You always want your Instagram feed to show clearly what you or your business is about. One of the best ways you can do that is by regularly curating your feed using the archive Instagram post feature: here’s a step-by-step guide to archiving posts.
HOW TO ARCHIVE INSTAGRAM POSTS
The first step is to learn how to archive Instagram posts. To archive a post, click the three dots on the top right of the post and click the second option – to archive. Your post will disappear from your Instagram grid but the post and its insights are kept in the archive, where only you can see them.
HOW TO FIND ARCHIVED INSTAGRAM POSTS
You can find archived Instagram posts by going to your Instagram profile and clicking on the three lines at the top right of your account and clicking on Archive. It has a drop-down menu for you to access either posts or Stories. Click on the post option to see all your archived posts.
To move an archived post back to your grid, select the relevant archived post and select the option to ‘Show on profile’. It will automatically move back to your grid, showing in date order and containing all of its likes and comments.
INSTAGRAM ARCHIVE FEATURE INTRODUCTION
Instagram introduced its archive feature in mid-2017 after testing it several months earlier. At the time, many Instagrammers were removing posts that didn’t get the number of comments or likes they wanted, sometimes leading to moments of regret
Posts that are archived are only able to be seen by the account owner. They’re especially useful when you want to create Story highlights on a particular theme – just go into your Story archive and add the relevant Stories which expire after 24 hours.
HOW TO CURATE YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED
Now that you know how to move Instagram posts into the archive and back again, have a good look at your grid. What does it say about you or your business? If someone glanced at the photos without reading the captions, would that give a clear picture of what you have to offer and your style – especially for creative businesses?
Try removing any posts that detract from the main message or style of your grid to leave behind a well curated feed that tells visitors in a few seconds what’s on offer. If your feed has a pattern, it may take a couple of rounds of changes to curate your feed so that it maintains an aesthetic look while showing only the very best of your work. This can work especially well if you’ve updated your brand or feed colours and want to phase in the new palette.
You could even try archiving some of the colours or content in your grid to test the look. If you don’t like it, just un-archive the posts In fact, any time you want to curate or freshen your Instagram feed, you can use the archiving feature, knowing you can always return a post if you change your mind.
Ever seen #TBT on a social media post and wondered what it meant? Here’s a quick explanation of what TBT means and how to use it on your own social media platforms.
WHAT DOES TBT MEAN?
TBT stands for throwback Thursday. It’s used when we want to share old photos or videos of ourselves and sometimes our businesses, to show what we were like many years ago. It’s a fun way for our followers to learn more about us and can apply to almost anything that has happened in the past.
WHICH PLATFORMS IS TBT USED ON?
TBT is most commonly used on Instagram and Twitter. As of June 2020, there are more than 500,000 photos with this hashtag on Instagram. If you’re looking for hashtag alternatives to TBT, # throwbackthursday has more than 50 million photos on Instagram and # throwbackthursdays is heading for more than 1.6 million. You could even use simply #throwback which has more than 110 million photos on Instagram.
HOW TO USE TBT ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
Firstly, use the TBT tag on a Thursday. Although if you get your days muddled and still want to use your post, you could go with #flashbackfriday Use it as a signpost to your followers that you’re sharing nostalgic content.
One of the most useful ways of using TBT is for storytelling. People connect with and remember stories, and given that you have new people finding out about your business all the time, it can be useful to share the origin story of your business or services regularly.
Typically, you would share a photo or video, alongside a commentary explaining what’s going on in the photo and how different things are today. Music from YouTube or Spotify are other great links to share. You can share how far you or your business have come, comparing old branding such as logos or colours, premises or products with what’s on offer today and perhaps even pivotal moments along the way. TBT posts are often comedic or have a humorous slant, with vintage hairstyles or clothing that reflects an era such as big ’80s hair or ’70s flares. Nostalgia can trigger strong emotional responses too, making it especially memorable and shareable. Using this hashtag is similar to Facebook’s ‘Memories’ that appear on the anniversaries of their posting.
You can make a white background for Instagram in your flatlays and overhead photos in a few simple steps using just your phone camera and free apps available on iPhone and android. Scroll down for instructions and the best free apps to use in 2022.
YOUR PHONE
To make a background white for Instagram, the most important thing to know that your phone camera has automatic settings for exposure. It chooses how light or dark to make your photo. This works well most of the time, but when your photo has a large light or white area, it will try to make it darker i.e. grey (if you want to know why, this article explains it well). So you can blame science for your grey photos – it’s not your fault.
