through fashion, art, music, travel, and everything in between. www.freepeople.com Photo Map

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

When other people tag you in Instagram photos, you can choose whether you want these photos added to your profile automatically or manually. Add Automatically Add Manually

Tap the Photos of You tab

Then tap the gear icon in the top right

Choose Add Automatically or Add Manually

You can also remove yourself from a photo that someone added of you. Photos

Tap on the photo

PHOTO 5d

biondoart

Tap your name

biondoart

Photo of You

Done

Show on My Profile Hide from My Profile

More Options Learn more about Photos of You

If you don’t necessarily want to remove yourself from a photo but would rather just hide it from your profile, you can do that too.

Remove Me from Photo Report Inappropriate

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

Managing Your Profile To change your profile picture, tap your current picture. (You’ll see the same options as you did during the sign-up process.)

Set a profile picture Remove Current Photo Import from Facebook

In the upper-right-hand corner of your profile page, you’ll see a gear icon. This is where you can manage your account settings.

Import from Twitter Take Photo Choose from Library

Profile

OPTIONS

Support

Cancel

Find & Invite Friends

In your account settings, you can see the photos you’ve liked, log out of your account, turn your push notifications on/off, and make photos private.

Photos You’ve Liked ACCOUNT

Log Out

If your Instagram account is associated with a business, you do not want your photos to be private. You want to have a public account, so make sure the Photos Are Private option is off.

Share Settings Push Notification Settings Clear Search History Photos Are Private

OFF

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Use Instagram

Push Notifications You can control whether or not you receive notifications when people like or comment on your photos. Just press Push Notification Settings in your account settings.

Back

NOTIFICATIONS

Like Notifications Off From People I Follow

Push Notification Settings

From Everyone

Comment Notifications Off From People I Follow From Everyone

Contact Notifications 17m

freepeople

0

0 3654 likes

1

0

1

0

If you turn push notifications off, you’ll see notifications only when you open the Instagram app. Regardless of whether you have push notifications turned on or off, if someone does interact with you by liking/commenting on your photos or by following you, you’ll see an orange notification box at the bottom of the screen when you open the app.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 5

How to Take and Share Pictures

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

How to Take & Share Pictures Taking Pictures: To take a picture, press the Camera tab. You’ll see these buttons around whatever your camera lens is focusing on: Photo Grid:

Places a grid over the view screen for alignment purposes

Flash:

Allows you to choose between no flash, the flash settings on your iPhone, and auto flash.

Cancel

Cancel:

Takes you back to whatever tab you previously had open

Rotate the Camera:

Switches between the front-facing camera and the back-facing camera

Shutter:

Snaps a picture

Camera Roll:

Takes you to where all of your photos are stored, both the photos you’ve taken with the Instagram camera and the photos you’ve taken with your iPhone camera

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

After you snap the picture, another screen will pop up. This is where you edit your photo.

Camera

EDIT

Next

Next:

Camera:

Skips the editing process and takes you to the next step; press this if you don’t want to edit your photo or apply a filter

Takes you back to the camera

Blur/tilt-shift effect:

Toggle Borders:

Lets you focus on or emphasize one area of the photo; you can choose which part of the photo to focus on by pinching/ re-sizing

Filters can place borders around the photo; you can add/remove borders with this button

Rotate the Photo:

Lux:

Rotates the photo 90 counterclockwise

Enhances the lighting effect in your photo

Filters:

Give your original photo a unique look; there are 20 different Instagram filters

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Sharing Pictures: After you’ve edited your photo, a screen titled “Share Photo” will pop up. This is where you can: 1. Add a caption to your photo If you want to mention another Instagram user in your caption, press the “@” key and start typing. Instagram will suggest people whom you follow and people who follow you. 2. Tag other Instagram users in your photo Instagram lets you tag other people in your photos in a way that’s very similar to Facebook. Just tap Add People and then start typing their name in the search bar. Instagram will suggest people whom you follow and people who follow you. You can tag people anywhere in your photo.

Search for a person

SHARE

Edit

Cancel

Who’s this?

Share

Add a caption...

