Marsha is looking for the best apps for Instagram aesthetic because she wants to increase engagement on her profile.

As a photographer, Marsha understands the importance of displaying her work as images.

However, due to the recent changes in the IG algorithm where there’s a huge focus on Reels.

Marsha wants to find creative ways of making her photographs posts pop in the Instagram feed.

Let me know if you can relate to these challenges.

If only there was a way to still do social media marketing using images that would stop the scroll

In this post, you’ll learn about 9 cool apps that will take your photo editing to a whole new level.

In our increasingly digital world, social media platforms have become a staple in the lives of many.

Among these platforms is the Instagram app. A photo and video content-sharing app that has taken the world by storm.

While it can be great for sharing everyday moments with friends and family, Instagram can also be used for more creative purposes.

One way to use Instagram more creatively is by using different apps to edit your photos and videos. This resource will explore some of the best apps for editing your Instagram aesthetic.

These apps offer a variety of great features. Including basic editing tools to more advanced options like colour correction and video editing.

So if you’re looking to take your Instagram posts and stories to the next level, check out some of these great apps!

In addition to the standard photo editing capabilities, Colorcinch (also known as Cartoonize) has a lot to offer.

Its features include text editing, layers with blend modes, effects and filters, access to stock photos, and more.

Even better, Colorcinch is available without charge, though some features do call for a paid subscription.

Here’s a list of features.

The free edition of the editor has a lot of capabilities, including photo editing tools. When paying annually, Colorcinch Plus costs $3.99/month, while month-to-month payments cost $5.99/month.

You can use the Colorcinch app on their website, or it is available for download in the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be available for IOS devices at this time.

Your photos’ online background removal solution is called Remove.bg.

It is simple to use and removes any image backdrop in 5 seconds.

This is thanks to the artificial intelligence technology that powers it.

This technology is taught to recognize foreground features and separate them from the background.

The features that you can take advantage of with the Remove.bg app include a drag & drop automated background removal.

Also, uploading multiple images and folders, creating transparent or coloured backgrounds, and selecting the output size of your choice.

On their website, Remove.bg is always available without charge. They support low-quality photos (previews) with a maximum resolution of 0.25 megapixels for free background removal.

A free account also comes with 50 free previews each month via API and applications plus one bonus credit to test high-resolution downloads.

They have streamlined pricing where you only need to enter the quantity and size of photographs you need, and on their new pricing page, they will recommend the best plan for you.

Along with various additional plans and alternatives, Remove.bg now offers a 14-day money-back guarantee and can accommodate any budget or image requirement.

You can use the Remove.bg app on their website, or it is available for download on Android devices in the Google Play Store or IOS devices in the IOS App Store.

Fotor is a great app that is straightforward and user-friendly.

It has a desktop version of the photo editor that enables you to modify photographs without needing to be a Photoshop guru.

You may easily edit photographs using Fotor by changing the exposure, brightness, contrast, white balance, saturation, sharpening/blurring, adding a vignette, cropping, straightening, rotating, adding text, removing red-eye, and more.

The basic version of Fotor is available right now and will always be free. For light to moderate photo editing, the free version’s many tools and capabilities are more than sufficient.

If you’re thinking about upgrading to the paid version of Fotor, you’ll be pleased to learn that the pricing is very fair and competitive. The annual membership fee for Fotor is only $39.99, and there is also an $8.99 monthly payment option.

You can use the Fotor app on their website, or it is available for download on android devices in the Google Play Store or IOS devices in the Apple App Store.

VSCO is a well-known photo and video editor because of its top-notch tools, creative community, and premium filters. You can express yourself, share your creativity, and explore with confidence using VSCO.

Members of VSCO are able to capture photos using the in-app camera, and photos can be instantly uploaded from the phone’s camera roll to the app.

In addition, users may post their photos straight from VSCO to other platforms and apps, such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, as well as to the app’s feed.

There is a free 7-day trial and a $19.99/year subscription fee for VSCO. The app is likewise free to download, but its features are restricted to community content browsing, a few simple filters, and editing tools like contrast and saturation.

The VSCO app is available for download on android devices in the Google Play Store or IOS devices in the Apple App Store.

Facetune is a popular app that will transform you from a photographer into an artist by providing amazingly strong photo-editing tools and effects that are inspired by cinema.

This iOS and Android picture editing app, which is optimised for most devices, offers a wide variety of unique filters, actions, special effects, camera tools, and overlays.

You may use the Facetune app’s numerous aesthetic filters and effects, and save your aesthetic edits as actions for rapid application to other photographs.

It means adding overlays to your photos to an image, colour, or pattern, share high-resolution photos on social media is done in a snap.

100s of the features in Facetune are available for a free 7-day trial, and all of these are available after you subscribe.

The whole sets of premium filters and effects are available for $11.99 a month or can be purchased annually for $71.99.

Since the Facetune Editor by Lightricks is a mobile app optimised for mobile devices, it is not available for download on PC or Mac computers.

You have everything you need with Photoshop Express to edit and modify photographs rapidly, so they stand out on social media and elsewhere.

Whether you are editing professional photos or just ones that you shot with your phone, you can quickly make advanced modifications if you choose to add premium features.

With Adobe Photoshop Express, you have the ability to rotate and flip photographs both horizontally and vertically.

You will also be able to fix perspective distortions that are horizontal and vertical and make necessary exposure, contrast, and white, black, and shadow adjustments. As well as adjust the saturation, vibrancy, tint, and temperature.

Paying for a Premium subscription, which costs $4.99 per month, $34.99 per year, with a first-year offer of $9.99, is necessary to access some of the product’s more endearing features.

The software is accessible through the app stores for mobile devices and Windows 10, but there isn’t one for Chrome OS, Mac OS, or Amazon Fire tablets.

Adobe Inc. created Adobe Lightroom, a program for artistic image management and image editing, as a member of the Creative Cloud subscription family.

You can import, manage, organise, and find your photographs with the aid of this powerful editing tool.

In contrast, Lightroom is a product that combines photo management and photo editing. In addition, since Lightroom is a non-destructive picture editor as opposed to Adobe Photoshop, you won’t need to bother about that annoying “save as” option.

With Adobe Lightroom, you may batch process images using the Quick Development panel to save time and develop a style, effortlessly transfer adjustment settings from one image to another, quickly crop pictures, and more.

An annual subscription to Lightroom is available for as little as $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year. You can also purchase a Creative Cloud Photography plan that includes Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop.

Adobe Lightroom is currently available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and tvOS.

With InShot, you can quickly create both simple and complex video assets, including reverse video, video collage, slow motion, and more.

To increase the number of likes on your vlogs, you can easily share them on social media or make a video with music and a picture for TikTok.

Video splitting, video cutting, merging video clips, importing images or pictures, applying a variety of filter effects, adding voice-over effects, adding sound effects or music, and adding stickers, text, or animations, to movies are just a few of the functions offered by InShot.

InShot Pro is available for three different price points: $3.99 per month, $14.99 per year, which includes a three-day trial, or $34.99 for lifetime access.

Plus, there are no advertisements or the InShot watermark to deal with on your creations.

The InShot app is available for download on android devices in the Google Play Store or IOS devices in the Apple App Store.

With the help of expertly created templates, you can quickly and effortlessly create invites, business cards, brochures, lesson plans, Zoom backgrounds, and more using the free visual design site Canva.

Using a drag-and-drop interface, you can even upload your own photographs and apply them to Canva’s layouts.

Some of Canva’s most notable features include combining images and building stylish montages, adding music to video, converting a GIF to a video, circle crop, mirror images, B&W image filter, photo borders, merging videos, and much more.

Canva is a great tool that has an excellent free version, but if you would like to unlock all of its features, you can pay for the pro version.

Users and their team may use all of Canva Pro’s features for just $12.99/month for up to 5 individuals.

For an in-depth honest review of Canva pro check out this resource.

Canva is also available for download on android devices in the Google Play Store or IOS devices in the Apple App Store.

Now that you have a better idea of which apps to use to boost the effectiveness of your photos.

Remember that there are other areas on Instagram that you can use to reach your audience effectively.

These include Stories, IG Videos (formerly IGTV), Reels and IG Live.

If you need help with creating scroll-stopping Stories, check out these editing apps for Instagram Stories.

There are a plethora of options available for Instagram users and content creators that are looking to create an Instagram aesthetic.

In this resource, I have highlighted some of the best app options, ranging from free to paid services.

Each app has its own unique set of features, so it is essential to find one that fits your needs.

I hope that you find the perfect app for you and enjoy creating beautiful content on your Instagram account!

Over to you, what are the best apps you’ve ever used to edit photos for Instagram?

Have you subscribed to the Success Unscrambled podcast yet?

If yes, then what about leaving a review? Leaving a positive review will help me to understand what’s working. As well as how I can produce more value for you as a listener.

