Instagram has over 1 billion users and it's one of the top platforms for social selling. But if you are using Instagram on its own, you may not be using this popular app to its full potential. There are a number of free apps that can help you post more effectively and learn more about what makes your audience tick. Below are 12 top applications and software programs for optimizing social selling on Instagram.
But first you'll need some Instagram followers! All Instagram accounts need a starting point. People probably won't take your social selling efforts seriously if you only have a few dozen or hundred followers. If you're starting from scratch it may be in your best interest to Buy Instagram Followers Cheap to get the ball rolling. Keep that in mind as you peruse the IG apps below:
1) Crowdfire
Crowdfire, previously known as Justunfollow, allows you to see who is engaging with your brand so that you can follow just the right people. The app allows you to see data such as:
- who you follow who does not follow you.
- who follows you despite you not following them.
- who recently followed you.
- who recently unfollowed you.
You can also use a search function in the app to see whether an individual account follows you and copy follower lists from other accounts that are relevant to your brand, such as the personal Instagram account of someone who works for your company. You can also create whitelists and blacklists so that you know who should and should not be followed by your brand in the future.
2) Slidagram
This free Instagram app allows you to make slideshows on your website centered around a popular location or hashtag. You can also use the app to easily find your most relevant Instagram images for a specific event or campaign. With a little imagination, the possibilities for Slidagram are endless to say the least.
3) Hootsuite
While there are now a large handful of scheduling tools available, Hootsuite remains one of the best free options available. You may have dozens of images to upload but want to ensure that you share them at a steady pace. You may be capturing photos at 9:00 pm, but know that your audience is most likely to be checking their streams between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. This app makes it more convenient to reach your followers when they are likely to be on Instagram and helps you avoid massive dumps of images that could turn followers off. Plus, since you can manage your accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms all from within the app, it's easier to cross promote your content. Hootsuite is free for up to three social network accounts.
4) Instagram Analyzer
Instagram Analyzer from Locowise includes tools that let you see in a few figures how you are doing when it comes to follower growth and engagement. You won't get that kind of information from HubSpot or other software. While the paid version is more detailed, the free version lets you compare your account's performance against 2,500 other profiles to see how you match up when it comes to posting frequency and engagement.
5) Squareloving
This free desktop tool lets you easily see which of your posts perform best, which get the most likes and comments, the best times for you to post and the best filters for your content. You can also learn more about who your audience is in terms of demographics and when you tend to gain or lose followers. Information can be viewed for the account as a whole or for specific posts.
6) VSCO Cam
VSCO (short for Visual Supply Co.) offers filters that are markedly different from the default ones you'll find on Instagram. You can also get access to advanced image tools that probably go way beyond those that came native on your phone. Using these, you can define an aesthetic that allows you to stand out from the heavily saturated images that populate most Instagram feeds. Apps like these are a great way to make your workday a bit easier and allow you to gain an understanding of who your audience is and what they want. By using these apps in conjunction with consistent posting of quality content, you can quickly increase your reach on this vital social network.
Instagram can be a daunting place; there's a huge amount of competition meaning it's easy to put hours of work in with minimal results. However, there are a great variety of tools that can be used to optimize your Instagram strategy, both saving time and leading to quicker growth. Here we outline our favorite 4 tools to supercharge your Instagram page.
7) Later
A huge difficulty with managing an Instagram account in maintaining a regular posting schedule. Creating content is hard enough in itself, but remembering exactly when to post, as well as writing out descriptions and adding tags, can be a real drain on your productivity. Later is an Instagram scheduler that allows you to overcome this problem. You can upload all of your content at a single point in time and set the exact date and time for it to be posted. This also helps with optimizing your posting times as you can see stats on when a picture was posted and how much engagement it received, allowing you to work out the best time to post (which actually differs between pages!).
8) SocialGrow
Getting eyeballs on your Instagram page is never easy. One of the best ways to draw attention to yourself is to actually engage with other users. But doing this manually can be a massive drain on your time. SocialGrow is an effective Instagram bot that automates some of your interactions to improve productivity. You set the target audience and the software will sift through relevant content, liking posts where appropriate, following traditional human behavioral patterns.
9) Flipagram
Content is the heart of Instagram. But simple pictures can often be quite boring, and engagement rates with videos and other moving content are usually much higher. Flipagram is an amazing content creation tool that allows you to create slideshows and interesting video content out of your own pictures and videos. It’s really quick to use, allowing you to churn out content much faster than traditional methods. Plus you can post directly to Instagram or download the content for posting at a later date!
10) Owlmetrics
You can measure the success of campaigns using Owlmetrics, an Instagram analytics tracking platform. You will want to stay apprised of a few key insights affecting your business. Engagement, followers, and click-through rates are a few figures to consider, and seeing these numbers rise over the course of your campaign is a sign that your strategy is working. Owlmetrics can be a solid investment for your business.
11) Squarify
Squarify is a free software application that helps to add colored or designed borders to make any image on your phone square-shaped to fit Instagram's image specification requirements. It's not quite as necessary these days since you can now post rectangular images on IG, but in some cases it still makes a big difference. I still think it's a good free tool to have on hand and I still use it a few times a month in a pinch.
12) Repost
There are plenty of free applications and websites that allow you to "re-gram" or share other people's Instagram pictures and videos while giving them attribution in the image. Repost is a solid free option to help you do just that.
I hope all of these Instagram marketing tools will help you out with your social selling. Also make sure to take advantage of the new and improved Instagram Insights free analytics tool (for business accounts) for better data. It's hard to make major improvements to your account without the cold hard data to back it up!
I hope you enjoyed this article about various tools, mobile applications, and software programs to assist you with your Instagram marketing.
Interested in more articles about social media marketing tools?
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