Add People ON

Add to Photo Map Name This Location SHARE

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Tumblr

Flickr

foursquare

3. Share to other social networks All of your photos will automatically be shared on Instagram, but you can also share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare. (You can email photos too). Tap the site on which you want to share the photo. If you’re not already logged in to the network you want to share on, Instagram will prompt you for your login information.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

If you want to make sharing your Instagram photos to other networks incredibly easy, then link your Instagram account to your other social profiles. Let’s say I always share my Instagram photos to my personal Facebook profile. I can link my Instagram account to this Facebook profile. When I want to share a photo to Facebook, I simply tap the Facebook button on the Share screen and Instagram knows which Facebook account to share my photo to. I won’t have to log in either. To link your Instagram account to another social profile:

Facebook Twitter

Email Share Settings Tumblr

go to Account Settings

go to Share Settings

Flickr foursquare

Then log in to your social networks

Both my Facebook and Twitter account are linked to Instagram. This doesn’t mean that any photo I upload to Instagram will automatically be shared on Facebook and Twitter.I still have to prompt Instagram to share to Facebook and Twitter, but I won’t have to log in to these networks because they’re already linked. The icon for a social network will be blue if you’re logged in to the social network.

Twitter Twitter

24

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

4. Add photos to your Photo Map Instagram lets you share where your photos ON Add to your Photo Map are taken. It geotags your photos and then Name this location optional plots them on a interactive map called the Photo Map. If you want to let your followers know where you were when you snapped a photo, turn the Add to your Photo Map option on. After you turn this feature on, you have two options.

I. You’ll see that right below the Add to your Photo Map button is an option called Name this location. If you turn your Photo Map on but don’t chose the Name this location option, Instagram will geotag your photo, and the photo will be plotted on a map.

oliviaroat

Edit

EUROPE

AFRICA

oliviaroat

17s SOUTH AMERICA

ANTARCTICA

However when my followers see the picture, it won’t tell them exactly where it was taken.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

II. If you turn the Photo Map on and chose Photo

LOCATIONS

Find or create a location

Alessi Personal Fitness 6215 Transit Rd.

Barnes & Noble Grover’s Bar & Grill 9160 Transit Rd.

Ruzzine’s Rock Bottom Eatery 6261 Transit Rd.

Meadowlakes

the Name this location option, Instagram will give you a list of specific places based on your current location (these places are powered by Foursquare). If your location doesn’t appear in the list, you can search for it and add it. Naming a location lets you tie your picture to a specific place. If I was at my local Barnes and Noble when I took this picture, I can choose Barnes and Noble for the location. My photo will still show up on the Photo Map like in the example above, and when my followers see this picture, they’ll know exactly where it was taken.

Exclusively Hair Better Smiles of Western New York 6261 Transit Rd.

oliviaroat Barnes & Noble

17s

Business Tip: Take a picture at your business and choose Name this location. Then either choose your business from the list of places that appear or search for your business and add it. The name of your business will appear above your photo. Tap the name of your business and all of the photos tagged there will show up. This lets you see which Instagram users have frequented your business, what photos they’ve taken there, and what they’ve said about your business in the caption of their photos.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Sharing to Facebook: When you share photos on Facebook, they appear on your timeline by default. They’re visible only to your friends. Any Instagram photos you share to Facebook are automatically added to an album called Instagram Photos. If you want to move any of your Instagram photos to another album, you can do that on Facebook after the photo is already uploaded. Move To Other Album Make Album Cover Delete This Photo

Log in to Facebook from your computer

Go to the Instagram Photos album

Click Edit

Hover over the photo you want to move and click Move to Other Album

If you use Facebook, you may have noticed that stories pop up in your news feed when people like photos on Instagram. If you want your Facebook friends to know when you like photos on Instagram: OFF Share Settings

ON

go to Account Settings

go to Share Settings

Press Facebook

You’ll have the option to turn likes on or off

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

When it comes to sharing to a Facebook business page, only page admins can share Instagram photos to the page. Facebook will by default share a photo to your personal timeline, so if you want to share it to a page instead:

I.

Share Settings

go to Account Settings

II.

Press Facebook

Press the ”Share Photos to” button Share Photos to

III.

go to Share Settings

Wall (Default)

You’ll then see a list of any pages that you’re an admin for. Choose your page, and your photo will post to that page. CHOOSE A PAGE

Page One Mainstreethost - Inbound Marketing

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Sharing to Twitter: When you tweet a picture using Twitpic, your followers can see the picture right on Twitter. When you tweet an Instagram photo, people will see only a link to the photo, and they’ll have to click on this link to view it.