With the invention of short-form video, we all know that video marketing is taking the world by storm.

Platforms like YouTube shorts, TikTok, Snapchat, Reels and a few others are getting the fasting growth on social media.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women’s illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women’s illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post 9 Best Apps for Instagram Aesthetic [With Scroll-Stopping Features] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

As someone who works with several social media clients, it always surprises me when they are unaware that they can post multiple videos on Instagram.

You are probably aware of the recent announcement from the head of Instagram.

Where he said that Instagram as an organisation will be moving more towards video content.

This has caused a little bit of a panic among several small business owners.

Since creating videos requires a lot more effort on their path.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

While creating videos is a lot of fun.

The time it takes to create videos is a lot longer than image creation.

Video requires getting dressed up to show up on camera.

Other shorter videos require a bit of humour to get engagement.

In this post, you’ll learn 5 clever ways to create videos fast as well as how to post multiple videos on Instagram.

Before diving into the tips on video creation, let’s first look at where you can post videos on Instagram.

If you are a regular user of the Instagram platform these 4 locations will not surprise you.

Let’s look at each area in a little bit of detail in terms of the standard requirements like video lengths and sizes.

When Instagram was first launched back in 2010 by Kevin Systrom, it came on the market as a photo-sharing app.

As time went on videos were allowed as well.

However, it wasn’t until 2017 before users were able to share a mix of photos and videos in feed posts using the newly created carousel feature.

As we are specifically focused on video the requirements to publish a video in your IG feed are as follows:

Bear in mind that you can publish a mix of photos and videos in your Instagram feed.

I still find this difficult to believe but did you know that IGTV was only launched on Instagram in June of 2018?

It feels like it is an application that has been available to the public for a much longer time period.

In a similar fashion to the IG feed, IGTV has its own set of requirements.

What’s great about IGTV is that you can create longer videos which means that the video creation experience is less stressful.

When you go live on Instagram you can save the live video as an IGTV post and it will be displayed as a regular Instagram post.

One of the best ways to create content consistently is to develop an IGTV series.

The most recent addition or new feature to the Instagram video family is Reels.

If you are a TikTok user then Reels will be easy for you to use.

However, if delivering short messages is not your thing, it will take time to grow into IG Reels.

Let’s look at the specific requirements for a Reels video.

This reminds me of the movie, Gone in 60 Seconds. Rumour has it that Instagram will soon extend the length of Reels to 60 seconds.

My second favourite place to create content for Instagram is using Stories.

What makes Stories user-friendly is that there are so many features available for small business owners.

Let’s look at the required format of videos created for Instagram Stories.

I really like the fact that videos can be up to two minutes in length.

Now that you know the size and length requirements of each section inside Instagram, let’s look at how to create videos quickly.

You probably already know how important it is to put on makeup before shooting videos.

However, did you know that there’s one quick hack to shoot video without makeup and still look good?

To achieve this you’ll need to use either the “Eyelashes” or “Subtle” filter on the IG Story app.

I’ve included the examples in the screenshot above.

Another clever hack to create quick videos without dressing up is to create a screen share video of a platform or software.

It could be a step-by-step guide or how-to tutorial.

The intro and outro videos can be you smiling and pointing to captions or text.

In the above screenshot is an example of a video I did of me typing a message inside the notes app on my phone.

A priceless way to capture real, authentic videos is by capturing some behind the scenes events.

These events could be you on vacation, walking or getting ready to launch a new program.

It means that there is no need to get dressed up and prepare a script.

In other words, you are just capturing a scene as it happens.

Did you know that your dull everyday life is of interest to others?

While you sit at home on your laptop working, preparing lunch, having breakfast, doing your shopping or just driving somewhere, take a quick video.

Maybe you have pets or kids or getting your home renovated.

All these are awesome videos that you can quickly create in a flash.

The next time you apply makeup, think of how you can use that opportunity to create a quick video.

Another option is to set aside one day a week or one day every month to create 13 weeks of video using Filmora, ScreenFlow or Adobe Premiere Rush.

For example, if you are creating a 15 minute tutorial for IGTV, think of how you can create 15-second videos and a 2-minute movie trailer.

Remember to add subtitles to all your videos as much as possible. You can use an application like Clipscribe to do the heavy lifting.

In many cases, it is not about working harder but working smarter to get more done in less time.

Congratulations on getting this far in your IG video journey, now that you know what size videos to create and how to create them.

Let’s spend some time learning how to post them.

Posting to the IG feed is simple, in many cases, I prefer to use Planoly to schedule my carousel videos.

Planoly is useful for scheduling regular posts like a single-image post, multiple image posts or Instagram carousel posts.

Just open the Planoly app on your smartphone or desktop and select up to 10 videos from your image library or camera roll or desktop.

Choose the option at the bottom of the screen to save it as an Instagram carousel post.

Write your captions, add your hashtags and schedule it out. You’ll receive a post notification to publish it on your chosen date and time.

Simply follow the instructions to post multiple media and publish your videos to the feed.

Remember to tag people or brands to get more reach.

Posting to IG Stories will be different because your video will be broken into multiple slides up to 8 in total.

When posting to Instagram Stories you have two options.

You can prepare and post it using the Instagram Story App or you can prepare it in advance and schedule it out using Facebook Business Suite (FBS).

If you decide to post using the Story app, head over to the Instagram app. You’ll see a square icon with a plus symbol on the top-right of the screen.

Click on that and you’ll see the “Story” option on the bottom right of the screen, choose that option

Select the images on the bottom left of your screen and click the option for multiple videos or multiple images.

All your recent photos and videos will show up for you to choose from.

In order to access the FBS, you’ll need to have a Facebook business page already set up.

I prefer to create 2-4 weeks of content in advance and schedule it out using the Facebook Business Suite.

Get your images ready and have them on your desktop or smartphone image library.

Instagram and Facebook will give you the option to select multiple videos that are up to 15 seconds in length each.

Follow the instructions, add your emojis and text and schedule out the post or publish it live.

Posting to Reels is a little bit complex at the moment but it certainly is worth it.

You’ll need a video up to 15 seconds in length, after choosing your video, you’ll have the ability to add text, music and GIFs.

The final stage before you publish it is to add captions.

Think of Reels as a shorter Story post but with the ability to add captions. It would make sense to have custom thumbnails created for your Reels.

Here’s a quick hack, create your captions in advance with text and hashtags using the notes app.

Copy to clipboard and paste it into the caption section then publish it.

If you want to get more engagement on your Instagram content, consider looking at these social media prompts that work, 50+ easy Instagram poll ideas and how to put emojis on Instagram.

Video marketing can be a lot of fun for small business owners.

However, the creation and optimisation process can be seen as intimidating and a lot of work.

What I have noticed is that with sufficient and frequent practice it becomes part of your routine.

As I mentioned previously, creating your video content in batches can really put you ahead of the video marketing game.

Waiting until the last minute to create video content can only lead to overwhelm and unnecessary stress.

Over to you, what has been your experience posting multiple videos to Instagram at the same time?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

Getting started with video marketing is going to be an uphill battle because of the huge learning curve.

I promise you that it gets easier as the weeks, months and years go by with consistent practice.

When I started this blog in 2017 I wanted to focus on my purpose of reducing illiteracy among women.

Using my passion for digital marketing by helping 1,000 women excel at promoting their digital business online.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women’s illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post How to Post Multiple Videos on Instagram [Create Videos in a Flash] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

The first time I tried to publish a post on Instagram was painful because I did not know how to put emojis on Instagram.

In fact, not adding spaces between the lines of text and making my text fancy made me feel intimidated.

If I’m honest it took me a long time to decide that Instagram was a place for me to promote my business.

You see, a few years ago IG was this place full of influencers making 6-figures per post.

It was also this place full of perfect, colour coordinated grids full of amazing travel and food photos.

However, something happened, it seems as if the peer pressure and mental fatigue made that bubble pop.

A few unfortunate incidents made the public realise that these pretty photos are not really what they appeared to be.

Does it mean that Instagram is a bad place? Definitely not.

In a recent video from the head of Instagram, he revealed how things are starting to change on the platform.

He mentioned that there will be a heavier emphasis on videos due to mounting pressure from TikTok and others.

There will still be a need for captions, emojis and subtitles since the space of 2,200 characters need to be filled.

In this post, you’ll learn how to add emojis, fancy text and line spacing in your captions to make it user friendly for your followers.

Before diving into the step by step guide on how to put emojis on Instagram, let’s look at 5 hacks or bonus features you never knew existed.

Did you know that it is possible to add longer videos to your Instagram feed? Currently, the limit to adding a single video is 59 seconds.

However, if take a longer video and break it into two 59 second videos you’ll be able to upload it as a carousel post.

One of the hardest areas of IG for me when I first started was Instagram Stories. I was super annoyed because it took 20-30 minutes to post a single story.

