Instagram has a new feature and it's a fun one! It's called Guides and it allows you to batch posts to create compilations. For a platform notorious for keeping things "simple" (WHY can't I add links to my posts?!), this new feature is a powerful new way to take your content further. Think Pinterest meets blogging. That's kind of where Instagram seems to be positioning Guides. Instagram is a massive platform with a billion Daily Active Users. Understanding all the tools they have to offer is a huge step in standing out from the crowd. So let’s take a look at how Instagram Guides work and hopefully you can get some ideas for how to use them to grow your own brand. How To Create an instagram guide in 3 easy stepsLike I said. Easy! There are three types of Instagram guidesThe three types are Places, Products, and Posts. The primary difference is in determining how you search for content to add to your Guide. But all three are ultimately pretty similar and none of them limit your content options. Places lets you search locations to add content. Products lets you search shops to add content. Posts lets you search your own posts, as well as posts you've saved from others, to add content. Editing each Instagram Guide type is a bit different, but they do have most basic features in common. Let’s start with Places. Instagram Guides TypesOnce you’ve started a new Places Guide, you’ll see a search bar as well as some recommended places. Choose or search for a location to see posts geotagged in that location. Select images to add them to your guide. Don’t worry if they’re not your posts — the image will automatically link to its creators’ account. As with all location-based searches on Instagram, you can go super specific (Wisconsin State Capitol), more general (Madison, WI) or very general (Wisconsin). A Capitol search will only find pics tagged at the Capitol. A Madison search might find pics tagged at the Capitol, but also posts tagged in other places throughout the city. A Wisconsin search could find Capitol pics, Madison pics or pics from anywhere else throughout the Badger State. Go as specific, or as general, as makes sense for you.
The Posts Guide lets you search and select from your own posts along with, possibly more importantly, your Saved Posts. Wait, How Do I save Posts on instagram?To save any post on Instagram, simply tap the bookmark icon located to the bottom right of the post. Doing so adds it to your Saved Posts. To organize your Saved Posts (for Guides or in general), head to your profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen. Tap Saved, and you’ll see your collections, including the default All Posts collection. Tap the plus in the top right to create a new collection. Here, you can choose posts to create a new collection of related posts. Boom — you're in business!! I use Saved Posts as a way to find posts I want to be able to find again later. I have collections for fun gift ideas, interesting ads I see (#DigitalNerd! 🤓), pics of my cat... Saved collections are private, so think of them as a safe space to save things you want to come back to later. It actually seems that after years of having private Saved Collections, Instagram is using Guides as a way to simply have public Saved collections as well. And I for one am here for it! With well-organized collections, you’ll start to see how flexible Posts Guides really can be! How Do I find Instagram Guides Once They're Published?![]() Once you've published your Guide, they're actually super easy to find. Just head to your homepage and navigate to the map icon directly under your profile. If you haven't yet created a Guide, you won't find the option (the same is true for IGTV and Reels). You can also visit other people's profiles and click on their Guides the same way (if they've created any). Want to see an example of an Instagram Guide? Here's one I made that's just pics of the Wisconsin Capitol. (Noticing a trend? I freaking love that building!) Don’t forget, this feature is quite new as of this writing. There’s plenty to explore, and you can find your own way to use this tool uniquely. Now... who wants to make a Guide explaining how to make Guides? Have fun and don’t forget to tag me (@jlemonsk) when you post your first Guide! I definitely want to see it! Further Instagram Geeking OutWant to know more about how Instagram has evolved over the years? Check out this Evolution Of Instagram I put together.
And then check out this episode of my podcast, Step Up Your Social, where I cover 10 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories. Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands... anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform. Instagram Stories currently have 500 million daily active users. Half a billion people — around one-and-a-half-Americas — use Instagram Stories every single day! And Stories keep growing, both in their popularity and in their functionality. So in this post, we’re going to cover some fun tricks, tips and hacks your can use to take your Instagram stories to the next level. If you’re not already posting Instagram Stories on a regular basis, check out Episode 3 of my podcast Step Up Your Social and get caught up on what they are and why you should be using them. That short podcast episode (all episodes of Step Up Your Social are short — ~10 minutes or less) is the 101. This post is the 202. So let's dig in! Instagram Stories: The basicsInstagram Stories launched in August 2016 — by October 2016 they already had 100 million daily active users!