Business Tip: Occasionally sharing Instagram photos on your other social media channels is OK, but you don’t want to share every single Instagram photo you take on Facebook and Twitter. People follow you on Facebook because they want content unique to Facebook; people you follow on Twitter because they want to see your tweets, so deluging your other social channels with photos from Instagram is not the best idea.

Sharing Photos You’ve Already Taken: Let’s say you’ve already taken and uploaded a photo to Instagram and shared it to Twitter. A few days later, you want to share it to Facebook. Can you share an old photo? You can! Go to your profile and tap whichever photo you want to share. You’ll see three buttons below the photo:

Like the Like button

Comment the Comment button

a button with three dots.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Press the button with three dots, and you’ll have the option to share the photo.

PHOTO

Profile

Photo Options Delete oliviaroat Just finished #booksofinstagram Like

Share Photo

Comment

Copy Share URL Email Photo Photo

SHARE PHOTO

Share

Cancel Just finished #booksofinstagram

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Tumblr

Flickr

foursquare

It takes you right back to the Share Photo screen.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Hashtags: You can include hashtags in the caption of your photo. Hashtags are a way of describing and/or categorizing photos. They’re also searchable, so when someone searches for a specific hashtag, all of the photos featuring that hashtag appear. Hashtags run the gamut from those that are widely used to those that are made up by and unique to individual users. The clothing company Free People posted a photo highlighting the style of someone attending New York Fashion Week in New New York Fashion Week York City. Free People tagged the photo #NYFW #NYFW (an abbreviation for New York Fashion Week). Using the hashtag widens the reach of the photo. The photo won’t be seen only by people who follow Free People; it will also be seen by anyone who searches the #NYFW hashtag. Some brands even encourage Instagram users to upload photos with a specific hashtag. Chobani Greek Yogurt tells people to tag photos they take of Chobani with the hashtag #tastereal. Each hashtag has an RSS Feed with which it’s associated. You can see the feed for a specific hashtag by going here: http://instagr.am/tags/[hashtag name]/feed/recent.rss So, for the #NYFW hashtag, the feed would be:

http://instagr.am/tags/nyfw/feed/recent.rss If you subscribe to the feed, you’ll see all of the different photos tagged with #NYFW as they’re added.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take & Share Pictures

Uploading Photos from Your Camera Roll to Instagram Cancel

When it comes to taking and sharing pictures on Instagram, you have two options. You can either take a photo with the camera that’s in the Instagram app or you can take a photo with your iPhone camera and then upload it to Instagram. Some advantages to using your iPhone camera as opposed to the Instagram camera: you can pinch and zoom; you can quickly snap a photo and upload it later. If you have old photos on your iPhone, you can upload those photos too. Camera Roll

SCALE & CROP

Crop

If you snap a photo with your iPhone camera, how do you get it on Instagram? Open up Instagram and press the Camera button. You’ll see the Camera Roll button in the bottom right. Press it and choose your photo. You’ll be able to scale and crop your photo. You can scale and crop photos only if you pull up a photo from your camera roll. If you use the camera in Instagram, you can’t scale and crop the photo.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take and Share Pictures and Videos

Videos on Instagram On June 20th Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced video on Instagram. The new feature lets users include on Instagram moments that “need more than a static image to come to life.” Videos can be a minimum of three seconds and a maximum of fifteen seconds, and you can add filters to them just like you can to photos. They’re another outlet through which Instagram users can quickly and easily share content with their followers. According to the Instagram blog, within the first eight hours after video on Instagram launched, the community shared over a year’s worth of footage. (At peak time, users uploaded 40 hours of video per minute.)

VIDEO

mtv mtv

1w

Videos appear in the same feed that your photos do. They’re marked with a little icon in the top-right-hand corner. If you’re scrolling through your Home tab and pause over a video, it will start to play automatically. (If you don’t want videos to play automatically, go to your account settings and turn the Auto-Play Videos option off.)

Auto-Play Videos

go to Account Settings

ON

You’ll have the option to turn Auto-Play Videos on or off

Also, this may sound obvious, but if you want to hear the sound on videos, make sure the sound on your phone is turned on. When your phone is set to vibrate, you won’t be able to hear the sound on videos.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take and Share Pictures and Videos

How to Record Videos: 1. Tap the camera tab, and you’ll see a video option. Cancel

2. Press it, and you’ll be taken to another screen where you can start recording.

Cancel

Next

3. Hold down the red button to record. If you want to stop recording, just lift your finger off the button.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take and Share Pictures and Videos

You can record a series of short clips to make up one video. As you record, you’ll see a blue bar fill up along the bottom of the screen. If you record a series of short clips, you’ll see breaks in the bar, which represent the duration of the clips.