Now, thanks to the Facebook Business Suite I can schedule 2-3 weeks of Stories and get on with the rest of my life.

Have you ever wanted to recycle your Instagram Story posts but you felt kind of stuck on how to get it done?

All you need to do is head over to your archives using the hamburger menu on the top right.

Click on archives and you’ll see the calendar icon. When you click on that you’ll be able to see your past post in reverse chronological order.

Simply choose the post you want and click save the photo or video to your camera roll.

If you ever created Reels or IGTV videos you’ll probably find that it messes up your feed aesthetics.

One thing that you can do to restore your grid is just to remove that post from your IG feed.

Simply click the 3 dots on that post and you’ll see the option to remove it from your feed.

Creating a cover for your IGTV or Reels post is another way to restore the aesthetics of your IG grid.

Have you ever created a video using the Instagram app but want to avoid the need to download the video to add subtitles?

Well, IG recently introduced the ability to add captions or subtitles to your video right inside the app.

Simply click on the sticker or smiley face icon, wait a few seconds and the “captions” button will appear.

After clicking on captions, you only need to wait for a few minutes for the subtitles to auto-generate.

As I mentioned previously, when I first started on Instagram everything seemed difficult.

Publishing perfect content on IG felt like learning a new language altogether.

However, as time passed, I realised that taking baby steps and doing what you can makes the learning curve easier.

If you’ve been using Instagram for 2-4 years but still feel stuck this post is just for you.

When you are writing in the text area or captions for your feed posts it is best to use a social media scheduler.

There are several available on the market like Later, Planoly, Plann, Preview and Agorapulse.

Using a scheduler will help you be consistent and even schedule content weeks in advance.

The other important benefit of using a scheduler is that you get to write your text in a user-friendly manner.

Instead of having a huge wall of text for your audience to read you can space the text out evenly.

To help you add emojis to Instagram as well as fancy text here’s a step by step guide for you.

Decide on the caption you’ll be writing as well as its associated image. You can create your images in advance using Canva.

Head over to Planoly and upload your image.

Canva is now integrated with Planoly so you can save your images to a folder and upload them directly to Planoly.

Save the image or images as a single post or carousel.

Open it up again and write your captions making a note of all the different types of emojis you’ll like to add in after the fact.

Go to emojicopy.com and search for your emojis one by one. You can search using terms like “heart eyes” and “heart emoji”.

These are custom emoji reactions that help you to make an emotional connection with your audience.

Copy each emoji and place it into the captions area. As you will see this allows you to use a special emoji code that places special characters within your captions.

Bear in mind that there is a 2,200 character limit for the captions on an Instagram post.

If you are a Mac user, simply hold down command, control and the space bar so that the emoji keyboard pops up.

When using your smartphone to send an Instagram DM, create your Instagram bio or send Instagram messages.

There is an emoji keyboard built-in for newer phones or for older phones you can download an emoji keyboard app like the Memoji app.

Emoji specific apps can be downloaded from the app store for iPhone users or the Playstore for the Android device.

Decide which text you would like to stand out on your posts.

Go to FancyTextPro, copy the line of text from the captions area and paste it into the text generator.

Grab the converted text from the generator and paste it into the caption area in Planoly.

Save the post and open it again to add your hashtags.

Once completed, schedule your post to publish automatically to IG or to receive a push notification to your smartphone.

Schedule 20-30 posts in advance to save you a ton of time.

Learning how to use Instagram to get the most out of your content feels like an uphill battle when you first get started.

However, let me assure you that the journey gets easier if you post every week.

If you are thinking of getting tools or software to make posting to IG easier here are a few of my previous reviews.

You’ll discover that there are a lot of tools available to assist you on your IG journey and they actually ease the content burden.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need a few pre-written social media prompts or captions.

Pre-written prompts help you become unstuck. So, feel free to grab the 90 days in 90 minutes content bundle here.

It will definitely help you overcome the constant content hamster wheel in no time.

Over to you, what has been your experience with adding popular emojis to Instagram?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

Avoiding the learning curve to use new technologies to promote your business can cause you to miss out on revenue opportunities.

While you may not be an early adopter, taking years to implement the latest strategies can mean slower business growth.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post How to Put Emojis On Instagram [And Space Your Captions] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Are you running out of Instagram poll ideas to increase your IG Story engagement?

Ever since Instagram Stories became available many small business owners have been trying to capitalise on this feature.

When compared to the IG feed, an Instagram Story calls for more creativity.

Recently, a business owner in my network mentioned that IG Stories is where she has more fun.

Depending on your brand messaging it may not be possible to add humour to your Story posts.

Let me know if you can relate to these obstacles.

Publishing to IG Stories every day can be time-consuming because you’ll need ideas for both feed and Story posts.

Even if you had a list of 10 Story ideas the next hurdle would be setting aside time to create them.

Of course, there’s also the added hassle of adding captions, hashtags, emojis, text, interactive stickers and at mentions.

If only there was a way to obtain a list of Instagram Story ideas that you can quickly create 30 days of content and schedule it out to publish daily.

In this post, I’ll help you get a huge list of IG Story ideas and you’ll learn how to create and schedule 30+ posts so you can set it and forget it.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

One of the best ways to appreciate features on social media is to look at the history of Instagram Stories.

After all, wouldn’t it be nice to grasp the development of this unique technology?

Instagram launched Stories back in 2016 and there was a bit of backlash from the social media industry.

The reason for the backlash was because Snapchat already had a similar feature on their platform.

What made IG Stories different is that the user has the ability to pause, rewind and even add filters. (anyone else enjoys filters? Woohoo!!)

By November that year Instagram added live video.

In January the following year skippable ads, 5-second photo and 15-second video were also added.

Having the ability to respond to Stories was not added until July 2017 which was followed in December by Story highlights.

Users of Instagram can take all of this functionality for granted and complain about what they can’t do.

However, isn’t it amazing what Instagram has been able to accomplish in such a short time frame?

Another important dimension when it comes to appreciating IG Stories is consumer statistics.

As a business, it is essential to assess the potential return on investment before using precious resources to publish Stories.

Did you know that there are 500+ million people who watch IG Stories daily?

The average user spends approximately 30 minutes a day on the platform.

81% of people use Instagram to research products and services.

A whopping 130 million tap on shopping posts every month.

Strangely enough 14% of adults in the US have never heard of Instagram.

Of the 1 billion users on IG, only 140 million are based in the US.

Actually, 88% of Instagram users are based outside the US.

Over 50% of IG accounts visit the Explore page monthly.

Before grabbing your big list of Story ideas, let’s head over to Canva to see how to create Stories fast.

If you haven’t heard of Canva before it is a graphic design platform that allows you to create social media images easily.

It is especially great for non-creatives like me. Lol!!

Best of all, there is a free forever account that you can use until you achieve pro status.

When you open Canva, click on “create a design” and you should see Instagram Story in the list of options.

You’ll be brought to a blank screen that looks like the one below.

If starting with a blank screen makes you feel depressed, consider purchasing Canva templates from two of my favourite vendors.

For those with a smaller budget choose this option. For a budget of $25/month or more go with this 2nd option.

The best practice for Stories is to have 3 slides as follows:

Since your Story will have a poll at the end you can start with the last slide and work your way backwards.

I’ve always found it easier to place an image of myself on the slide with the poll on it. You can also use an image of that specific topic.

Create your template with the 3 slides.

Again starting with the last slide create a placeholder for your image and the actual poll.

In case you did not realise it, creating Instagram polls inside the Story app will be a lot easier.

Add a grid element as the placeholder for the image.

After choosing your first topic complete the 2nd slide content and think about the best engaging title for the first slide.

In this example, I’m going to focus on the topic of pizza bases because it is always a topic of contention. Lol!

So, my second slide will focus on the toppings since I want to have the element of surprise on the 3rd slide.

Simply write up the content for the second slide and add elements like check marks, lists or anything you’d like to include.

Remember to leave space for hashtags, GIFs and emojis.

When you have the perfect title, create the 1st slide and make it pretty and engaging.

Here’s my example of the first slide.

You’ll notice that I’ve left sufficient space for hashtags, GIFs, emojis and other items.

When all three slides are ready you can take a look at them in gallery mode.

Feel free to create more than one option for each slide.

I have two options for my first slide.

All you need to do now is head over to Instagram, upload your slides, add the elements like hashtags, emojis and text.

Finally, add you poll to the last last and publish it to Instagram. You can use Facebook Business Suite to schedule the Story for another day.

As you can see, it is so simple to add the poll after the fact when you have an idea of what you want to say in it.

Remember you can be as creative or as contentious as you want to be. It is your Story and you want to stir up engagement.

If you’ve been using Instagram Stories for some time you may or may not be aware of the many options available to poll your audience.

There are essentially 4 different poll stickers or types of polls and it is a great Instagram marketing strategy.

