We get it, you think you’ve just about mastered the Instagram game and then surprise surprise, they go and launch a new feature without telling you. Well, if you need someone to fill you in on all the latest tips and tricks that can make your business stand out on Instagram, you’ve come to the right place. Below are my 10 favorite hacks for making your business stand out on Instagram.
1- Get even more Instagram Story views by adding some hashtags.
Not many people know this, but you can actually add up to 10 hashtags to each individual story, increasing the chances of your content being discovered by entirely new audiences. Each hashtag has its own story associated with it, and by adding certain hashtags, you drastically increase your chances of being discovered on the story tab of Instagram’s explore page.
2- Get creative with your bio alignment.
A little-known hack to make your bio stand out is to play around with its alignment. It’s best advised to do this while logged in to the desktop version, as doing it in the mobile app can be a little tricky. Here’s how you can do it
Tap the Edit Profile section in your bio
Copy the gap between the arrows below and make sure you’re copying just the gap between the arrows, not including the arrows >>⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀<<
Play around with the alignment until it’s just the way you want it to be
3- Share other people’s posts to your story
Ever run out of content to share to your stories, or maybe you just want to share something belonging to another account that you think your audience will love. Well, now you can, it’s pretty simple, just click the share button and select “Add post to your story”
4- Blur the background on a photo
It pays to be a little different, and the new focus feature now allows you to literally stand out by blurring the background on your portrait photos. How do you do it?
Open your camera and select the Focus option under the record button
Take your photo
The subject will stay in focus while the background blurs
Page Break
5- Record your Insta Stories, Hands Free
It just so happens that sometimes you don’t have a friend nearby to help you take that video for your story. Not to worry, Instagram now lets you record your videos hands free. How do you do it?
Open up your Instagram Stories camera
Swipe all the way over to the end where you’ll find the “Hands Free” option
Tap record and begin creating
6- Add some music to your stories with Instagram’s music library
Music is great for setting the tone, and now you can add adding music to your ever expanding repertoire of Instagram tips and tricks. How do you do it?
Once you’ve taken your photo or video, tap the stickers icon at the top of the screen
Tap the Music sticker
Choose your soundtrack
Once you’ve selected your song, you can fast forward it to begin playing at a specific point
Once you’re happy, click publish to share
7- Zoom in and out on video with a single finger
I couldn’t really think of any overarching benefits to this feature other than it can be intensely entertaining, depending on what is on the other end of the video of course. Here’s how you can do it
Hold down the record button to begin filming
Slide that same finger up and down to begin zooming in and out
8- Add line breaks in your Instagram bio
I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to write the perfect Instagram bio, only to be haunted by the feature (or lack thereof) that is Instagram not allowing line breaks directly in the app. Looking for a little work around hack? Here’s how
Open a note-taking app on your phone
Type out your bio, using the return button to create new lines of text
Once you’re happy with your bio, copy the text
Open your Instagram app and navigate to “Edit Profile”
In the “Bio” field and paste your text into the box
Tap “Done” in the top right of your screen and enjoy your new bio!
9- Share just a sneak preview of your latest post
You’ve just posted an awesome new picture, and you want to make sure all of your followers have the opportunity to see it. Well, what better way to tell them by giving them a sneak preview in your stories. Here’s how to do it:
Open up your stories and take your photo
Tap the pen icon in the top right-hand corner and select a color
Hold the screen for 2-5 seconds until the screen fills with a solid color
Select the eraser icon in the top right and corner and swipe on the image the part of the image that you want to reveal
When you’re finished, click publish at the bottom of your screen.
10- Link other profiles of hashtags in your bio
The goals on Instagram is obviously to produce high quality, entertaining content for your followers, but what about the people that don’t follow you? Your goal here should be to end up on Instagram’s explore page as often as possible, and having your own customized hashtag and linking it in your bio can be a great way to achieve that. See below how The Sill have done this.
Overall, there are probably hundreds of little hacks that will enable your business to stand out using Instagram, but these 10 are a good place to start.
Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company