Cancel

Next

You can even delete your previous clip by pressing the button with the “x.”

Camera

FILTER

Next

4. After you’ve finished recording your video, press Next, and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can choose a filter for your video. Instagram debuted 13 brand new filters for video. You’ll be able to watch your finished product right from this Filter screen and see what your video looks like with each filter.

Choose a Filter

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Take and Share Pictures and Videos

5. After you choose a filter, press Next, and you’ll be able to choose a cover frame for your video.

Filter

COVER

Next

6. Finally, share your photo! The sharing process for a video is virtually identical to the sharing process for a photo. SHARE

Cover

Share

Add a caption

Add to Photo Map

ON ON

Choose a Cover Frame

Name This Location SHARE

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Tumblr

foursquare

(You can watch the finished video from the Share screen too; just press the play button on the thumbnail.) One thing you cannot do with an Instagram video is tag another user. You’ll have to mention users in the caption instead. Instagram has a feature called Cinema that stabilizes shaky video recordings. Stabilization is on by default, and you’ll see a little camera icon that represents the Cinema feature pop up when you’re adding filters. If you want to turn the feature off, press the icon.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 6

How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

How to Interact with Other Instagram Users Finding People to Follow on Instagram When you first start out on Instagram, how do you find people to follow? There are a few different ways to connect with other users:

I. The Find & Invite Friends button Options

FIND FRIENDS

Facebook Friends From My Contact List Invite Friends Suggested Users Search for users in the Explore tab.

The Find and Invite Friends button is a great resource. You can find it in your account settings. This generates a list of your Facebook friends who have Instagram. You can see their Instagram usernames and follow people right from this list. (You need to have your Facebook account linked to your Instagram to use this feature.) The Find & Invite Friends option also shows you which of the people saved in your Contact List have Instagram. It lets you invite people from your Contact List to join Instagram. And finally, Find & Invite Friends is where you’ll find Instagram’s Suggested Users. Instagram uses suggested users to highlight the app’s top photographers. These people are selected by Instagram because of the unique, original content they create. (The list is continually being reviewed and updated.)

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

II. The Explore Tab You can also find people through the Explore tab, where you can search for users and hashtags. Search users and hashtags

III. Other Users’ Followers You can also look at other people‘s followers and following lists. If I’m interested in fashion, I’d follow a handful of fashion brands. I’d then check out the people whom those brands follow. I’d also look at the people who are following those brands. When one of these brands posts a photo, I’d scope out who likes the photo and who comments on the photo. OLIVIAROAT

19

photos

24

followers

64

following

Edit Your Profile

39

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

Liking & Commenting: To like a photo, either tap it twice or press the Like button beneath the photo.

Profile

PHOTO

Like Liked

siwanita73, alexroat, kimi686, b_koch71, aishaalloughani oliviaroat Winnifer cuddle dog alexroat Awww lil wins!!! Like

Comment

To comment on photos, just press the Comment button. When you comment on photos, you can reply back to people who have also commented. My sister commented on the above photo. If I want to reply back to her comment, I can either type her username (@alexroat) in the comment field, or I can go to her comment and hold my finger over her profile picture. I swipe my finger to the right, and then I’ll see two symbols: an exclamation point (this is for reporting a comment for spam) and an arrow (this is for replying back to individual users.)

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The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

I press the arrow and @alexroat appears in the comment field.

Photo

COMMENTS oliviaroat Winnifer cuddle dog alexroat Awww lil wins!!!

Add a comment...

COMMENTS

Photo 13w

oliviaroat Winnifer cuddle dog alexroat Awww lil wins!!!

13w

17h

@alexroat

Business Tip: If people comment on your photos with questions, use this shortcut to reply back directly to individual users. If someone asks a question and you answer it without mentioning that specific user, there’s a good chance that he/she won’t see your reply. (He/she would have to continually revisit that photo and check the comments to see if you replied, and most people won’t do that.) When you mention a user in a comment, he/she will receive a notification letting them know that you mentioned them.