Before giving you a truckload of ideas to create polls it would make sense to show you the many options available.

It will help you decide on the types of questions to ask or the type of poll to create.

When you open your Instagram app and click on the option to create a story, you’ll first see a blank screen.

However, when you look at the top of the screen you’ll see the sticker icon that looks like a face on a square background.

By clicking on that smiley face you’ll have access to the four Instagram poll stickers.

The multiple-choice questions sticker allows your Instagram followers to pick one of the many possible answers available on the list that relates to them.

A fun alternative is asking your audience to rate something on a sliding scale of 1 to 5. This comes with cute emoji sliders to encourage engagement.

One of the poll options, known as the question sticker, gives your audience a chance to write their unique answers. This one is best used after building rapport with your audience.

The final poll option on the list is a classic poll, it’s an image that asks your audience to choose one of the available answers given to them.

It is ideal for Instagram poll questions that require a quick answer which means you can create your own poll questions.

During the 24 hours, you’ll get access to the poll responses via direct message.

After the poll, you’ll be able to see the poll results so that you can gauge which one works best with your target audience.

As you can imagine Instagram questions is a great idea and effective tool to gather answers from a real person.

Now that you have a great understanding of Instagram Stories let’s get you some content ideas for Story posts.

I’ve decided to break down the content into 3 different categories namely business, food and couples.

As this is a small business resource it is important to have some content ideas to get your customers and clients to engage with at a business level.

Now that you have the content, a way to create it and how to get it published let me tell you the best way to schedule it out in advance.

You can either go to your Facebook Business Suite or check out other IG Story auto-posting options here.

Creating content to share on IG stories can be an absolutely, time-consuming option and it can feel like it is holding you back.

However, IG Stories can be a very valuable way to get your audience to engage with you and your business.

I was in your shoes just last year where I told myself that IG stories will never happen for me.

Now, I am just bursting with ideas almost every day and I cannot wait to post something to Stories daily.

A secret hack is that I create 3-4 weeks of content in advance and I scheduled it out using Facebook Business Suite.

It does glitch sometimes but it is a lot better than manually posting your Stories everyday.

If you need access to over 365 social media prompts that will help you plan 90 days of content grab my content planning bundle here.

Over to you, what has been your experience coming up with Instagram poll ideas?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

I learned that getting visibility for your business is to take that first step of posting your first piece of content.

Before long, you would have published over 30 pieces of content on IG Stories.

In 2017, I started this business because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women’s illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post 51+ Instagram Poll Ideas for Business, Food + Couple Stories appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

You’ve created some awesome video content but you are now wondering how to burn subtitles for Instagram videos.

The excitement of using video content to promote a small business has continued to increase over the last number of years.

If you are an introvert, doing talking head videos is one of the last things you want to do for your business.

Coupled with the fact that shooting and editing videos can take a lot of time. So adding captions to your videos just feels like an added burden.

If you can relate to this you are in good company. Here’s why…

Creating video content for your small business can be seen as a separate full-time job.

First, there is the need to come up with content ideas and if you are publishing to YouTube these ideas need keyword research.

Don’t get me started on the right equipment and lighting to get the most out of your video production.

To make matters worse, as a woman, you now need to find the best outfit as well as get your hair and make up done.

Finally, there is the burden of knowing exactly what you will say when you hit the record button.

Does creating and publishing video content need to be so stressful and overwhelming or is there a better way?

In this post, you will learn about the simple ways to burn captions into your video during and after production.

So that you can get your videos published in a much shorter timeframe and in a very organised fashion.

If you are still sitting on the fence hoping that video marketing will become a thing of the past then check out these insights.

Did you know that this year alone the average US consumer will have 9.5 video streaming apps installed on their smartphone?

I don’t know about you but I have over 100 apps, maybe closer to 200, and I can confirm that many of them are video apps.

Also, users arriving to an e-commerce site via a user-generated video are 184% more likely to make a purchase.

E-learning grew by 36% during 2020 and it is predicted to grow even more in coming years.

Here’s is a shocking statistic that you probably weren’t expecting.

89% of video marketers say that they get a good return on investment from videos.

Check out this one trend I noticed, 7 out of 10 event organisers moved their in-person event online during 2020, that’s 70%.

96% of current video marketers plan to increase or maintain their spend in the area of video marketing.

Interestingly, 69% of marketers who haven’t been using video are saying that they plan to use video going forward.

Finally, online viewers claim that they retain 96% of a message that they obtain from videos.

The bottomline of all these statistics is that video marketing is here to stay for small businesses.

When it comes to getting captions for your Instagram videos we need to spend time looking at the different IG areas.

As you probably already know Instagram now have 6 areas where you can create and publish video content.

These areas include:

Let’s spend some time looking at the requirements and restrictions for each of these areas to understand what is possible.

As you know the Instagram feed is a place where you can publish 3 different kinds of content. Which are:

As we are specifically focused on video the requirements to publish a video in your IG feed are as follows:

If you would like to test what this process looks like before creating a talking head video.

Head over to Canva (the free version is fine) and create a new design that is 1080 x 1080.

Using one of the stock videos, spend some time creating a video that is up to 60 seconds long.

Give it a name and upload it to your favourite IG scheduler and write some captions, add hashtags and publish it.

I did one recently and you can see an example of it here.

IG Stories can be challenging because although you can now auto-post to IG stories the creation process is not simple.

First, let’s look at the required format of videos created for Instagram Stories.

While the list may not seem very long the catch is to make sure that you add a few engaging items in your Stories.

To put this to the test I suggest that you head over to Canva and create a test IG Stories video.

When you are in Canva create a new design by choosing Instagram story from the drop down list.

Grab a portrait video from the complimentary video stock library inside Canva.

Reduce the size to 15 seconds and when you are happy download it and upload it to your favourite scheduler.

If you choose to auto-post to IG stories ensure that you add the necessary hashtags and call-to-actions on the video.

In one sense IGTV is probably the best area for you to publish videos if you are an introvert.

You have the ability to create the perfect talking head videos in advance then publish them as a series on IGTV.

Before digging further let’s look at the basic IGTV requirements.

One key difference that makes IGTV videos differ from those in the IG feed and Stories is the need to add a cover image.

If you are really good at video editing you can try to create a test video in Canva that is 2-3 minutes in length.

However, you can wait until we get to the section discussing all the apps that you can use to create videos for IG.

Up next is Reels which I see as a public cutdown version of Instagram Stories in one sense.

The major challenge with Reels compared to IG Stories is that it doesn’t disappear after 24 hours.

Let’s look at the specific requirements for a Reels video.

If you haven’t noticed it yet, Reels is one of those videos that is quite a challenge to create.

Yes, you can choose not to try creating content for Reels until you get better at video creation.

In case you need some inspiration to create your first IG Reel, here are 3 examples for you.

One of the most flexible types of videos on Instagram is the ones where you go live.

If you are an introvert this may scare you to death and you may even find it a little bit off-putting.

However, the beauty of IG Live is the fact that you can go live with a friend or colleague.

You also don’t have to worry about video formats since you will be using the native IG app.

All that is left to do is pick a topic, choose a date and time, get dressed and show up to add value.

Here are a few things to consider before going live.

The fact that your video will disappear after 24 hours can be a bit discouraging but consider this.

If you made a mistake or you are unhappy with it then it will be gone after 24 hours.

Instagram live and Live rooms are probably the only two areas of IG where you are unable to use an external app to go live.

I recently went live on Instagram with a friend and you can check it out here.

At the time of writing this post, Live Rooms is a feature that was recently released on Instagram.

In fact, this new feature is technically speaking an addition to the existing IG Live.

Previously, when you went live you only had the ability to add one other person to the show.

Now you have the option of adding up to 3 friends with Live Rooms.

The way I see it, this is good news for anyone who is an introvert because now you can have 3 other people supporting you.

There is one catch with this feature which is that the 3 other accounts need to be already following you.

You also need to be following those other 3 accounts.

Now that we have covered all the areas inside Instagram where you can create video content.

Let’s spend some time looking at apps to help you create those needed captions.

Firstly, these applications are in two broad categories.

a. You can record the video in it while captions are produced in the background.

b. The other option is to create the video ahead of time then get the captions burnt in after the fact.

When you want to burn subtitles for Instagram videos AutoCap is an app that can do just that for you.

Simply download the app from the app store and start using it right away.

It will give you the option to select a video from your camera roll or you can literally record the video from scratch right inside the app.

Either way AutoCap gives you the ability to add subtitles to your Instagram video up to one minute in length for free.

I must say that I think the captions are kind of cool because they really stand out compared to other applications.

Best of all you can save the video to your phone and happily get on with the rest of your life.

If you already created a video but you need to quickly add captions to it then MixCaptions is a great app to do so.

Several times after creating a few short videos for Stories I wanted to quickly create captions.

