Imagine posting a photo of your new fall collection with the caption, “New arrivals are here.” It gets a few likes, then disappears in the scroll. Even playful images, like styled socks or outdoor lifestyle shots, feel bold and attention-grabbing because they fill the feed. This stage matters because how your content appears in the feed directly affects engagement. Preparing new posts using these specs avoids awkward cropping or poor quality after upload.
As with image posts, hashtags expand your reach beyond followers, so pair broad tags with niche ones that are relevant to your Reel’s content. Scheduling tools like Sprout make it easier by letting you plan Reels (with cover images and captions), carousels (up to 20 images or videos) and standard posts in advance. Rather than guessing the best time to post on Instagram, use social media tools with features like “Optimal Send Times” to analyze when your followers are most likely to engage. It also provides practical tips on captions, publication times and tools that make posting easier. This saves you time and helps you deliver consistently polished, on-brand content.
How to post photos and videos on Instagram’s mobile app
- Scheduling tools like Sprout make it easier by letting you plan Reels (with cover images and captions), carousels (up to 20 images or videos) and standard posts in advance.
- However, if you’re managing a social team, maintaining a cohesive look can be complicated.
- Brands with a strong Instagram marketing strategy and consistent publishing see the best results.
- Preparing new posts using these specs avoids awkward cropping or poor quality after upload.
That way, your seasonal campaign won’t clash with evergreen content and your grid feels deliberate instead of pieced together. For an intentional and aesthetic feed, try out Sprout’s Instagram Grid Planner. Posting during peak activity windows increases the odds that Instagram’s algorithm will push your video further, giving it more reach in Explore and beyond.
Create engaging captions and hashtags
You can also post on Instagram from a PC or Mac, but the walkthrough below focuses on the steps and advanced settings for posting photos and videos from mobile. Most people post to Instagram directly from their iPhone or Android. Brands with a strong Instagram marketing strategy and consistent publishing see the best results. Yes, you can plan and draft Instagram Stories in Sprout on desktop, then publish them via mobile notification at the scheduled time.
Once you select your media, the next step is making sure it looks its best in the feed. This beginner’s guide shows you how to use Instagram to share content like photos, videos, Stories and Reels. But building visibility, sparking engagement and nudging people closer to becoming customers takes creativity, planning and timing. A quick scroll shows fresh likes, shares and a bump in followers. Your phone buzzes with a new comment on the Reel you posted.
- Once you select your media, the next step is making sure it looks its best in the feed.
- Yes, you can plan and draft Instagram Stories in Sprout on desktop, then publish them via mobile notification at the scheduled time.
- To bring publishing, scheduling and analytics into one place, it’s best to leverage a social media management platform like Sprout Social.
- But when teams are involved, with different people creating, editing and publishing Stories, the risk of mistakes increases.
- It also provides practical tips on captions, publication times and tools that make posting easier.
- Instagram’s built-in editor lets you crop images, adjust brightness, sharpen details or trim clips.
How to boost your engagement and reach on Instagram with Sprout Social
And if you want even deeper insight, social listening tools let you spot trending hashtags in your industry before they peak. Tap the link in bio to shop ????” Add Instagram hashtags like #FallStyle and #CozyKnits and you may see your reach extend beyond your followers. With Sprout’s Compose editor, you can crop content to the right dimensions, apply edits and route posts for internal review before they go live.
If you publish when your audience is inactive, the feed can bury your Reel before it has a chance to gain traction. After you choose your footage, Instagram gives you a full set of editing tools to shape the final piece. Once your Story is ready, tap the arrow to share it directly. And with the Compose editor, you can plan and preview Stories before publishing to eliminate last-minute edits and guesswork.
Strong captions help highlight key takeaways and guide viewers toward the next step, whether that’s saving the Reel, sharing it or tapping the link in your bio. A clear, well-framed cover will make your profile look organized and encourage more people to tap and watch. But when teams are involved, with different people creating, editing and publishing Stories, the vegas casino apk risk of mistakes increases. Stories reach wider audiences when they’re accessible by giving people different ways to engage.