41

The Complete Guide to Instagram How to Interact with Other Instagram Users

Tweeting Another Instagram User’s Photo: Below every Instagram photo you’ll see the Like button, the Comment button, and a button made up of three dots. jmclaughlinny Madison Square Park

14h

This button allows you to report a photo as inappropriate and tweet a photo. If you want to tweet someone else’s photo, you need to be signed into your Twitter account. When you press the button and select “Tweet,” a default tweet that looks like this will appear: 61 likes jmclaughlinny Like

Comment

Cancel

Tweet

Send

jmclaughlinny’s photo http://instagram.com/p/Yqn8HwJGN_/

You can edit the text, add a location, and mention any of the people whom you follow on Twitter. To mention someone, type “@” and then the first letter of the Twitter user’s name. An autosuggest list of the people whom you follow will appear, and you can select the person from this list.

Add Location

96

42

The Complete Guide to

Chapter 7

Instagram on the Web

The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram on the Web

Instagram on the Web Instagram Web Profiles: Instagram is a mobile-only platform. You need either an iPhone or an Android phone to upload photos. You can’t upload photos to Instagram from a laptop or a desktop. However, Instagram has recently taken steps to offer people a more website-friendly experience. In November 2012, Instagram released online profiles. Every Instagram user has a profile that’s accessible through the Web.

Your Instagram profile is accessible at:

instagram.com/[username] For example, Adidas’ Instagram profile is accessible at:

instagram.com/adidas

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram on the Web

Web profiles look like this: oliviaroat

adidas Follow

To connect with adidas follow us on Facebook http://www.adidas.com

206

photos

216,249 followers

623

following

April 2013

They consist of a profile picture and an animated cover image that swaps different photos in and out. (You can’t control which photos appear in your cover image.) They include your profile picture and all of your photos. You can also view your Instagram feed online. To do so, just go to instagram.com and log in.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram on the Web

What You Can Do on Instagram from the Web:

What You Can’t Do on Instagram from the Web:

View photos (your own and other Instagram users’)

Upload photos

Like and comment on photos

Search hashtags or users

Follow Instagram users Edit your profile Change your password

Follow

Edit Profile

Change Password

See an Instagram user’s followers / following lists

Followers Following

See Photo Maps Access the Explore tab

Even people who don’t have an Instagram account can view on the Web an Instagram user’s profile.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram on the Web

Instagram Badges: Instagram Badges are a way to promote your Instagram profile. Each badge comes with an HTML code that you copy and paste on your website/blog. The badge links directly to your Instagram web profile.

View on Instagram To get the code for your Instagram badge, go to instagram.com and log in. You’ll see in the top right-hand corner your username and profile picture. Click on it, and then click “Badges.” oliviaroat

elizabeth_mckay 52 minutes ago

View Profile Edit Profile Badges Log Out

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 8

Contests on Instagram

The Complete Guide to Instagram Contests on Instagram

Contests on Instagram Instagram isn’t just for uploading photos. Brands also run contests on Instagram, usually by encouraging people to upload photos with a specific hashtag. Ben & Jerry’s ran a contest to honor and celebrate the Instagram community. It invited Instagram users to upload photos that capture the feeling of euphoria and tag them with the hashtag #CaptureEuphoria.

Throughout the contest, people submitted over 17,000 photos. Ben & Jerry’s chose 20 of the best photos and featured them in print, billboard, and outdoor venue advertisements in the areas where the individual photographers live. It created a gallery on its website of all the #CaptureEuphoria photos. It’s filled with photos of Ben & Jerry’s pints, pets, little kids, couples, people frolicking in the snow, people relishing warm weather at a beach, and more.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Contests on Instagram

General Electric ran an Instagram contest that offered the winner the chance to fly to London to see a GE jet-engine facility. GE asked people to shoot photos inspired by the four ways GE works in the world (moving, curing, powering, and building). People tagged their photos with #GEInspiresMe. GE then displayed the photos in a gallery on Facebook, where fans voted for the winning shot.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Contests on Instagram

Takeaways from these Instagram contests: I. Promote Your Contest on Other Channels Both Ben & Jerry’s and GE promoted their contests on other channels. Ben & Jerry’s promoted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and GE on Facebook and YouTube. There might be some customers who aren’t yet on Instagram, so publicizing the contest on other networks lets these people know about it and drives them to Instagram. Both brands also offered prizes exclusively for Instagram users, thereby rewarding their followers and giving them incentive to use the platform.