In those scenarios I used MixCaptions to seamlessly add subtitles to my talking head videos.

See the screenshot below for an example of what it looks like in reality.

You will be happy to hear that they offer several options when it comes to downloading the content.

There’s even the option to download the SRT file as well.

Another interesting application for creating captions for IGTV videos is Crop.Video.

It is a web based application which comes with three pricing plans.

As you will soon realise there is a free version available so that you can give it a try.

The downside of using this platform is that it doesn’t autogenerate subtitles for you.

You actually need to type them in yourself.

However, if you are looking to create snippets from a longer video or you want to turn a square video into a vertical one.

Crop.video can help you achieve both of these requirements.

Many podcasters are familiar with using Headliner to create audiograms for podcast episodes.

However, Headliner can also be used to create captions for videos as well.

The good news is that it is available both on desktop and smartphone which means that you can create the video on your phone and upload it to get captions straight away.

In terms of pricing, Headliner comes as standard with three pricing plans with the option to choose the free forever plan.

The key advantages of the mid-range plan is that you get to create 10 videos a months with unlimited transcriptions, reusable brand templates and custom watermarks.

All this for only $10 a month.

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like inside of the desktop version of Headliner.

I must admit that the free plan is very generous because you get up to 10 minutes of transcriptions every month.

Plus you have the ability to download up to 5 videos without watermarks and the remaining unlimited videos with the Headliner watermark on them.

Another cool web application to burn captions for Instagram videos is ClipScribe.

When compared to Headliner, it comes with three standard plans for users to choose from with the lowest plan starting at $10 a month.

The ‘Starter Plan’ gives you 30 minutes of transcription every month but there is a small catch. These minutes are counted when you upload a video.

So, if you have a 10 minute video and you only need 1 minute of it transcribed you are better off trimming the video down to 1 minute before uploading it.

Some really cool features of ClipScribe include:

You will have the ability to easily resize your videos and export them in various formats and versions for use on Instagram.

Veed is another application I came across recently and their pricing combined with video allowance looked way more attractive when compared to the other options.

There is one small catch that I noticed before making a purchase. Unless you are on the Pro plan the maximum video size you can upload is 50MB with a watermark.

A great service that’s available to compress videos is this one.

You may have a video that is 5 minutes long but the actual size is over 100MB which is a bit disappointing.

After uploading your appropriately sized video into Veed, you will be presented with this screen.

Quick note: You actually have the ability to record a video from scratch right inside the Veed application.

I am like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to testing new software and I already clicked the clean audio button just to see what happens.

In terms of video size options there are 11 available including one size for TikTok.

Veed appears to be a proper video editing software that also comes equipped with its own timeline.

You get the option to do auto-generated subtitles, input them manually or even upload your own SRT file.

In one sense the application seems to come with a ton of options like adding emojis, progress bar, soundwave and shapes.

The ability to add your own images and brand elements is also available.

If you want to take the video and create a different size simply duplicate the project and adjust accordingly.

When it is time to download your video you are given the option to download it as a video or animated GIF.

Veed is a super interesting application to help small business owners to burn captions for Instagram videos.

It can feel a little bit glitchy when arranging the elements onto the project.

The only downside is that you may have to upgrade to the Pro version to truly enjoy all the features.

The final little solution on the list is a piece of software called Kapwing.

Compared to all the other options Kapwing has a very interesting proposition with a free forever plan and no watermarks.

You can publish videos up to 7 minutes in length and the monthly allowance is 3 hours which, in my opinion, is very generous.

It is so simple to get started. Just click the ‘start editing’ button and you are given the option to start from a blank canvas or upload an existing video.

I chose to upload a video. I am brought to this screen to start the editing process.

Here is a list of video sizing options that are available on the Kapwing platform.

You will like the fact that you can also add your own custom dimensions just like you can with Canva.

I decided to go with a 1000×1500 size video. If you choose this option you will need to click on ‘lock ratio’ for the video to fit into the new canvas size.

Add text on top as the header and head over to the subtitles tab to edit your captions.

Although, the captions may not be 100% accurate, they are still near enough to perfect.

Once you are happy with the captions or subtitles, title text and style of captions (colour + background + location) you can go ahead and download your video.

Here is what mine looks like after the video has been rendered and before I download it.

It gives you the option to download the video as mp4 or you can embed it or copy a link so that you can share it on social media platforms.

The catch here is that the video is now available publicly for everyone to see and that is why they give it to you for free.

While burning captions or subtitles into your Instagram videos can seem to be a time-consuming process it will be worth it for your viewers.

After all, you are spending a serious amount of time creating your promotional videos.

So, it would make sense to maximise the return on your investment by getting the maximum reach when you add subtitles to your IG videos.

Do remember that Instagram has 5 areas where you can promote your business using video including IG Feed, Stories, Reels, IGTV and IG Live.

While the list of apps to burn subtitles on IG videos is short, do remember that it is not exhaustive so feel free to conduct your own research.

If you need help putting together a content strategy or someone to help you set up a content planning system for your business book some time in my calendar here.

Over to you, what has been your experience when it comes to adding captions to Instagram videos?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

After a few years in business there’s one thing that stands out to me for those people who become wildly successful.

They go the extra mile in everything they do to create a bigger impact on their community.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post Burn Subtitles or Captions for Instagram Videos 7 Ways Automatically [And Why] appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Using editing apps for Instagram Stories is one of the quickest ways to create content for your IG profile.

You know that creating stories featuring a more casual version of you and your business is needed.

Another strategy is taking your existing content and repurposing it to fit the required IG size of 9:16 or 1080×1920.

However, it all seems as if it is a lot easier to say it compared to actually getting it done.

Let me know if this is relatable.

As a small business owner, you create content every week consistently which you then promote once to social media.

Creating a blog post, video or podcast episode 50-52 weeks a year is not an issue for you at all.

The real struggle comes when it is time to take that existing content and turn it into a different format.

If only there was a way to take your existing video, podcast episode or blog post and turn it into an Instagram Story easily.

In this post, you’ll learn about the 7 apps that you can use to seamlessly create IG Stories in a matter of minutes.

Did you know that over 500 million people use IG Stories every day according to statistics from Hootsuite?

What’s even more surprising is that 81% of people use IG to research products and services.

The fact that over 130 million people tap on shopping posts every month is nothing short of jaw dropping.

After seeing a product or service 50% of people will visit a website to make a purchase.

Are you tapping into these 500 million potential users to get your slice of the IG Stories pie?

The number one reason why Instagram continues to be a difficult platform for entrepreneurs and small business owners may surprise you.

Engagement is the one thing needed for your IG feed content to reach the explore page.

However, engagement takes a lot of time because it is a manual process that needs to be done daily.

When it comes to Stories more time is spent creating it and engagement isn’t necessarily needed to promote it.

Instead of giving you Instagram Story ideas from my personal experience I wanted to show you real life examples.

Here are 7 examples I found on IG Stories over the weekend.

First up is a post from a mother who is also an entrepreneur and you would be surprised the kind of content you’ll find.

As you can see, there is nothing super professional about this image but what the children are doing is very interesting.

As with everything you’ll find a mix of fun and philosophical content in IG Stories.

There is an element of curiosity associated with this Story. You’ll need to swipe up to learn more.

As you can imagine it is the weekend and people do fun things around the house or in the garden depending on the weather.

Whatever you do I am not advising you to record your entire weekend and post it on IG Stories.

You can do small snippets here and there.

The Foundr IG profile is quite popular and you can tell from the quality of the image that is on their Stories.

However, I have to say that the message and layout is quite simple and you can easily create this using graphic design software.

You will notice from this post that people posting to IG Stories are not all famous or even have celebrity status.

Doing a talking head video gets more engagement when compared to images or other types of content.

You may be familiar with this brand because they do a lot of videos on Facebook in the food category.

What was unique about this Story is that they had music playing in the background.

The song was happy from Pharrell Williams which I do enjoy.

The final one on the list is a Story from GaryVee. I was expecting a different type of content altogether.

It just goes to show you that you can be as creative as you want to be when it comes to IG Stories.

Now that you have seen a number of examples I know what you are thinking already.

That’s all well and good Alvern but creating content for Instagram Stories takes a lot of time.

I get it creating content in the correct format that is valuable can be quite a challenge.

This is why I wanted to introduce you to 7 Instagram editing apps that will make content creation easier for you.

One of the first challenges when it comes to creating a talking head video for IG Stories is the 15 second to 2-minute restriction.

If you ever used the native Instagram Story tools to record video you know that it can make you suffer from anxiety.

So, I would just create a video that is a maximum of 2 minutes using Filmic Pro on iPhone or the native smart phone camera.

After it is created I can use the Long Video for IG app to split it into 8 equal 15 second segments.

In my opinion, the Long Video app is one of the coolest editing apps for Instagram Stories.