The good news is you can override your phone camera’s auto settings. You do this by touching the screen while taking your photo. A yellow box with a sun on the side should appear. Simply slide your finger along the sun side of the square to increase light in your photo – and no more grey!
USING LIGHT FOR BETTER WHITE BACKGROUNDS
Your light source is important in getting clean white backgrounds. Where possible, use natural, indirect light from a window or glass door. This may mean timing your photos for when the sun is out and taking over a piece of floor or kitchen table in a good location. If there is too much light or it is too direct, sheer curtains can work wonders to diffuse and lessen the light. To remove shadows, you can reflect light into the shadows using white cardboard, aluminium foil from the kitchen or a shop-bought reflector. Just move the board or reflector around so that it bounces light from the window into the shadow. This usually means putting the reflector opposite the window or door letting in light and tipping it down slightly. Just try moving your reflector or board around while you watch the shadows to see when it’s working.
BALANCING LIGHT TEMPERATURE FOR A BRIGHT BACKGROUND
Light will look different colours in our photos depending on its temperature. Photos taken by candlelight for instance, will look yellower than ones taken with a flash. It’s one of the main reasons why you might want to take your photos during the day with natural light from a window or a door – your photos will have ‘white’ whites.
But if you haven’t been able to take your photos in those perfect conditions – and all of us have been there – some apps will help you correct that. Snapseed (free for iPhone and android) is my favourite app to do this in its tune image/warmth adjustments.
RETOUCHING YOUR WHITE BACKGROUND
The final step in how to make a background white is retouching and sharpening. The Retouch app (TouchRetouch – free for iPhone and android) is perfect to remove any dirt or smudges from your background. The app is called TouchRetouch in the app stores and has a green swirly logo on a black background. It removes smudges or dirty marks on your background in an instant.
You can whiten your background more using Snapseed in a couple of ways. The first is to go to Tools and Tune image (top left). Swipe your finger up the screen and a menu will appear: choose highlights. This is going to edit the brightest part of your photo, which is likely to be your white background. Slide your finger to the right to lighten.
The second way you can lighten your background is also in Snapseed. Go to tools and click on the Selective tool, which looks like a circle with a dot in the centre. This makes adjustments in a selected area for brightness, contrast, saturation and structure. It defaults to brightness, so use the slider at the top of your screen to slide further to the right to brighten your photo.
Once you have one area as white as you want, you can create another area to adjust by clicking on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen or tapping your finger on the original dot (which is probably showing up as a B after your brightness adjustments). A pop-up menu will allow you to copy this adjustment and paste in another area of the screen. Continue adding adjustment areas until your background is just the way you want and click on the tick on the bottom right.
When you’ve finished your adjustments, the last touch is to add a small amount of sharpening in Snapseed. In Tools, select the Details tool, which has a triangle icon. Slide your finger up the screen to see the menu and choose Sharpening. Slide your finger across the screen to the right to sharpen a little. This will give your photo an extra ‘pop’.
So there you have it – how to make a background white for Instagram using only your phone. I hope this makes your Instagram photos easier for you.
Knowing how to put an Instagram post on your Story is one of the ways of getting more visibility – either on your own posts or connecting with other accounts – so it’s an essential skill for any Instagram business account owner.
Sharing an Instagram post on Stories is a super simple three-step process – but did you know that you can add all kinds of design features to your Story so that you’re on brand and attract more attention in the Stories feed? Let’s start with the process and then you can learn the extra design hacks to up-level your Stories in a few clicks.
ADD AN INSTAGRAM POST TO YOUR STORY IN THREE EASY STEPS
1. Find the post you want to share. Click the airplane icon just below the post on the left, next to the comment and like buttons.
2. Select the ‘Add post to your story’ option which will appear.
3. Hit ‘Your stories’ button on the bottom left of the screen. You’re done!
FIVE WAYS TO ADD DESIGN TO YOUR STORY INSIDE INSTAGRAM
1.Change the colour of the background.
To do this, tap on the ‘scribble’ icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen next to the text icon. This will bring up a row of colours across the bottom of the screen (swipe left for two more rows of colour including black, white and greys). Select a colour and hold your finger on a black piece of background for three seconds to make it change colour.
If you want a background colour that is not one of those in the row, place your finger on the colour palette and hold, to have a rainbow palette pop up. Choose an appropriate colour and your text will change.
2. Add text to your Instagram story.
Use the text tool on the top right of the screen and type your text, choosing the colour from the palette just like you did for the background. There are five different fonts and you can resize using the slider on the left hand side or pinch the text in or out with two fingers when you’re finished.