II. Use a Specific, Custom-Created Branded Hashtag

#CaptureEuphoria

#GEInspiresMe

III. Create a Gallery for Photos Ben & Jerry’s pulled onto a separate website Instagram photos featuring the branded hashtag. GE created a gallery on Facebook. Galleries let you showcase all of the user-generated content your contest creates. FanBase is one platform that lets that lets you aggregate Instagram photos tagged with a certain hashtag and display them on Facebook, a mobile site, or a page on your domain. Olapic also does this, as do Chute and Nitrogram. (Check out the links at the end of the ebook if you’re interested in any of those platforms.)

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Contests on Instagram

IV. Incorporate Your Brand’s Mission These two brands seamlessly integrated their missions into their Instagram contests. According to Ben & Jerry’s, its ice cream not only creates euphoria but also celebrates it. So what better way for the quirky, fun, and feel-good ice cream brand to let pictures do the talking and in doing so, promote bliss? And what better way for GE to express its commitment to innovation and development for the entire world than allowing people to capture GE at work in their own personal worlds?

V. Let Fans Get Creative Ben & Jerry’s and GE turned the power over to their fans in these Instagram contests. Fans didn’t have to submit photos of ice cream (though many did) or of GE products. Rather, these two brands gave fans carte blanche to express themselves and get creative. And even though the Ben & Jerry’s contest ended, the custom-created hashtag used in conjunction with it has proven to be evergreen. People continue to tag photos of Ben & Jerry’s pints with #CaptureEuphoria.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 9

The Instagram API

The Complete Guide to Instagram The Instagram of API

The Instagram API The Instagram API lets you take photos from Instagram and put them on a website or app for other people to see. You can organize photos according to time, place, or hashtag. Bergdorf Goodman used the Instagram API to create its “Shoes About Town” campaign. It asked people in and around New York City to take pictures of their shoes and then used geotags to display these pictures on an interactive, shoe-filled map.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram The Instagram of API

During the 2012 election, NBC used Electiongrams, a site that displayed election-themed images that people uploaded to Instagram. When individuals uploaded a photo with hashtags like #nbcpolitics, #obama, #romney, and #vote2012, NBC posted the photo on the site. It used geotags to categorize the photos and display them on a state-by-state basis.

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Instagram gives you step-by-step instructions on its API, and there’s a forum devoted to Instagram’s API.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 10

Brands on Instagram

The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Brands on Instagram In May 2013 Simply Measured published a study that looked at Instagram adoption by Interbrand’s top 100 brands. Simply Measured found that 67% of the top brands have Instagram accounts, and 34% have over 10,000 followers. Here are some brands doing amazing things on Instagram: what they do that works, how they leverage the platform’s power, and exactly how you can incorporate these practices into your Instagram efforts.

Fashion:

Brand: Kate Spade Strategy: Offer a behind-the-scenes look into one of fashion’s biggest brands. Following

Execution: The biography for Kate Spade’s Instagram account says, “Follow us for a glimpse into the world of Kate Spade New York.” This is exactly what the fashion and accessories brand does on Instagram: provide its followers an exclusive look into its inner workings. Kate Spade shared a wealth of pictures from its New York Fashion Week show: models prepping for the show, photos from backstage, previews of its fall 2013 collection, a peek at its 20th anniversary celebration party.

KATESPADENY

1746 photos

310k

followers

341

following

Following

quick and curious and playful and strong. follow us for a glimpse into the world of kate spade new york. www.katespade.com Photo Map

Kate Spade’s Instagram is a visual gateway into its world, and that world includes its products, its designers, its special events, and famous New York City landmarks.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Kate Spade also makes use of the Photo Map, so users can see the brand’s photos categorized by location: katespadeny

ANTARCTICA

Takeaway: Use Instagram to offer followers a behind-the-scenes look into your business. Whether they’re photos of employees at work, holiday parties, sneak peeks into new products or services, or upcoming launches, Instagram not only captivates followers by letting them behind the velvet rope so to speak but also shows that a business is made up of more than its products. It consists of company culture, collaborations, and real people hard at work on the next new thing. Give people an inside look at your business. And if you travel to events around the state or country (a photographer who displays his or her work at different art festivals and venues throughout the country for instance), use the Photo Map and let people know exactly where to find you.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Art: Brand: Sharpie Strategy: Show all of the creativeness and colorfulness that stems from the tip of a Sharpie. Execution: Sharpie’s Instagram account isn’t about displaying or pushing Sharpie products; rather, it’s about displaying the brilliant art Sharpie products help people make. It’s also about encouraging and inspiring people to create. It’s filled with a wealth of colorful, captivating drawings all penned with Sharpie markers: food, quotes, musicians, a football posted on Super Bowl Sunday, seasonal themes, etc. Just glancing at Sharpie’s Instagram would inspire any artistically inclined individual to grab a marker and sketch away. (And Sharpie’s Instagram biography encourages that very action through a pithy call-to-action).