![]() Want a deeper dive into all the changes and added tools that have been rolled out by Instagram over the years, both for Stories and in their primary feed? Check out my Evolution of Instagram. But needless to say, Instagram Stories is a vibrant platform and you should definitely be taking advantage of it. Here are some tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of your Instagram Stories How to make instagram stories![]() Several Ways to Create a New Story: Since Stories have become such a successful part of the platform, Instagram has made it all but impossible to miss them when logged into the app. Users’ Stories are spread out horizontally across the top of the screen, just below the Instagram logo. Your's is the first circle on the left. If you don’t have an active story, there will be a blue plus icon over your photo. Tap there to create a new Story. Stories last for 24 hours, so if you have made one in the past day, tapping here will show you your current story. You can also tap the plus button at the top of your profile or home page and then select Stories from the bottom menu choices. You can also swipe right anywhere in-app to create a new story. That's right, this is such a popular tool, Instagram — known for their obsession with simplicity — has given us numerous ways to get to the same place. ![]() Spice it Up with Filters & Stickers Adding filters can make an otherwise run-of-the-mill Story feel special. Take for instance this fun shot of my Turkish carpet. With a few quick taps, I can easily add some fun flair. Once you’re on the Story creation screen, you can see a menu of filters in small circles at the bottom of the display. Tap on one, or swipe through to see different filters applied to your photo or video. Instagram cycles through filters often, so it’s worth scanning through to see if there’s anything new. This example was taken in June, so there were a bunch of cool Pride filters. Some filters like this one have different variations, which you can see directly above the filter list. Next, there’s the sticker library. These are meant to be placed over your content, and they’re incredibly diverse — GIFs, location, @mentions, #hashtags, donation requests, and more. To resize or move a sticker, just use two fingers to pinch or drag it, respectively. If you change your mind, drag it to the bottom of the screen, where a trash can will appear. Poof, it’s gone! Want a deeper dive into some of these fun sticker types? We’ll cover a few of the specific sticker types in more detail below. Sticker Quick Tips -Pinch and drag to resize and move stickers -Tap on a sticker to change what it does — feel free to experiment! -Change color of some stickers with a tap -Add a “sound on” button sticker to let viewers know to turn up the volume -Explore the deep GIF library to find something that fits your personality or mood -All text is customizable — from font, alignment, size, color, and more -Tap the squiggle to draw: change line styles & color, add arrows, erase, and undo/redo All of these powerful and fun tool are… literally at your fingertips. ![]() Check Your Analytics Wondering who watched your Story and which Stories inspired actions on your account? Analytics aren't quite able to read minds, but they are definitely the next best thing. During the 24 hours your Story is live, you’ll notice in the bottom-left of the screen “Seen by x,” so you know how many people viewed your story. Tap here to see more detailed analytics of how your Story performed. On the analytics screen, you can see both who viewed your story and what actions they took (for example, if they skipped your story or watched the next one), Instagram will break that down for you. This can be helpful if you’re posting 20 times a day and want to know what’s connecting with your audience... and what isn't! Ok, now that we’re all caught up with the basics, so let’s talk hacks! 1. Increase Reach With The Location StickeR ![]() Adding a location sticker doesn’t just let your viewers know where you are, it can also potentially extend your reach beyond your current followers. How you use the location sticker is up to you. You can be super specific — I’m at the WI capitol. You can be a bit vague — I’m in Madison, WI. Or you can be super vague — I’m in WI. There are 2 reasons to use location stickers: 1) It helps people know where you are. And 2) and this is the important one, it could dramatically increase your Story’s reach. There’s no surefire way to get one of your Stories added to a public Story* — which will definitely increase your reach — but not tagging your location guarantees that you WON’T be added to the public location’s story. *What do I mean by public Stories? When you search for any place on Instagram, you'll find a menu of images tagged in that location. You'll also find public Stories that Instagram is highlighting to give a fuller peak at the spot you are checking out. ![]() And here’s something cool: Instagram is smart enough to know that the WI Capitol is in Madison and that Madison is in WI. So it’s possible you’ll wind up in the public Stories for all 3 of those places. Which is the main reason why specific location tagging is better than general location tagging. But any location tagging is better than none! Two quick notes on this — 1) not every story should be tagged by location. If you’re sharing a screenshot of one of your tweets, or posting a Game of Thrones meme that got you laughing, it’s okay to skip the location. And 2) — and this is a big one — you don’t actually have to be at a location to tag yourself there. Now of course I’m not telling you to lie to your audience. In fact I'm straight up telling you to NEVER lie to your audience. But if you took a bunch of pictures at an event last night and you we’re too busy to share them to your Stories in real time, you can post them the next day, and tag the location after the fact. Just search for the location within the search bar, select it, and voila. You’re tagged. You can then move that sticker around, make it bigger or smaller, or tap it to get different color formatting to better fit the feel of your story. 