Another benefit of Instagram is the ease with which you can use truly useful apps and tools to speed up and simplify your Instagram engagement while making the most of this highly visual social media platform.
Let’s take a look at seven specific tools that not only save you time and give you results, but make Instagram even more fun to use
- Iconosquare
- Iconosquare bills itself as “Instagram made more comfortable” and that’s exactly what it is. From within Iconosquare, you can:
- Create photo albums and view photos and videos
- Like photos and videos
- Post comments
- Search for users and hashtags
- Follow and unfollow people
From within Iconosquare, you can also promote your account, run contests and manage your conversations. Plus, it gives instant, real-time stats you can understand at a glance.
Iconosquare will save you time even as it makes keeping an overview of your Instagram account simple and easy. You can check stats on leads, engagement, conversions, growth history, hashtag performance, top followers, and you can specify stats for the last seven days or on a rolling monthly basis.
- Repost
This handy app is available both on iTunes and Google Play. Use it for super-fast content curation. What it does is eliminate the necessity for graphics handling or even taking screenshots. Instead, you follow two simple steps:
- Find photos from others in your own community whose photos you want to share
- Repost using the “Repost” app
Repost automatically credits the original content creator: Plus, pairs their name with a “repost” symbol for easy sharing within your own community.
You can also “Like” and “Follow” users while using the app.
Make using Repost even faster by:
- Searching by user, hashtag or keyword
- Check out the “Popular” tab to see “what and who is being reposted the most”
- Searching with the #repostapp hashtag
If you go Pro, you can also manage multiple Instagram accounts and use Repost add-free, as well as removing their watermark.
- Word Swag
Forget using a graphics program to add text to graphics. Instead, take a quote or phrase and use this handy app to turn it into a graphic version, using templates—all from your mobile.
And be sure to follow Word Swag on Instagram, for inspiration.
- PostSo
PostSo is a scheduler that was originally created for Instagram users, but you can now schedule for Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook at the same time
You can schedule posts:
- In batches, one at a time
- At time periods when your followers are on Instagram
It’s very simple. You just let the app know where you want your photo or photo batch to appear by choosing your Instagram account: Then upload your photo and text. But here’s where PostSo adds two handy functions. You can do one or both of the following:
- Specify a specific time you want them posted
- Add a geo-location tag to your post
- Choose your Instagram account
- Woobox
There are many apps and tools for administering contests on Instagram, but Woobox has a few advantages that others may not have. For one thing, not only will it allow you to set up an Instagram contest, you can also use Woobox to create a Facebook tab for your selected Instagram photos.
Woobox also has a “Pick a Winner” feature that you can choose to use (or not use); plus, it is one of the most versatile social media management app suites out there, allowing you to create coupons; let people easily claim prizes; collect entries for leaderboard contests—great if you have affiliates.
It also allows you to make tabs for YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter, as well as for Instagram.
You can even create a fan gate in HTML to display different content to followers than to people who are not yet following you; and much more.
- Superimpose
This third-party app allows you to quickly superimpose one photo on top of another and position it for maximum effect.
Its big benefit is that you don’t have to play around with graphics programs to create effects—and it’s easy to use.
You can also:
- Blend
- Rotate
- Isolate an object from its background so you can drop it into a new setting
Apps like Superimpose allow you to boost the impact of your video content, making your feeds always entertaining.
- Afterlight
All this is assuming you don’t want to mess around with photo editing and special effects—but for those who do like a more hands-on, photo-editing approach, Afterlight may be just the app you need.
Afterlight offers features such as:
- 74 different photo filters
- 128 scalable frames
- Wallpapers
- Custom shapes
Afterlight provides a practical way to blend ease-of-use and fast content creation with a fuller photographic control.