Explore

SHARPIE

274

photos

56k

followers

149

following

Follow

Grab a Sharpie & Start Something. www.sharpie.com Photo Map

Takeaway: You don’t have to sell stunning products to use Instagram. Sharpie doesn’t just post pictures of markers (that most likely wouldn’t be too interesting). Instead, Sharpie shows what those markers allow people to create. Sharpie shows the end product. Sharpie’s strategy can be used by any business: show products or services in action, being used by real people. It’s not always about the products themselves but rather what those products let people do.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Electronics: Brand: Sony Strategy: Showcase photos taken by Sony consumers and spotlight individual Instagram users.

Explore

SONY

159

photos

Execution: Sony’s Instagram is filled with user-generated content. It features gorgeous photos of scenery and adorable photos of pets taken by people with Sony cameras. It displays photos people take of Sony products like a vintage Walkman or a PlayStation controller.

14k

followers

1528

following

Follow

Sony Electronics Photo Map

Sony’s user-generated content accomplishes a couple things: one, it’s great for social proof because it shows real people using Sony products in their everyday lives, and two, it spotlights fans and gives them shout outs by featuring their photos.

Takeaway: Instagram is a great tool for tapping into the power of usergenerated content. Brands can encourage people to upload photos with a specific hashtag, spotlight these photos, and even tie them into a contest: a fan of the week is selected for uploading a particularly creative photo, has his or her photo featured, and wins a gift card or a prize.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Restaurant: Business: Black Rock Kitchen and Bar Strategy: Share the delicious and congenial vibe of a local restaurant through alluring photos. Execution: Black Rock Kitchen and Bar proves that you don’t have to be a major brand to use Instagram. It’s a small restaurant located in Buffalo, NY (my hometown bias is at work here) that routinely shares photos of its delectable-looking nightly specials. It also shares photos of the restaurant’s interior and its employees.

Explore

BRKITCHEN

71

photos

106

followers

45

following

Follow

Black Rock Kitchen & Bar Voted Best New Restaurant of 2012 by Buffalo Spree! We know that by feeding you, the people, we will help to feed the neighborhood. 551.0261 #BRKBmenu www.blackrockkitchenandbar.com

Photo Map Takeaway: A restaurant is the type of business that fits perfectly with Instagram. It shows people what the business is about and what kind of food it creates rather than simply telling them. Seeing a picture of a dinner entrée can have a far greater impact than merely reading the description of it on the menu. A restaurant can even gain its own user-generated content by encouraging patrons to upload their own photos of the food they order and use a specific hashtag. This exposes the restaurant to all of those patrons’ Instagram followers, thereby tapping into the power of word-of-mouth marketing. And anyone who searches or taps on that hashtag will see pictures of the restaurant’s food. Encouraging patrons to upload food photos could even be tied into a contest: anyone who uploads a photo and uses the hashtag gets entered into a contest to win a gift certificate.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Brands on Instagram

Nonprofit: Nonprofit Organization: To Write Love on Her Arms Strategy: Post a variety of photos, all of which seamlessly relate to the organization’s mission. Execution: To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a nonprofit dedicated to providing hope and finding help for people struggling with depression and addiction. TWLOHA organized a tour across the U.S. that it described as “an evening of songs, conversation, and hope.” It posted photos of the performers on stage and of the crowds at various venues. TWLOHA also posts photos of its staff and spotlights the members from TWLOHA chapters at universities across the country. It highlights its #FearsvsDreams campaign, in which people pose with a whiteboard that discloses their biggest fears and dreams.

