The Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Beginners

According to statistics, Instagram is officially the second most downloaded app on the planet.

You’ve all the hype about Instagram and you’re ready to join the fun, but you don’t know where to start.

Instagram is a great place to build your brand and connect with Customers. But it can be hard to figure out how to use all the features without any guidance.

But don’t worry. Keep reading as our Instagram for beginners guide will teach you everything you need to know about setting up your account, posting photos, videos, and more.

1. Instagram Is The iPhone’s Killer App

It is no secret that Facebook has struggled to make its photo-sharing abilities a success. They even had to pay $1 billion for an app that was supposed to be their answer – but it wasn’t.

The thing is, it never really was. You have certain filters you can apply, some neat effects, and some nice cropping tools – but the fact of the matter is this website just doesn’t measure up against other popular apps like Picplz.

With almost 200 million registered users, Instagram is one of the fastest-growing networks out there – and if any have doubts about its potential, they should know that Justin Bieber joined this network yesterday!

2. Instagram Is Available For Most Smartphones

The best place to upload photos shared on Instagram is the iPhone’s native Photos app. This means that if you are an Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone user, you cannot upload your images directly from within the app.

However, they will be saved in their respective gallery apps and can still later be uploaded through Instagram via various methods.

For example, some Android users were thrilled to discover there’s a way to do this using Dropbox, while Windows Phone7 owners tend to prefer SkyDrive.

3. There Are Several Ways Of Getting More Followers

Besides posting great content that people will want to follow you for, having lots of followers will also help newbies get noticed by other people. A popular way to get more followers on Instagram is, without a doubt, using hashtags.

You can read the full guide to Instagram hashtags here, but in short: anytime you create an image, don’t forget to add up to 10 relevant hashtags that people will be able to search for and discover you.

Another interesting method that has proven successful is following other people – your new followers will notice this and follow back after seeing what you have on offer.

4. You Can Edit Photos With Instagram

Instagram also offers its built-in photo editing tools which allow you to tweak certain parameters of each photo before uploading it. Some of the most popular adjustments are rotating images and cropping to an aspect ratio.

5. The Default Instagram Sharing Settings Are Not Conducive To Growing Your Following

There is a good chance that all Instagram photos will be uploaded under a special tag called ‘Instagram.’ These photos can be viewd with website from any of the account. This means you won’t have any control over what tag they get.

While this will make it easier for people using an iOS device (or third-party apps like Instagram) to see your images, this also severely limits your audience.

To fix this problem go to the Photos section of the main menu, choose “Edit” and select one of the options in the “Photo Sharing” section.

6. You Can Upload Images To Your Instagram Account From Various Sources

Most users of other platforms and devices have figured out that it is possible to upload images directly from their camera roll, Dropbox, or even Skydrive. The potential here is huge.

If you’re great at creating time-lapses, stop motion videos, or any other type of image sequence, you could save yourself a lot of time by uploading them directly on Instagram rather than through some other service.

7. You Can Easily Share Instagram Images On Twitter

If you’re using an iPhone, simply go to the original tweet of any image shared through Instagram and tap “Retweet.” If you’re not (or even if you are), find some third-party apps like Tweet2Image which will make it easy for you.

8. Hashtags Still Work On Instagram

While this was true at first, hashtags stopped working sometime last year. However, they were brought back by popular demand after just a couple of weeks.

Instagram did block the ability to search for tags that don’t include valid Unicode characters. So basically #thats #awesoem is no good here, but #thatsawesome is fine.

9. The Best Way To Get More Instagram Followers Is By Offering Great Content Regularly

There are two parts to this advice. The first is that you need to have some good content for your images before you start attracting attention, and the second one is how often you want to post things.

If several of your images are good but only posted once in a while, people will see them but forget about them quickly because they won’t be sure when the next update will happen.

On the other hand, if you share too much without putting any thought into what’s going out there, many of those who follow you would stop seeing your photos altogether and give up on checking back just as easily.

How can you make sure you don’t fall into either of those two categories?

The key here is to be consistent. Post images and Instagram stories regularly but use a specific day and time of the week for it. This helps you increase Instagram engagement, followers, and likes.

Want More Instagram For Beginners Guides?

Ready to take your Instagram account up a notch? We hope that this Instagram for beginners guide has helped you feel more confident about what you have to do to build a successful brand on Instagram.

Want more articles about social media and branding? Check out our blog!