2. Increase Reach With Hashtags![]() There’s a location sticker. There’s also a hashtag sticker. Use it! Just like you might be added to a public location’s Story when using the location sticker — thus increasing your potential reach — using a hashtag sets you up to potentially be added to a public hashtag’s Story. Now on a general Instagram post, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Stories won’t let you go that far, but it will allow you to use up to 10 hashtags. The more hashtags you use, the better chance you have of getting added to public Stories. You can only use the hashtag sticker once in a Story. But if it makes sense for you to add more, just pop on over to your text and start typing out relevant hashtags. IF IF IF you are going to do this — and of course you don’t have to add 10 #s in every post — consider stacking and then hiding them, so that it doesn’t make your Story look... gaudy. ![]() Try this: Create each hashtag as a new piece of text, meaning that instead of just hitting space between tags, you hit done typing out tag one, and then start new text for tag number 2 and so on. Then, stack them. Literally put them all on top of each other. Which will look awful. But fear not. Once you've got your hashtags stacked, head back to your stickers and find yourself a sticker or GIF to stick on top of them. Then no one will see them except Instagram… which in this case is the only one who really matters! 3. Increase Reach With The Mention Sticker ![]() There's a location and a hashtag sticker. There’s also a mention sticker. This sticker lets you tag someone(s) in your Story. This one won’t help you get into any public Stories, but it will give a public shoutout to the account(s) you are tagging, and just as important, it will send a notification to that account that you have tagged them in a Story. As I always say — don’t talk about anyone on the internet if you wouldn’t want them to know. And talking about someone on social without tagging them is like talking to them on the phone without first dialing their number. Without it, they might accidentally come upon your post, but a tag all but ensures they see it! Another reason to tag someone is that when you do so, they'll get the option to share your Story with their followers. So you give them a shoutout, and then they help you reach new audiences. Win-Win! Along with hoping your community shares your posts, definitely consider sharing relevant and interesting Stories from your audience that tag you. User generated content can be an amazing way to tell your brand’s story. And, something cool about sharing other people’s stories — it’s more like a quote tweet than a retweet. Meaning you don’t just have to share their Story as is. You essentially are sharing their Story as a sticker, so you can add your own location, mention and hashtag stickers to it as well as GIFs, text and more. Have fun with it! The ability to share stories changed the whole concept of Instagram’s power of telling stories in real time. Take advantage of this tool, as it makes sense for you and your brand. 4. Get Engaging With StickerS ![]() If you haven’t explored the loads of fun stickers available to you in Instagram Stories, you are missing out! Along with the ones we’ve already covered, and GIFs (which I love!), there are also some really cool engagement stickers built right into the platform. You can use stickers to solicit questions from your audience (which you can then answer in follow up Stories), take polls, quiz your audience… there’s even a countdown clock available to you if you have an exciting event taking place and want to build some excitement. Explore and get to engaging your audience with stickers. 5. Create Your Own StickerS Can’t quite find the perfect sticker for your story? Don’t sweat it: you can make your own. It’s surprisingly simple to do so. Find a photo you like. Whether it’s in your browser or saved on your phone, either will work. In your browser, long tap the image until you see the option to save it. Once the image is saved to your photos, tap the Share button and then tap copy photo. Now, head back to your story. The copied image should pop up in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Tap on it and bang! You’re good to go. If you miss the pop up, don’t sweat it. Just open the keyboard, hit paste, and you’re back in business. That was the tip—here comes the hack! You can save transparent images (.png files) like a Polaroid frame and use these as stickers too. This way, it’s easy to get really creative with a few basic building blocks. Add these in the same way you added those previous stickers, and you’re in business. This is a super fun and interesting way to create your own content, and most importantly, to be able to do so in your own voice (and with your own colors and branding). 