Here’s an example of what that looks like in the screenshot below.

As you can see, it can also be used for Facebook Stories, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

In case you are thinking that you prefer to add captions or subtitles to your videos before publishing to Stories.

I have the perfect solution to help with that request.

Several times after creating a few short videos for Stories I wanted to quickly create captions.

In those scenarios I used MixCaptions to seamlessly add subtitles to my talking head videos.

See the screenshot below for an example of what it looks like in reality.

You will be happy to hear that they offer several options when it comes to downloading the content.

There’s even the option to download the SRT file as well.

If you are camera shy and you have no interest in creating a talking head video.

Remember that it is possible to turn your podcast episodes into a video using software like Headliner.

All you need is a link to your podcast feed or you can just search for it using Headliner’s podcast search feature.

Once you find it the results would look like the screenshot below.

If you have created over 100 episodes, like me, then you’ll can just scroll through the list and pick one.

Once you have converted your audio content into video it will look similar to this image below.

Simply take it and run it through the Long Story video app to break it into smaller 15-second clips.

Headliner is another one of the coolest editing apps for Instagram Stories because it gives you 10 free videos every month.

In case you want to make your Story look on brand or even a little more trendy.

A popular way to achieve this is by using the Unfold app.

The free version comes with many IG story templates that allow you to take a simple image or video and make it pop.

Below are a few of the IG Story templates that are currently available.

Here is a photo I took a few weeks ago without any IG templates.

This is what it looks like after applying one of the IG templates from the Unfold app.

Apps like Unfold can help you take an image from normal to eye-popping in a matter of clicks.

Of course, if you already have your branding colours and fonts set up in Canva then you can use it on your smart phone.

You simply record a talking head video or record a few short clips of your day or weekend and upload them to Canva for tweaking.

See the example below that I created in Canva using my smart phone.

Sometimes the simple things can make life so exciting.

The final element of taking your Instagram Stories to a new level is by using awesome text to make it pop.

Typorama is an app designed to help you place show stopping text on your images.

When you first open the app you are given the option to select the type of post you will be creating.

The good news is that you can use it for several other social media platforms.

There are several options to choose from on the list.

One of the most exciting features in Typorama is that it comes as standard with a stock photo library.

You can choose from Unsplash or Pixabay and by doing a simple search you can see all available options in that category.

After choosing an image or importing your own then the fun begins as there are several text styles to choose from.

You also have the option to have a background colour instead of an image and if you choose image you can even place filters or overlays on them.

Here’s another example of one using an image from my camera roll.

Once you are happy with your design you can save it to your smartphone or post it directly to Instagram.

The one thing needed to extend the reach of your Story is hashtags and Instagram allows you to do 10 in Stories.

Of course this can be another obstacle preventing you from publishing to IG Stories regularly.

However, the Hashtag Expert app can help you with your hashtag research because it is an IG app.

Simply start with a generic hashtag and handpick the rest to go match the theme of your Story post.

After you choose your 10 hashtags you can then copy them to the notepad on your smartphone for future use.

While Hashtag Expert is not necessarily an editing app for Instagram Stories it is needed to give your Story more reach.

Publishing to IG Stories on a regular basis can take a lot of time causing stress and overwhelm.

However, using a few clever editing apps for Instagram Stories you can make publishing to IG really enjoyable.

Many of these apps are free to use so there is no need to set aside a huge marketing budget to use them.

The only thing left for you to do is come up with a list of ideas of what you want to post to IG Stories.

In case you find yourself stuck or in need of some inspiration you’ll love the 90-day content planning bundle.

It comes with 365 days of fill-in-the-blank captions plus a 12-month done for you calendar.

If this is something you need feel free to grab your 90-day bundle here.

Over to you, what has been your experience when it comes to posting to IG Stories 3-5 times a week?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

One thing I learned as an entrepreneur is that you generate income from solving big problems and challenges.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post 7 Editing Apps for Instagram Stories to Create Binge-worthy Content appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Okay, you have done your research on IG schedulers but a Planoly vs Plann comparison can really help you make a decision.

Instagram is a beast of a platform with so many ways to display a brand to potential clients.

Publishing regularly on IG Stories is one of the secrets to getting in front of your ideal audience 24 hours a day.

Daily users of the platform spend 80% of their time binge-watching IG Stories.

Before giving up or ignoring the platform altogether let me know if you can relate to any of this.

Pushing out content 5 days a week can potentially be exhausting.

No matter how many resources are available you still seem to suffer with a feeling of indecision.

It would really help you if publishing content by themes was easily available.

If only there was a way to effectively plan your IG content in such a way that would match your content pillars.

In this post, you will learn the similarities and differences between Planoly vs Plann as well as why you should use one compared to the other.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Before looking at Planoly and Plann it is important to bear a few important facts about IG Stories.

The number one reason why Instagram continues to be a difficult platform for entrepreneurs and small business owners may surprise you.

Engagement is the one thing needed for your content to reach the explore page.

However, engagement takes a lot of time because it is a manual process that needs to be done daily.

Did you know that over 500 million people use IG Stories every day according to statistics from Hootsuite?

What’s even more surprising is that 81% of people use IG to research products and services.

The fact that over 130 million people tap on shopping posts every month is nothing short of jaw dropping.

After seeing a product or service 50% of people visit a website to make a purchase.

Are you tapping into these 500 million potential users to get your slice of the IG Stories pie?

You are probably thinking in your head that there’s no way you are going to be able to keep up with publishing to IG Stories.

Simply because the effort involved in planning, creating and publishing to IG Stories is a real struggle.

In fact, did you know that branded Stories have an 86% completion rate compared to other types?

So, if there is a way to plan, create and publish IG Stories easier would you be interested.

When it comes to planning and creating IG Stories I will leave that aspect to the upcoming Planoly vs Plann comparison.

However, if you want an easier way to publish your Stories consistently then I have great news for you.

I wrote a comprehensive resource outlining 5 applications that you can use to publish stories to IG automatically.

Yes, auto-publishing to Instagram Stories is now possible so take a look at how you can do it.

Let’s now look at the easier way to plan and create IG Stories by looking at these two IG schedulers.

Depending on where you are in your journey of using IG schedulers it is possible that you may have used other tools.

I’ve personally looked at Later, Planoly, Agorapulse, Inssist, Combin, Storrito, Sked Social, SocialBu, Creator Studio and Preview.

You can check out my Later vs Planoly review here as well as the Planoly vs Preview post for comprehensive side by side comparisons.

As you can see I am not new to the IG scheduler scene so the feedback I am giving you here is based on actual usage.

I am a total geek when it comes to exploring and using tools to make life easier for small business owners.

Let’s spend some time looking at Plann and Planoly individually then I’ll do a side by side comparison to help you decide.

In a very similar fashion to many of the IG schedulers, Plann was created from someone’s story of pain.

Christy Laurence was recovering from a freak brain trauma when she used her creativity to come up with Plann.

She founded Plann in 2016 and bootstrapped it to 7 figures within 12 short months.

Did you know that Christy won several awards because of the success she had with Plann? These included:

Well, if this is all you needed to convince you that Plann was the best IG app for your business you can get started here.

However, if you need to know more before making Plann your IG scheduler of choice stick around to learn more.

Like many IG apps, Plann comes with a free 7-day trial with all the bells and whistles.

In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of the pricing packages available with Plann.

As you can see there are monthly and annual pricing plans available with the core difference additional social media profiles and team members.

For entrepreneurs and small business owners paying $9 a month is the standard.

The fact that you get access to Plann from both your smartphone and laptop is well worth the $9 a month.

Plann allows you to schedule content to IG feed and stories, Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The real icing on the cake is that Plann now gives you the ability to auto-post to your IG feed.

It means that it can save you time when it comes to publishing content to your IG feed.

There are a ton of IG schedulers available on the marketplace but not many of them come with a built-in image library.

If you are publishing content to Instagram on a regular basis you’ll know that having images is essential to your success.

Plann gives you access to Pexels, Pixabay and Unsplash right from your smartphone, laptop or desktop device.

Another cool thing that is mind-blowing when it comes to Plann is the integration it has with Canva.

In my comprehensive Canva vs PicMonkey post, you would have seen the amazing list of features that Canva already offers for free.

So, if the built-in image library that comes with Plann is insufficient for your needs just pop into Canva to create your own.

You’ll also get access to your branding assets as well which is a win-win for everyone.

One of the most valuable features that come with Plann as standard is their stock video library.

Everyone knows that videos get more engagement than images when it comes to Instagram marketing.

Now, you can create show-stopping videos for as long as you need, thanks to Plann’s foresight when it comes to video marketing.

You may argue that the video library is only limited to Pexels and Pixabay but remember you also get access to Canva videos as well.

I mentioned previously that there are two reasons why posting to IG Stories continue to be a struggle for entrepreneurs.

These two reasons are planning and creating the content for IG Stories.

