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  In the last lesson you have learned to configure your business Instagram account, upload a photo and write a correct description. You have also learned what a call to action is and how to add it to your page. Today, you are going to learn how to create and publish your first posts on Instagram. We will pay special attention to all types of publications, their opportunities and promotion methods.

PUBLISHING YOUR FIRST POST!

So, you are on your profile’s home page. Find a button ‘+’ in the middle of navigation buttons at the bottom. Click it, and it will open media in the gallery on your smartphone. All of it is available for publication, both video and photo. You can switch between these two formats or simply choose ‘Gallery’. It will show both formats — everything you have in your smartphone. If you want to make a new photo or video while you are on Instagram, click the corresponding button: ‘Photo’ or ‘Video’.

 Let us post a photo as an example. Choose the one that fits, adjust it and allocate as you like. You can change its scale by zooming in or out.

 Next, set the photo parameters manually or apply filters. It is possible to adjust sharpness, contrast and color. You can rotate the photo if you like. Instagram has a good photo editing tool allowing you to turn the most trivial photos into pieces of art! Fiddle with the graphic settings and try different options.

 If you cannot decide which filter suits the photo the best, save the result as a draft by clicking ‘Cancel’ and closing the editor. A window ‘Save as a Draft’ will appear. Then open the editor again and try different settings on the initial photo. This will allow you to compare the versions and choose the one you like more. Instagram editor is a game in itself! It is addictive.

       After you have edited the photo, you can start writing the text. Click ‘Next’ and come up with the title for your post. It must be peculiar and correctly describe the photo. Keep in mind that the photo caption must be a call to action of sorts to make people notice you. If the title is bleak and neutral it will harm your content, because nobody will read that post. You have only 2–3 seconds to catch them—that is exactly how long it takes to read the title. That is why it should be brief and thought through!

▶ Tag your friends and add a geolocation in your post to make it even more attractive.

▶ You can share it on Facebook, Twitter to Tumblr if you like, there is an option in the settings 

▶ Sometimes it is interesting to read other people’s comments for your posts but not everybody likes it. If you do not want others to comment on your posts, simply disable comments. In this case, we are going to allow comments and press the ‘Share’ button. 

That’s it! You have published your first post and it is uploaded to the news feed. Your followers will see it soon. 

CAROUSEL

     You can add several photos to a post. Click on the ‘Select Multiple’ button and choose the photos from your gallery in the order you want them to be. Each photo can have its own filter. Click on the ‘Share’ button and publish your post like we did before, but with several photos this time! A few dots will appear under the post, one of which will be blue. This is how the number of photos is indicated and the photo you are looking at at the moment. You can swipe such posts to see all photos. We recommend you to post them more often—people on Instagram like it very much, because several photos make a better impression of your events, trips, etc. For businesses, it allows them to present several new products in a single post or show the same product from different angles.

BOOMERANG

 You can also encounter an infinity sign (a sideways 8) when uploading a photo. This is a Boomerang app. You can create short cycled videos from a series of photos by installing it. It creates a feeling of a three-dimensional back and forth movement. This looks novel and helps to liven up the feed. 

VIDEO 

Remember, that you can upload videos to Instagram in addition to photos. They cannot exceed 60 seconds, though. Video is an excellent way to introduce your team, clients and brand to the public. Think of it as an opportunity to post your own promo video, like on TV.

FIRST POST PROMOTION

 You need to immediately start promoting your first post so it will not get lost in the whirl of activity on Instagram and pass unnoticed. There are three main account promotion strategies: They help to maximize the effect from your current followers and get new ones. Here come hashtags, social proof and social sharing.

HASHTAGS 

Let us start with hashtags. Hashtag on Instagram is a special thematic tag accumulating all the content tagged with it in a single thematic feed. In other words, a hashtag is a keyword you use for, say, Google search.

 It helps you to create your own categories. Do not be shy to maximize the number of hashtags in your posts, it increases the reach of your post. 

To add a hashtag, simply add a hash sign ‘#’ without a space before the word. It may be the name of your company, brand or product. Your hashtag automatically becomes a new category on Instagram, which you can continue to update with new posts and content.

Hashtag rules are simple:

▶ it should not contain spaces use underscores instead;

▶ use numerals;

▶ use emoticons; 

▶ use upper- and lowercase letters;

▶ use up to 30 hashtags for a single post;

SOCIAL PROOF 

The second strategy to increase the effect on your followers is a so-called social proof. This is an amount of emoticons and comments others leave on your post. Social proof is instrumental in Instagram profile development, because the success of your content directly depends on the people’s reaction to it (as with any other platform). Users visiting your page must see that your product is a success, collect likes and positive comments. 

Audience approval will make others trust you and follow your account. So the more likes and comments your posts accumulate, the better. For that, you can download a special same-name app: Social Proof. It will help you get enough likes in exchange for yours. And do not forget to call to action when posting your photos. Call to check out and like your posts.

 SOCIAL SHARING

 The third and the most important strategy is social sharing. It is very simple. Let your friends refer to your account or share your posts by reposting them on their Instagram accounts. It is easy to do and helps huge amounts of people to see your posts. And it inevitably increases the number of likes your posts get. 

ALSO USE OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS 

Another good way to promote your Instagram page is to link all your social networks together: add a link to your Instagram on Facebook and Twitter and vice versa. Even if you have few followers on each platform, you can quickly achieve great results by joining them! 

You must remember to keep your posts original and unique when posting on your business Instagram account. They should be recognizable so the followers can identify the company behind them in an instant.

 A good way to quickly enlarge your audience is to regularly post interesting content. So you should design a posting schedule to eliminate skips.