An Intro to Instagram
Instagram is a social networking app made for sharing
photos and videos from a smartphone. Similar to Facebook or Twitter, everyone who creates an
Instagram account has a profile and a news feed.
When you post a photo or video on Instagram, it will be
displayed on your profile. Other users who follow you will see your posts in
their own feed. Likewise, you'll see posts from other users whom you choose to
follow.
Pretty straight forward, right? It's like a simplified
version of Facebook, with an emphasis on mobile use and visual sharing. Just
like other social networks, you can interact with other users on Instagram by
following them, being followed by them, commenting, liking, tagging and private
messaging. You can even save the photos you see on Instagram.
Devices That Work With
Instagram
It can also be accessed on the web from a computer, but
users can only upload and share photos or videos from their devices.
Creating an Account on
Instagram
Before you can start using the app, Instagram will ask you
to create a free account. You can sign up via your existing Facebook account or
by email. All you need is a username and a password.
You may be asked if you want to follow some friends who
are on Instagram in your Facebook network. You can do this right away or
skip through the process and come back to it later.
It's always a good idea to customize your profile by
adding your name, a photo, a short bio and a website link if you have one when
you first get on Instagram. When you start following people and looking for
people to follow you back, they'll want to know who you are and what you're all
about.
Using Instagram as a
Social Network
As previously mentioned, Instagram is all about visual
sharing, so everybody's main intention is to share and find only the best
photos and videos. Every user profile has a “Followers”
and “Following” count, which represents how many people they follow and
how many other users are follow them.
Every user profile has a button you can tap to follow
them. If a user has their profile set to private, they will need to approve
your request first.
Keep in mind that when your profile is created and set to
public, anyone can find and view your profile, along with all your photos and
videos. Learn how to set yours to private if you only want the
followers you approve to be able to see your posts.
Interacting on posts is fun and easy. You can double tap
any post to “like” it or add a comment at the bottom. You can even click the
arrow button to share it with someone via direct
message.
If you want to find or add more friends or interesting
accounts to follow, use the search tab (marked by the magnifying glass icon) to
browse through tailored posts recommended to you. You can also use the search
bar at the top to look for specific users or hashtags.
Applying Filters and
Editing Your Instagram Posts
Instagram has come a long way since its early days in
terms of posting options. When it first launched in 2010, users could only post
photos through the app and add filters without any extra editing features.
Today, you can post both directly through the app or from
existing photos/videos on your device. You can also post both photos and videos up to one full minute in
length,
and you have a whole bunch of extra filter options plus the ability to tweak
and edit.
When you tap the middle Instagram posting tab, you can
select the camera or video icon to let the app know whether you want to post a
photo or a video. Capture it through the app, or tap the photo/video preview
box to pull up a previously captured one.
Instagram has up to 23 filters you can choose to apply to
both photos and videos. By tapping the Edit option at the
bottom of the photo editor, you can also apply editing effects that allow you
to edit adjustments, brightness, contrast and structure. For videos, you can
trim them and select a cover frame.
If you want to edit your photo or video within the
Instagram app, simply tap the wrench icon and choose a feature from the bottom
menu. You can adjust the contrast, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows,
vignette, tilt shift and sharpness.
Sharing Your Instagram
Posts
After you’ve applied an optional filter and possibly made
some edits, you’ll be taken to a tab where you can fill out a caption, tag
other users to it, tag it to a geographical location and simultaneously
post it to some of your other social networks.
Once it's published, your followers will be able to view
it and interact with in their feeds. You can always delete your posts or edit
their details after you published them by tapping the three dots at the top.
You can configure your Instagram account to
have photos posted on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Flickr. If these sharing configurations are all
highlighted, as opposed to remaining gray and inactive, then all of your
Instagram photos will automatically be posted to your social networks after you
press Share. If you don't want your photo shared on
any particular social network, simply tap any one of them so that it's gray and
set to Off.
Viewing and Publishing
Instagram Stories
Instagram recently introduced its new Stories feature,
which is a secondary feed that appears at the very top of your main feed. You
can see it marked by little photo bubbles of the users you follow.
Tap any one of these bubbles to see that user's story or
stories that they published over the last 24 hours. If you're familiar
with Snapchat, then you'll probably notice how similar Instagram's
stories feature is to it.
To publish your own story, all you have to do is tap your
own photo bubble from the main feed or swipe right on any tab to access the
stories camera tab. If you want to find out more about Instagram stories, check
out this breakdown of how it differs from
Snapchat.
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