So, how does Plann help you with this struggle?

As a Plann customer, you get access to this set of strategy tools which I don’t think they advertise sufficiently.

Allow me to demonstrate it in the video below. I created and published an IG Story in 5 minutes flat using Plann.

After seeing this one feature alone I was so excited because it seems like the folks at Plann thought about the scary blank screen.

You have to agree with me that the strategy feature on Plann really helps with planning your IG Stories.

Another feature that sets Plann apart from many other IG schedulers is that their analytics incorporate something unique.

This unique selling point is the best performing palette which you can find in the results section.

Essentially it is showing which colour scheme or combination is getting the best results for you on your IG feed.

One other interesting feature that comes as standard with Plann is the fact that they have a social inbox built right into the application.

It means that you can reply or engage with people who interacted with your posts right from the Plann desktop app.

Just select the specific posts on the right-hand side using the grid view and complete your responses on the left.

As you’re probably aware short-form video has taken the Internet by storm.

If you don’t think that is the case then bear with me as I outline all the platforms with short-form videos.

We’ve got Reels, Tiktok, Facebook Reels, Pinterest Idea Pins and YouTube shorts.

I bet you’ve never heard of YouTube shorts before (I can’t wait for Plann to support posting to YouTube).

Anyhow before we get distracted with all this excitement let’s look at how the best Instagram planning app, Plann, supports this revolution.

In the above image, you can see the IG Reels planning area where you can plan all your short-form videos.

You also get access to a free library of videos due to the integration with Pexels, Pixabay and Unsplash.

Although Planoly was created as well in 2016, the story behind this Instagram marketing tool is different.

Planoly was the very first visual planner for Instagram thanks to Brandy Pham’s initial struggles with IG planning.

As the name suggests, Planoly allows you to plan your Instagram content in advance and it comes with 4 different pricing plans.

It comes as standard with a free plan which may be attractive compared to the one offered by Plann.

Planoly is available on iOS and Android devices and they are official IG partners, which is great news for everyone.

The key features offered by Planoly include:

If you would like to get a sneak peek of the Planoly App in action check out the video below.

If you would like to create a specific aesthetic on your Instagram feed, then you will like Planoly as it comes as standard with a feature called filters.

One thing I don’t like about Planoly is that it doesn’t come as standard with hashtag analytics.

If you want to get a feel for what the user interface looks like on Planoly then checkout the screenshot below.

One thing that Planoly has that Plann does not offer is a separate drafts section where you can literally plan different looks.

This is available for Stories and your regular Instagram feed.

At this stage, you are probably wondering which one I prefer to use on a daily basis.

If I am publishing a single image and I want to post the hashtags in the first comment then I prefer to use Planoly.

When the need arises to publish a carousel post with a mixture of images and videos then Planoly is my preferred scheduler.

In case I am not available to complete a push notification then I will use Inssist since they auto-publish carousels.

You’ll find 5 tools that can auto-post to IG stories in this comprehensive resource.

Planoly and Plann will send push notifications to my phone so that I can publish the post manually which is great.

Planoly offers a free image library in a very similar way to Plann.

After checking the comprehensiveness of images available in the library, I can say that Planoly’s free image library is very limited.

Plann offers a much wider variety of images plus there is also a video library available.

The one feature that Planoly has that can help you save time is a Social Inbox.

A social inbox is brilliant because it gives you the ability to reply to comments on your IG from inside Planoly.

It means that you don’t need to switch between IG and Planoly in order to engage with comments.

Plann does not offer a repost feature but Planoly really invested in this feature and it is a huge time saver.

It is available both on the desktop app as well as the mobile.

While on the desktop just click on the discover tab and you will be presented with a huge list of options classified by hashtag.

Simply select the images you want in bulk or singly then click the add to grid button (see screenshot).

You do have the option to include the captions from the original image allowing you to give credit authentically to the original author.

It is also available on the mobile version of Planoly as standard which is brilliant.

You simply click on the big plus button at the bottom of the screen and you will see a menu that includes the option discover.

When you click on discover you will be brought to a view allowing you to search by hashtag or by a user.

After the results are displayed, select the images you want and decide if you want to include the original captions in the re-gram.

Once you have all the images chosen click the add button and the images will be added as drafts to your IG feed view.

Going through both applications and their various features is super exciting and it can leave feeling overwhelmed.

Due to the fact that there are so many juicy features offered by both platforms here’s a side by side comparison to help you see clearly.

As you can see there is so much you can get with both platforms that it can be tempting to sign up for both applications.

If this is what you need then go for it as it will cost you less than $20/month to subscribe to both of them.

You can also spend time carefully looking at what aspects you need the most from each provider before making a decision.

The world of posting on Instagram can be as exciting as you want it to be with so many options available.

It is important to sit down and consider what your longterm goals are for your business.

Yes, posting to the feed is not as valuable as it was in previous years as more people spend time binge watching IG Stories.

The bottom line is that publishing content to your IG feed would require you to engage more with potential clients.

While publishing to IG Stories will require you to be more deliberate with your creative juices.

In case you need help getting inspiration for your content or even a done-for-you calendar then hold on as I have something for you.

Grab the fill-in-the-blank 365 days of captions as well as the 12-month done-for-you calendar.

So that you don’t have to stress so much about facing that blank screen every single week.

Over to you, what has been your experience using the PlannThat app for your business?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

Everyone has a story as to why they do what they do or what gets them out of bed every morning.

For me, I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post This Planoly vs Plann Review Will Enhance Your Content Planning appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

If you are still looking for an Instagram scheduler that will blow your mind this Preview vs Planoly comparison may be what you need.

You will agree with me that there are a ton of IG schedulers on the market that promise the sun, moon and even the stars.

However, not all social media schedulers are created equal.

While some allow you to schedule weeks in advance others will let you publish automatically with the 1st comment.

Let me know if you can relate.

Instagram seems like the most attractive platform for your business but there are a few challenges.

Content creation continues to be a huge obstacle for you because you just don’t have the time.

Graphic design is not in your wheelhouse so batch creating graphics is the least attractive option for you.

Hashtag research takes forever which means researching 100 hashtags every month is a no go area.

If only you can find a solution that gives you the inspiration to create 30 days of content in 8 hours or less.

In the post, you will learn about the similarities and differences between Planoly and Preview.

You’ll also experience a quick and easy way to create a month’s worth of IG content in one day or less.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

If you a have been publishing content to Instagram for a while you know that IG has several features.

Apart from the IG feed you also have the ability to publish content to Stories, Reels, IGTV, IG Live, Guides and Highlights.

While this may sound overwhelming at first using all these features depends on your niche, time constraints as well as your audience.

Instagram rewards publishers for using as many of their features as possible.

So, it is for this reason that using a scheduler suitable for IG content is a productive idea.

Unless you are an octopus with nine brains and eight arms it will be virtually impossible to use all these IG features.

Yes, taking one piece of content and repurposing it to match each IG platform takes quite some time.

Imagine doing that 3-5 days a week?

Before doing the Preview vs Planoly comparison it is important to set a standard for good IG schedulers.

In my opinion, a good scheduler should help you as a business owner to save time and reduce that feeling of overwhelm.

A few ways that a scheduler can help you save time include:

While this may seem like a lot to expect from a single IG scheduler stay with me while I show you what Preview and Planoly have to offer.

Now that you know what you can expect from a good IG scheduler, let’s spend some time looking at the two tools.

I will review each one individually to include pricing, features and a video showing how each one works.

The PreviewApp is an IG scheduler and Instagram visual planner that has been around since 2016 and it is available on both iOs and Android devices.

Although there is a free version available it is very restricted in what is on offer when compared to Planoly.

For example, you can only access the desktop version of Preview if you upgrade to their premium plan.

Speaking of the premium plan here’s a quick overview of their pricing structure where they offer monthly and annual packages.

As you can see the top level plan, known as the premium plan works out at $14.99 a month or $150 a year.

The premium plan gives you the ability to use the desktop version as well as schedule Stories, Reels and IGTV content.

In case you are on a tight budget and you don’t mind using the free version from your mobile phone here’s a video of the free version.

As you can see there are several limitations around the access to analytics as well as hashtags and captions.

If you need a better understanding of what the premium version offers compared to the free version hang on for a bit.

In the grand scheme of things paying 15 bucks a month for an Instagram visual planner may not seem like it would break the bank at all.

This is because what you get with the premium version is mind-blowing.

There is a cool hashtag finder that is included in the premium plan as standard.

It not only allows you to find hashtags but group them based on a category of your choosing.

As someone who does hashtag research for clients I have to warn you that the hashtag finder gives you results across a broad competition set.

When I did the hashtag research and got 25 hashtags only 7 of them were in the 10k to 100k competition range the rest were higher or lower.

The one unique feature of Preview is their caption finder which helps you to find captions for inspiration purposes.