3. Hide hashtags in Instagram Stories
Create your hashtags with the text tool and match the colour to a sample of the background. Boom – they fade into the background! Don’t forget, you can turn them sideways and make them smaller to fit your layout.
4. Adding stickers to Instagram Stories
You can add stickers from Instagram’s own library via the sticker tool on the top right next to the pen tool. You can add stickers for the location, mention an account, a hashtag or a gif.
Gifs can transform your Stories. Just click on the GIF option to see trending gifs or use the search bar to find appropriate stickers. You can resize by using two fingers to pinch in or out and put behind or in front of the story you are sharing. The one you touch last will be on top.
You can add gifs that are purely decorative, such as stars, hearts or rainbows or those that direct the viewer to take action: arrows, ‘tap here’ or ‘sound on’.
5. Add your own photos or graphics
You can do this by going to your camera roll, choosing a photo and hitting copy. Return to Instagram and that photo will pop up on the bottom left hand side with an option to ‘Add sticker’. Click on that to add to your Story.
In this example, I added a single rectangle of colour and put it behind the text and post, to help both stand out.
That’s your simple and quick guide showing how to put an Instagram post on your Story, along with some design hacks that all can be done inside Instagram itself, without any apps.
If you want to up-level your Stories even further, you might want to visit the social media template section of the Living Abstracts shop.
Knowing the best day and time to post on Instagram is an easy way of maximising the chance of our followers seeing our posts – which is what we all want!
Instagram’s photo and video platform is the second most engaged social media platform after Facebook with more than one billion monthly active users. More than half of them log in at least once a day and for an average of almost half an hour a day.
With so many people active on the platform, it’s no wonder we want to be seen by new potential clients as well as staying in touch with our existing followers. To do that, we need a personalised schedule of ideal times to post.
HOW TO FIND OUT THE BEST DAY AND TIME TO POST ON INSTAGRAM
Although there are general statistics for Instagram users worldwide for the most popular times and days, you need to find out exactly when YOUR followers are online so you can post when they are. Posting on Instagram when your followers are online is proven to help you reach more followers and get more engagement.
My favourite way of finding out the best time and day to post on Instagram is the Instagram app itself; you’ll need a business account or creator account. I’ve also used a free app called WhenToPost, but prefer not to have an additional app on my phone if it’s not needed.
HOW TO USE INSTAGRAM TO FIND OUT THE BEST TIME TO POST ON INSTAGRAM
In the app, click the top right hand side where there are three horizontal lines. Select Insights (the icon looks like a graph) and choose Audience. Scroll down to the Followers section. It shows you a graph for each day with the followers online shown in three-hour blocks. Choose the most popular times for your posts. You might also chose not to post on some days if your followers are not online much then.
You can go deeper and see which countries your followers are in, checking on their local time zones and how their use of Instagram fits in with their day. For instance, they may be on Instagram before and after work. You may want to test different content in the mornings and evenings.
HOW TO USE WHEN TO POST APP TO FIND OUT THE BEST TIME TO POST A PICTURE ON INSTAGRAM
Download the Whentopost app (blue and green graphic with a clock) and connect your Instagram account. It will show you the three best times to post today, the next best time to post and best times of the week in graphic form. Click on each day to be given the best three times that day for posting. It’s that simple!
WHY DOES IT MATTER WHEN MY FOLLOWERS ARE ONLINE?
It matters that you post when your followers are online because it feeds into Instagram’s algorithm, which decides who sees your content. Factors that influence who sees your content include past engagement with your account, the engagement of others with your content and or ‘new’ content. The more someone has engaged with you with likes, shares, saves, comments and messages, the more likely it is they will see your new content.
You can test posting at the times when your followers are online as well as an hour beforehand, to see if that makes any difference. Some Instagram experts suggest that it can take an hour or two of ‘warm-up’ time for your post to be seen.
HOW CAN I REMEMBER ALL THE BEST DAYS AND TIMES TO POST?
Most people can’t remember the best days and times to post, so make a note of them in your social media scheduler that you can refer to when scheduling your posts. It’s probably worth checking the times monthly to see if any need to be updated.
Once you know the best day and time to post on Instagram, you can schedule out your posts at those times and add in other content such as Instagram Stories for the times in between.
BEST DAY TO POST ON INSTAGRAM
You can run your own tests to find the best day to post on Instagram for your audience. Check your insights to see where your followers are located. Different time zones and countries will have a large effect on the results.
HOW TO FIND ARCHIVED INSTAGRAM POSTS
HOW TO FIND ARCHIVED INSTAGRAM POSTS