Explore

TWLOHA 355

photos

25k

followers

61

following

Follow

To Write Love on Her Arms. TWLOHA is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope & finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, selfinjury, & suicide. twloha.com Photo Map

And while TWLOHA’s Instagram photos span different topics, they all relate back to the organization’s goal: to provide inspiration and promote hope. Takeaway: A brand can use Instagram to let people know about events it’s sponsoring or partaking in. That can include everything from concerts to community events to volunteer efforts. And ideally every photo a business posts should fit organically and naturally into its mission and appeal to its target audience.

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 11

Instagram Work-Arounds

The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Work-Arounds

Instagram Work-Arounds I said in Chapter 7 that you can’t search hashtags or users or see an Instagram user’s followers/following list from the Web. A few websites let you get around this and let you manage your Instagram account from the Web (though again, you need the app to upload photos). Using an Instagram webviewer can be really helpful for anyone using Instagram for business because you don’t need to be on a smartphone to get things done. Some of the best Instagram webviewers:

Statigram lets you comment on and like photos, search usernames and hashtags, and see other Instagram users’ following/followers list. It also lets you segment the people whom you follow into groups. You can create groups for family, friends, customers, etc. and assign people to those groups.

Business Tip: Statigram lets you add to your Facebook business page a tab just for Instagram photos. This tab displays your Instagram feed right on Facebook.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Work-Arounds

Webstagram is similar in that you can view photos, like and comment on photos, follow and unfollow people, browse hashtags, etc. You can find users by keyword and see the most popular filters and the most popular hashtags. Webstagram also lets you create a gallery of your Instagram photos on your website/blog.

GRAMATICA

Instagram doesn’t allow for multiple accounts, so if you have a personal Instagram account and a business account, you have to log out of one and into the other if you want to switch between the two. Gramatica is an app that helps you get around this (it’s $0.99 in the App Store). It lets you quickly and easily manage multiple accounts. It also lets you pinch and zoom in on photos.

Instagram Plugins for A number of WordPress plugins let you display your Instagram photos on your blog through widgets: Simply Instagram, Instagram for WordPress, and WP Instagram Digest. (Check out the links at the end of the ebook if you’re interested in any of these plugins.)

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The Complete Guide to

Chapter 12

Instagram Analytics

The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Analytics

Instagram Analytics A major part of marketing is tracking the effectiveness of different campaigns. These six tools help you track engagement, discover influential followers, and run contests and promotions.

Cost: Free Instagram report and free 14-day trial for other services Simply Measured offers a free Instagram report. In exchange for the free report, Simply Measured asks you to post a tweet telling people you’re using its services.

I’m using @simplymeasured to analyze my Instagram profile in Excel - http://bit.ly/KQwnwB

It tracks your Instagram engagement and determines your most engaging photo/filter/location. It also gives you stats on your engagement outside of Instagram (i.e., if you’ve shared photos on Facebook or Twitter). You can download all of this data in Excel or export it to PowerPoint. Simply Measured also allows you to compare traffic across all of your different social channels.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Analytics

Cost: Free I talked about Statigram earlier, and mentioned that it’s a webviewer. Statigram also gives you statistics on your account: your follower growth, most engaged followers, post history, filter usage, hashtag usage, average like and comment per photo, your most liked photos, etc.

Nitrogram Cost: Free version available for accounts with 1,000 or fewer followers; more comprehensive plans are $37/month, $116/month, and $325/month. Nitrogram lets you aggregate and embed photos taken by Instagram users on your website, blog, or Facebook page. It gives you analytics for hashtags and accounts. It tracks your likes, comments, and photos over time and gives stats on your posting habits.

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Instagram Analytics

Cost: Free SumAll is in beta. It lets you analyze in real time your Instagram marketing efforts. You can also connect your Instagram account with your Twitter, Facebook, and Google Analytics account to get a comprehensive view of your marketing efforts. You can view everything in one interactive dashboard through a phone, tablet, or browser.

Cost: $1.99 iPhone app GramPro is an iPhone app that generates a profile for all of your followers and all of the people whom you follow. It shows each user’s fame score (equivalent to a popularity score), the number of photos he/she posts per week, and the number of likes his/her photos average. GramPro allows you to identify influential Instagram users. It also lets you see which of your followers engage with you the most. Links to Other Tools: Platforms for displaying Instagram photos:

WordPress plugins:

+ FanBase + Olapic + Chute

+ Simply Instagram + Instagram for WordPress + WP Instagram Digest

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The Complete Guide to Instagram Sources

Sources TM

dev THE WORDPRESS EXPERTS INSTAGRAM FOR BUSINESS

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