Instagram has always been my favourite app - I get a ton of inspiration from others and I love the way you can be creative with what you're sharing. More recently, while studying in marketing and even before then from a sheer interest in social media marketing, I started to constantly research tips and tricks, editing styles, and other strategies to grow and elevate business Instagram accounts. With that said, these are my top 3 apps that I use to level up my Instagram game and strategy (part one - *wink wink*)!
Lightroom
If you're still editing your pictures with VSCO, it's time to make a change. Lightroom gives you full control over anything you want to edit in a picture. You can edit the lighting, the depth, you can completely transform one colour to another, and you can use and create presets.
I usually search for presets, either paid or free (I can do a whole other blog post on this if you're interested, just comment down below!) and sometimes, I'll modify those to find my own style, or I'll try to start from scratch and play around with all the features. It does take time to understand what you can do in this app - I'm still learning - but the consistency that you get transforms your profile into a beautiful and frankly aesthetic feed.
Canva
I'm sure you've all heard of this app already, but if you haven't, Canva is an app and website for all of you who want to create easy and quick graphics for literally ANYTHING. In terms of Instagram, I use Canva to create feed posts for the businesses I do freelance work for, but I use their story templates for everything!
They have so many designs to choose from and are so easy to customize - I've recently introduced my mom to this app and she's having so much fun with it! It's especially great if you're a business that needs to share more informative posts as you can have consistent templates and create the most dynamic carousels. Pro tip: you can also create covers for your Reels using the Instagram story templates - just be sure to include all the content you need within the middle of the template (approx. a square size).
Planoly
I've tried so many apps to plan out my feed, but Planoly is my favourite. You can add all the assets that you want to upload to Instagram (a maximum of 30 posts per month in the free version), then easily drag your photos to find the most pleasing way to plan out how your feed will look on your profile.
When uploading a post to the app, you can add it as a carousel or single post, add a caption, your hashtags, your account tags, your location, and even schedule your post so that it notifies you when to post. For single posts, you can switch on automatic posting so you don't even need to worry about posting your photos!
I have a ton of more apps that I use for Instagram, so let me know in the comments if you want a Part 2 and I will definitely publish that for you all! Also, if you want any in-depth posts about any of these apps, I will gladly create those all well.
Do you have a favourite app to use for Instagram?
Find me here!
canva is THE BEST ever 🤩