6. Add Any Instagram Post To Your Story ![]() Did you know that you can add ANY public Instagram post — your own or anyone else’s — to your Stories? To do so is extremely simple: at the bottom of the post, next to the heart and comment icons, there’s a little paper airplane. Click it and you’ll see the option to “add to story.” Click that and whatever you were looking at will appear as a sticker in your Story. When I say “whatever you were looking at,” what I mean is that if it was an album, you can only add one image, and if it’s a video, you will only be adding a screenshot of the thumbnail associated with the video. But once you have the image in your Story, you can move it around, make it bigger or smaller and add all of the stickers, GIFs and text you want. And if you tap on the actual post, it will change the formatting from the clean image with a tag of who posted it, to an image that includes the handle and part of the post’s original text. ![]() Here’s the coolest hack for this though — go to your GIF library and search “tap here.” You’ll have loads of options — pick one you like. Add your "tap here" sticker to your Story. When someone taps it, they’ll get a seemingly magic option to visit the original post. Here’s the thing — they would get that option whether or not you point them to tap there. Most folks just don’t realize that it's an option to click through. The built-in call-to-action makes it super easy to drive people from your Story to your original post (or anyone else’s). It's a big part of why more and more accounts are creating Stories from their posts. It’s a second audience you can engage around the same content, and you can potentially drive people back to the original content at the same time. I don’t recommend doing this for every one of your posts, but definitely a helpful tool for the posts you are particularly excited about. 7. Get Creative With Color When I am building a new Story that’s not based on a picture, I’ll sometimes just snap a photo while covering the camera so I can start with a black background. This works fine, but if you want a different color background, there’s actually a really easy way to create one. ![]() Take any picture and then tap the pen tool. Select the first pen, pick your color of choice on the bottom and then hold your finger down on the screen. The whole background will become that color. If you want to add a transparent color over top of one of your pictures, you can do that too. Instead of selecting the first pen, select the second one, which looks more like a marker. Choose your color, hold down and you get a transparent overlay over top of your picture. Want to get really clever with either of these — create your solid or transparent color over top of a picture, and then use the eraser to remove color from the selected areas. That can create a very cool effect! 8. Keep The Story Going With IGTV If you have 10k+ followers, you can link a Story to an external link. This is a very powerful tool, but one that not a lot of users actually have access to. For those of us with less than 10,000 followers, you do still have one option for linking out from your Story — you can link it to an IGTV video that you have previously posted. IGTV, short for Instagram TV, allows you to post longer videos then you can post within Instagram proper. On Instagram, you are limited to one minute videos, but with IGTV, you can go up to 10 minutes (some bigger accounts can even go up to an hour). It can be a great way to repurpose videos that you created elsewhere but couldn’t post to Instagram because they were too long. Once you have posted something to IGTV, you can link directly to the video through a Story. To do so, simply tap the link icon at the top of your story. You will then be able to select from any of your pre-published videos in IGTV. Then anyone seeing your Story can swipe up and get to your IGTV video. Like with the “Tap Here” hack, search the GIFs library for a “Swipe Up” call-to-action. so your audience realizes that your Story is intended to take them somewhere else to continue on in the fun! You can also share an IGTV directly to your Instagram Stories. To do so, simply select it and add it to your story like you would any public post. This will not show the entire IGTV, but will let people stream a few seconds of it and give folks an option to keep watching your full video at IGTV. ![]() |
If you work with people, you should have a photo/media library. Period.
Taking pictures of your customers/fans/community will help you tell your story in real time. It will also help ensure you have great content to use for years to come.
There’s no shortage of stock photography on the internet, but none of it has your team members in it, or your customers wearing/using/engaging with your products, or events taking place in neighborhoods where you live.
You don’t need to be an amazing photographer to build a photo library, you just need to pull out your smartphone and start taking pictures. If you have multiple team members, you should all take photos regularly to ensure as many different shots as possible of any given event, sale, party, etc.
But that’s where things gets complicated. If several members of your team are taking photos, then those photos are spread out across several different phones and devices.
There are many services out there that aim to solve this problem. Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Photos… all of them can do it. But they are all clunky and slow, and therefore unlikely to be used regularly and reliably. And if you aren’t sharing all your photos, the system isn’t working.
Here’s the good news: If every member of your team uses at least one Apple product, Shared iCloud Drives are the simplest solution you can imagine to solve this annoying problem.
Adding photos to a Shared Drive takes three clicks of the screen. Literally. And then everyone with access will have all shared photos and videos right on their phones and other Apple devices.
