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You don’t have to have professional photography skills to have a great Instagram game for your association. There are plenty of apps that can help you get the job done quickly, easily, and most important - free of charge.
We’re a huge fan of using Instagram as a social media tool to power up our marketing strategy - and your association should be too. With over one billion users on the innovative social media platform, it’s no surprise that people flock to join in on the photo fun. And for your association, that means there are hundreds (or maybe even more) of opportunities to reach brand new audiences and keep your current members engaged.
But for a visual content-heavy platform like Instagram, it’s all about how enticing your photos are. If you want to score great engagement on Instagram, you need to make sure your content (as well as your photo grid) is visually appealing and can hold the attention of your followers. You want to catch their eye as they scroll down their feed, making them stop to engage and hopefully, giving them a lasting impression of your association. However, not all of us can be professional photographers with amazing studio lighting and expensive equipment.
But there are techniques and tools your association can use to step up your Instagram photos and create better content for your audiences. We’re going to take a look at 5 innovative apps that will help you increase your audience engagement on Instagram. These apps will help you enhance your photos, plan out your posts, create an aesthetically pleasing photo grid, and anything in between. Let’s get started- and get you on the path to better Instagram content.
Are you looking to enhance your photos and get a dramatic effect that will catch the eye of anyone, you’ll love Snapseed. Snapseed is a free app that allows even the most technology challenged individual to edit and create amazing pieces of photo content that will make your Instagram feed stand out among the rest. It offers a variety of photo editing tools and unique filters that you’ll love using on your photos. While Snapseed is easy to use and a great app for anyone, it also allows pro-editing features similar to those in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom that can take any photo to an enhanced level.
You can use radial and gradient filters on photos, select specific sections to edit, experiment with tone curve, and many other things that typically come with the cost of a professional editing software (and like we mentioned before, it’s totally free.)Snapseed is a great app for associations looking for a photoshop feel to their editing experience. You can brighten and sharpen photos to make them more appealing, remove unwanted items or people from your photos (perfect for photos of large events!) and anything else you could ask for in a photo editing app.
Want to produce amazing Instagram Stories, but not sure how to execute a similar appeal as opposed to typical Instagram posts? The Stories feature is one that can produce amazing engagement if used the right way. One app that can help you produce awesome Instagram Story layouts is Unfold. Unfold is great for associations who want to keep it simple while making an impact on viewers. Marketed as “minimal, easy-to-use templates” that help you create a story with just a few taps on your phone screen.
You can create a page, or save a collection of stories together. This is great for associations looking to organize their promotional messages, or those trying to keep Stories based on what event they correspond to. Unfold allows you to add your own photos to its platform and customize them any way you see best. This is a great option if you want to make a creative storyboard for members to follow along with as they flip through your Stories. Unfold is a free app that offers in-app purchases. This way, you can stick to the basics, or pay a few dollars extra to get the Instagram Stories of your marketing dream.
We’ve talked about UNUM before in a previous post, but we love it so much we thought we’d bring it back around for another visit. UNUM is an app that’s great for many things, most of those centering around proper Instagram grid organization. For any association trying to keep their photos themed and contained, you’ll love the way UNUM works.
UNUM allows you to pre-plan your posts ahead of time while also seeing how they match up to the photos on the rest of your grid. You can minimally edit photos, plan out hashtags being used on the photos, and move photos around to create a more aesthetically pleasing grid. But another great feature about UNUM, and one your association will love for its marketing strategy, is its ability to track engagement on each individual post. You can track your Instagram analytics right through UNUM, seeing insights on followers, the best time to post for your own Instagram engagement, what the most engaged hashtags are, and what your top performing post it. So, if you’re looking to get a grip on your Instagram organization and analytics, UNUM is the app for you.
For associations looking to put out an awesome graphic containing text information, Font Candy can give you the tools needed. Font Candy is a free app that allows users to overlay text over photos and graphics of their choice. It gives you a variety of font options to choose from, even offering the ability to host multiple fonts on one image. Sounds like a typography lover’s dream!
Why is this useful? Well, if you’re looking to create a marketing image that’s different from your traditional flyers and emails, but still holds the same information, you’ll love using Font Candy. Think of it as a more engaging way to reach audiences with valuable knowledge. It’s also great for associations with small budgets that want graphic design options. Instead of paying a graphic designer and using budget money that could be going elsewhere, you can equip yourself with Font Candy and have fun creating your own images. With Font Candy, you can become a graphic design master for your Instagram.
This is an app that’s been around for a while, but there’s no slowing down the popularity and appeal of a good Boomerang post on Instagram. Boomerang is an app that helps users “create captivating mini videos that loop back and forth”, meaning the video reverses and loops again once run through once. The wild craze that has come with the introduction of Boomerang videos is one that your association needs to capitalize on with its audience. Download the app and use it anywhere your association wants. Take it to events and create fun videos with attendees. Or, encourage your association’s team to take culture videos around the office and share them to the Instagram page. With a well executed Boomerang that’s quirky and fun, you’ll be able to relate to and engage audiences, getting them to look forward to seeing more content from you.
Like we said, you don’t have to have professional photography skills to have a great Instagram game for your association. There are plenty of apps that can help you get the job done quicky, easy, and most important- free of charge.
