Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that there should be time and money put into creating sharable content and a well thought out Social Media Strategy, but – if you are wanting to give this a go for yourself – here are some of my ‘Bible’ apps that you can use to transform your Instagram by creating fantastic content and growing your followers.
Adobe Spark Post
(creative design)
Let’s start with Adobe Spark Post.
This is essentially (in my opinion) a better version of Canva. I would describe this app as an easy to use Photoshop for people with no design experience! The quality and design of the templates are great, but I would recommend starting from scratch and making something to suit your brand. Spark users can create social media graphics, web pages, or videos—from anywhere! I also love the fact that you can upload your own fonts to it too, this ensures your branding is consistent throughout your content!
^ Download Adobe Spark Post Here
A Color Story
(photo editor)
Another ‘Photo Editing & Filtering App’ which I use for photography or image-based Instagram grids. Simply upload a photo and choose a filter! What I love about this app is you can create and save themed filter sets for each brand and name them. This keeps your visuals consistent. I usually choose three similar filters for one Instagram account that would complement the branding of the company. I would advise paying to unlock all of the best filters. Prices vary for each pre-set filter pack.
This App is also great for giving a mini make-over to your fewer professional photos, changing the brightness and contract on a rubbish photo can really improve the quality in an instant!
Sneaky Hint: use more than one filter on a single photo and change the amount of filter using the vibrance bar until you are happy with the look.
VSCO
(photo editor)
VSCO is another ‘Photo Editing & Filtering App’ for a more edgy and minimal look. Simply upload a photo and choose a filter! Our advice would be to pay for a monthly subscription to unlock all of the best filters for just £1.54!
Sneaky Hint: using the “Discover” feature will allow you to see how other people are editing their photos. It’s like Pinterest without all of the verbiages on the images.
Typorama
(creative design)
Now you have some great apps for editing photos – here is one that allows you to easily add graphics or type over them using your phone.
UNFOLD
(Instagram stories)
This App is great for creating clean and modern templates for your Instagram Story! Grab your followers’ attention by choosing from a collection of 25 minimal, elegant designs and tell your story exactly the way you want to. Again, I would advise paying to unlock all of the best templates. Simply choose a template, upload your content and text, save to your phone and upload it to your story.
Sneaky Hint: you can upload videos into the template too, and your stories can become an interactive, moving piece of art!
Planonly
(scheduling tool and more!)
Uploading your images is easy, you can then arrange them using a simple drag and drop to get the best look. You can then schedule the posts and receive a notification to publish. The great thing about being able to see how the grid looks with the future posts is that it makes you think about what you are posting, when and why. It also means colours aren’t clashing, and you aren’t repeating yourself too much! I use this app to save time. I usually create a month’s worth of content in one week, and upload them, in order. Before posting them organically. This app also collects data based on your audience that will tell you the best time to post and you can create hashtag bungles – making it easy to copy and paste relevant hashtags into your copy.
Sneaky Hints:
1) make sure that the photos you are splitting are high res as they decrease in quality when doing so.
2) I personally use the app as a place where I can store my content, I then post the content directly from Instagram as the algorithm prefers content posted directly from the Instagram app itself.
Airbrush
(it’s in the name – an airbrushing app!)
Although I don’t encourage changing your appearance, I think airbrushing that awkward spot or masking any hints of a hangover (bags) for team or professional photos is a must!
Sneaky Hint: you can use this app for landscape or product photos too, by blurring out unwanted marks in the photo and sharpening the look.
(content sourcing)
This may be an obvious one, but you can use Pinterest images as content as long as you credit the original Photographer or Designer! This is excellent news if you are struggling to take your own photos or find images to inspire your audience.
Unsplash
Unsplash is fab! It is essentially a bank of stunning, cinematic pictures taken by talented photographers! If you are struggling to find a photograph for the link display pic on a social post, this is just the place to find one!
GIPHY
(moving images)
GIFs are gobbling up social feeds and it isn’t just the 18-24-year-olds who are obsessed with video and GIF sharing; everyone has jumped on the bandwagon and so should you! It’s a great way to add a comical value to your content and create emotions through reactions and relatable moving memes! You can download the GIFFs and turn them into MP4’s for almost any social platform! You can also create your own GIFF if you don’t have the skills to make it through Photoshop but bear in mind that the quality of this may not be great!
Sneaky Hint: You cannot download a GIFF and upload it to Instagram, you have to directly share it from GIFFY or download it as an MP4 (video) before posting.
Captivate for IG
(follower growth)
This is an absolute necessity for anyone trying to transform their Instagram! This is a must-have for serious Instagram users, as you can search and find people that post similar content to you. You can then follow the people who liked their posts to fill your following full of active users. It helps to build your following base quickly with the right people too! You can also track who isn’t following you back and clean followers out who aren’t interacting or following you back, making your profile full of relative followers! You do have to put the time and care into it, but when you do, you reap fantastic results!
Sneaky Hint: You should use this little and often instead of following loads of people in bulk – Instagram picks this up as spammy and might blacklist your account for a few days.
Display Purposes
(hashtag generation and bug detecting)
Stay one step ahead of the Instagram Algorithm and ensure your Hashtags aren’t broken or spammy. This app is a great service that helps you find the best hashtags related to the topic of your content and post. It also eliminates banned hashtags, so your content doesn’t get flagged by Instagram.
HypeAuditor
(PR & influencers)
If you are interested in sending your product to influencers, be sure to check if they are legit first! This App allows you to determine if an account has fake followers or uses bots to fake engagement. It’s extremely useful and can save you a lot of money! Instagram is full of scammers, be sure to spot them using this app!
If you have tried these apps out and are struggling with your social and need help! I can perform a free social media audit for you – get in touch today!
IMPORTANT TIP – yes, you can transform your Instagram account and create unique and fabulous content using these apps, but you must always consider how they will reach and be seen by the world, by this I mean – you must contribute some of your marketing budget into a ‘Paid Social Media’ professional to work on the targeting and placements behind your posts and content as a whole! Find out how we do this by getting in touch today.