It gives you a drag-and-drop view of scheduled posts so you can see how they’ll look together. Your grid isn’t just a collection of posts, it’s your digital storefront. Instagram rewards brands that lean into its various formats (Reels, carousels and Stories) because they keep users engaged. Sprout’s Optimal Send Times analyzes up to 16 weeks of your engagement data and recommends time slots when your followers are most active. Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes recency, so publishing when your audience is online gives you a better chance at surfacing in their feeds. To bring publishing, scheduling and analytics into one place, it’s best to leverage a social media management platform like Sprout Social.
Select media and design your Story
This simple interaction makes the Story more engaging and gives the brand instant feedback. If you already have content saved, swipe up (or tap the gallery icon in the bottom left) to upload it from your phone’s camera roll. Consistent tagging can be tricky when you’re managing posts as part of a team. Captions and hashtags can turn a good visual into a post that sparks real engagement.
You can reorder, edit and add captions before publishing. To post a carousel on Instagram, tap the “+” icon, choose “Post” and select multiple photos or videos (up to 20). Tagging and reporting capabilities, such as Sprout’s Tag Report, let you group posts by campaign or theme and compare results side by side. The brands still seeing success aren’t relying on instinct but doubling down on formats that continue to perform, like Reels and carousels.
You can also reuse saved snippets and store branded hashtag lists in the Asset Library, making it easier to apply hashtags systematically instead of recreating them for each post. Reels drive the highest reach of any content type, with Meta reporting users now spend 20% of their time on Instagram watching Reels. If you’re still publishing straight from Instagram or Meta’s native tools, you may be missing opportunities for better reach, consistency and collaboration. With Sprout Social, you can drop posts into the Sprout Queue and let the platform auto-publish at optimized times without manually picking timestamps. They show up not only in your Instagram feed but also in the Explore and Reels tabs, giving you more ways to reach people who don’t follow you yet. Nothing goes live until it meets brand standards, which keeps content consistent across contributors.
For example, a bakery might use a poll sticker to ask followers to vote on their favorite donut flavor. From there, hold the shutter button to record a video or tap it once to take a photo. To create a Story, open Instagram, tap the “+” icon and select “Story” from the bottom of the page. They keep campaigns accurate and consistent without unnecessary back-and-forth.
For brands posting at scale, managing all of these formats can be tricky. With everything centralized, you can post at the right times, maintain a consistent feed and measure what’s working without juggling different apps. Compared to feed posts, they appear more casual and are more effective for real-time sharing. The process is simple, but small details like aspect ratio, captions and hashtags make the difference between a post people scroll past and one they engage with. Deepti is a writer with over six years of experience crafting data-driven, engaging content for marketing, SaaS, HR, and e-commerce brands. This lets you keep Stories in the same workflow as your other Instagram content while ensuring brand consistency through Sprout’s asset library and approval tools.
Tagging workflows help prevent mix-ups by letting you pull approved hashtags, product tags and location tags from a shared set. To see what’s actually working, review your post-level performance data. However, if you’re managing a social team, maintaining a cohesive look can be complicated. That level of consistency boosts both brand identity and engagement. Instagram’s built-in editor lets you crop images, adjust brightness, sharpen details or trim clips.
Different people might not crop or filter images the same way and approving edits across channels takes time. Because vertical images tend to stand out, some brands build their entire aesthetic around them. Utilize Sprout’s Instagram integration to create, schedule, publish and engage with posts.
Publish and highlight your Stories
Posting on your Instagram account is no longer just about getting content out quickly. In Sprout, for example, you can schedule the first comment, which is especially useful for dropping in a block of hashtags without cluttering your caption. But managing hashtags well, including deciding which ones to use and avoiding repetition, can be a challenge. They can help your content surface in searches, show up on explore pages and join trending conversations. Hashtags are still one of the simplest ways to boost discoverability beyond your existing followers.