To add a photo(s)/video(s) to a Shared Drive, simply open up the media on your phone you want to share.
Then click in the share box in the bottom left of the screen.
Taking pictures of your customers/fans/community will help you tell your story in real time. It will also help ensure you have great content to use for years to come.
There’s no shortage of stock photography on the internet, but none of it has your team members in it, or your customers wearing/using/engaging with your products, or events taking place in neighborhoods where you live.
You don’t need to be an amazing photographer to build a photo library, you just need to pull out your smartphone and start taking pictures. If you have multiple team members, you should all take photos regularly to ensure as many different shots as possible of any given event, sale, party, etc.
But that’s where things gets complicated. If several members of your team are taking photos, then those photos are spread out across several different phones and devices.
There are many services out there that aim to solve this problem. Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Photos… all of them can do it. But they are all clunky and slow, and therefore unlikely to be used regularly and reliably. And if you aren’t sharing all your photos, the system isn’t working.
Here’s the good news: If every member of your team uses at least one Apple product, Shared iCloud Drives are the simplest solution you can imagine to solve this annoying problem.
Adding photos to a Shared Drive takes three clicks of the screen. Literally. And then everyone with access will have all shared photos and videos right on their phones and other Apple devices.
To add a photo(s)/video(s) to a Shared Drive, simply open up the media on your phone you want to share.
Then click in the share box in the bottom left of the screen.
At this point you can email or text the photo, or you can share it to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. But don’t do any of that. Select the rainbow icon labeled iCloud Photo Sharing.
The name of my Shared Album is Reverbal Communications. Click next to Shared Album and you can add your media to any existing Shared Drive you're a part of, or you can create a new one.
Optionally: you can add text or message to accompany your photo. I highly recommend you do this, both for your own sake, and for the sake of your team members. Say where you were, what you were doing, who is in the photo(s)/video(s) and any other information your team should know.
You can add a message or a note for an individual piece of media, or a group of pictures/videos. Whatever you choose to share will be commented on individually or as a unit.
Optionally: you can add text or message to accompany your photo. I highly recommend you do this, both for your own sake, and for the sake of your team members. Say where you were, what you were doing, who is in the photo(s)/video(s) and any other information your team should know.
You can add a message or a note for an individual piece of media, or a group of pictures/videos. Whatever you choose to share will be commented on individually or as a unit.
Then just hit post and everyone in the Shared Drive will get a notification that there is new media in the Shared Drive.
When you open up the Shared Drive, you can toggle between Photos and People.
When you open up the Shared Drive, you can toggle between Photos and People.
To invite new people to the Drive, go to People and then click “Invite People.”
They can only accept your invitation if they have an iCloud enabled device (a Mac computer, phone or tablet). You can invite them through their email or phone number, so long as that contact info is associated with an iCloud account.
Shared Drives are a great tool for placing all media at the fingertips of everyone on your team. You can have as many as you want too, so maybe have one accessible to interns or revolving staffers, and another for senior staffers/stakeholders. Or you have different Shared Drives for different parts of your team. Whatever works for you and your organization.
Have questions? Hit me up. I’m here to help you and you team get started building your Digital Media Library.
Check out some other iPhone tips and tricks.
Have any favorite secret iOS tips, tricks, tools or hacks that you love? Share them in the comments!
Shared Drives are a great tool for placing all media at the fingertips of everyone on your team. You can have as many as you want too, so maybe have one accessible to interns or revolving staffers, and another for senior staffers/stakeholders. Or you have different Shared Drives for different parts of your team. Whatever works for you and your organization.
Have questions? Hit me up. I’m here to help you and you team get started building your Digital Media Library.
Check out some other iPhone tips and tricks.
Have any favorite secret iOS tips, tricks, tools or hacks that you love? Share them in the comments!
As of October 2020, Facebook has done away with Facebook Notes.
Ever wanted to spice up your Facebook post, but didn't know how?
With a Facebook Note, you can add a cover photo, as well as pictures and GIFs throughout your posts.
You can also format your text with bold and italics, bullet and numbered lists, hyperlinks and much more.
So instead of just another boring picture, your post can look like this:
With a Facebook Note, you can add a cover photo, as well as pictures and GIFs throughout your posts.
You can also format your text with bold and italics, bullet and numbered lists, hyperlinks and much more.
So instead of just another boring picture, your post can look like this:
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