I have to say that this is such a huge time saver and they are technically fill in the blank captions.

One important point to note is that these are for inspiration only and will not write the entire caption for you.

Another interesting feature is their free image library which gives you access to images from Unsplash and Pexels.

It means that you don’t need to create graphics if you don’t want to because you can take advantage of their free images.

The mobile version of the Preview App comes with a free photo editor that you can use to tweak these free images to match your brand.

Surprisingly the desktop view is pretty straightforward.

It gives you the ability to plan, create and schedule IG content easily right from your laptop.

You also get a great monthly or weekly view to help with planning out your content in batches.

As well as the standard grid view for your IG feed.

In order to get visibility of the content for Reels, Stories and IGTV you’ll need to use your mobile device to access these.

The one feature in the PreviewApp that leaves me scratching my head (no my hair is not dirty, lol!!) is the reposting feature.

If you repost other people’s content as part of your IG strategy on a regular basis then Preview will not save you time.

In fact, the process is very manual.

You will need to open the IG app search for a post that you would like to repost and copy the link to your clipboard.

Head over to the Preview app and paste it into the repost screen and click save.

Born in 2016, Planoly was the very first visual planner for Instagram thanks to Brandy Pham’s initial struggles with IG planning.

As the name suggests, Planoly allows you to plan your Instagram content in advance and it comes with 4 different pricing plans.

It also has a free plan available which may be attractive compared to the one offered by Preview.

Planoly is also available on iOS and Android devices which is great news for everyone. They are official IG Partners.

In my opinion, the key features offered by Planoly include:

If you would like to get a sneak peek of the Planoly App in action check out the video below.

Would you like to create a specific aesthetic on your Instagram feed? Then you will like Planoly as it comes as standard with a feature called filters.

One thing I don’t like about Planoly is that it doesn’t come as standard with hashtag analytics.

If you want to get a feel for what the user interface looks like on Planoly then checkout the screenshot below.

One thing that Planoly has that Preview does not offer is a separate drafts section where you can literally plan different looks.

This is available for Stories and your regular Instagram feed.

At this stage, you are probably wondering which one I prefer to use on a daily basis.

The honest truth is that it depends on what I am publishing to Instagram.

If I am publishing a single image and I want to post the hashtags in the first comment then I prefer to use Planoly.

When the need arises to publish a carousel post with a mixture of images and videos then Planoly is my preferred scheduler.

In case I am not available to complete a push notification then I will use Inssist since they auto-publish carousels.

You’ll find 5 tools that can auto-post to IG stories in this comprehensive resource.

Planoly and Preview will send push notifications to my phone so that I can publish the post manually which is great.

Planoly offers a free image library in a very similar way to Preview.

After checking the comprehensiveness of images available in the library, I can say that Planoly’s free image library is very limited.

Although the quality of the images are a lot better compared to those on offer with Preview.

The one feature that Planoly has that can help you save time is a Social Inbox.

A social inbox is brilliant because it gives you the ability to reply to comments on your IG from inside Planoly.

It means that you don’t need to switch between IG and Planoly in order to engage with comments.

In huge contrast to Preview’s repost feature, Planoly really invested in this feature and it is a huge time saver.

It is available both on the desktop app as well as the mobile.

While on the desktop just click on the discover tab and you will be presented with a huge list of options classified by hashtag.

Simply select the images you want in bulk or singly then click the add to grid button (see screenshot).

You do have the option to include the captions from the original image allowing you to give credit authentically to the original author.

It is also available on the mobile version of Planoly as standard which is brilliant.

You simply click on the big plus button at the bottom of the screen and you will see a menu that includes the option discover.

When you click on discover you will be brought to a view allowing you to search by hashtag or by user.

After the results are displayed, select the images you want and decide if you want to include the original captions in the regram.

Once you have all the images chosen click the add button and the images will be added as drafts to your IG feed view.

At this point, you are probably thinking that all this information can be overwhelming.

Wouldn’t is be great to see a side by side comparison of Preview vs Planoly?

Well, I knew that you would find something like that handy so here it is just for you.

As you can see there really is quite a mix of similarities and differences between the two tools.

When choosing between Planoly and Preview the secret is to start with a list of your business needs.

Whichever one helps you to achieve your business goals is the best one for you.

Choosing the perfect IG scheduler for your needs doesn’t need to be difficult especially with this Preview vs Planoly comparison.

Make a shortlist of the features that you need for your business then add those nice to have items.

Ensure you take both schedulers for a spin using the free trial versions.

Only make a decision after using the PreviewApp and Planoly to successfully publish 2 or more pieces of content.

If you already have branded templates feel free to upload these to your IG schedulers.

Would you like to get your hands on a social media bundle with 365 days of fill-in-the-blank captions?

What about a 12-month done-for-you content calendar?

Grab this 90 days in 90 minutes content planning bundle designed for coaches and serviced based entrepreneurs.

Over to you, what has been your experience using Preview or Planoly?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive 5-star review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

I really enjoy reviewing marketing applications that save entrepreneurs and small business owners time.

I started this blog in 2017 because I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Because this is a huge undertaking I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post The Ultimate Preview vs Planoly IG Scheduler Comparison appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

You’ve had it! Instagram Stories bring you results but getting your hands on a solution that can auto-post to IG Stories would be a dream come true.

I distinctly remember watching a story on a video or via an IG Story about this guy who posts 8 IG Stories a day.

He went through hour by hour how he manages to fit in 8 IG Stories in a 24-hour period.

Believe or not his first interaction with IG starts after he wakes up and during his first visit to the toilet.

No matter how good IG is there’s no way I am having a relationship with my IG account straight after waking up.

So, I thought that maybe I could eliminate the first IG Story of the day and post 7 times a day.

If you ever published a Story to Instagram you know that it could easily take you 15-20 minutes.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a solution that helps you auto-post to IG Stories complete with hashtags, animation, links, etc to IG?

In this post, you will learn about 5 applications that will help you to auto post carousels and Stories to Instagram.

In case you are still on the fence about using Instagram for business here are a few statistics.

Instagram is the 6th most visited website in the world and over 1 billion people use it every month according to Hootsuite.

88% of users are outside the US and there are 140 million users from the US on Instagram.

Users of IG spend on average 30 minutes a day on the platform.

81% of people use Instagram to research products and services according to Hootsuite.

At this point you’re probably wondering why would anyone need an auto post solution for IG.

Have you ever tried to post 1-3 IG Stories a day? Do your Stories include up to 10 hashtags with GIFs, polls or quizzes?

How long does it take you typically to post a single Story?

Let me give you a practical example, it would normally take me 10-20 minutes to post one Story to IG.

My Story post would normally consist of 8 x 15 second videos.

I help clients with launch sequences which would normally involve posting 1-3 Stories a day for 3 weeks.

Let’s do the math. That would be 63 Stories over the 3 week period.

So, it would take me 1,260 minutes over the 3 weeks to publish those IG Stories.

In order for you to understand the importance of getting an IG Story right let’s look at what should be included.

You decide that you want to use IG Stories as a way to generate more sales.

However, you’re not sure what needs to happen to make your IG Stories bingeworthy.

Let’s look at the anatomy of a good IG Story.

A typical IG Story should consist of a minimum of three parts which are a beginning, middle and end.

The first slide should have a short introduction. The middle slides should go into detail about the topic.

While the end slide should have the call to action (CTA).

If you want a lot of people to see the Story it is important to include up to 10 hashtags.

Remember to include other engaging features like emojis, GIFs and other interactive features.

On the last slide, remember to include a powerful CTA like a quiz, poll, feedback scale or even a link to swipe up.

Let’s spend some time looking at a few applications that are available that offer auto-posting to IG.

In order for any of these applications to make the shortlist they should have auto-posting of carousels and/or Stories.

True auto-posting means that there will be no need for a notification on your mobile device to finish the post on IG.

Their price should be reasonable for a small business owner.

The process to get setup should also be straight-forward as well.

One of the first applications I came across for auto-posting to IG Stories is Storrito.

One cool thing about Storrito is that you can try their free plan first to see how it works.

Why Storrito is a popular choice is that it gives you the ability to edit Story slides.

These edits include adding hashtags, polls, surveys and even swipe-up links.

You can upload as many slides as you want for a single post.

Storrito doesn’t currently support carousel Story posts in the true sense.

To get over this hurdle, you can schedule the slides in 1 second increments as shown below.

One of the most impressive features of Storrito is the fact that it comes with an edit screen to add engaging items.

Another clever application that I came across recently is Sked Social which gives you the ability to auto-post to IG Stories and carousels.

Their entry-level pricing is $25 a month but it shoots up quite steeply from there to $75 a month.

There are a few limitations that I will address shortly but let’s look at the image upload interface.

If you want to schedule a Story then I wouldn’t suggest using this upload interface.

The reason for this is that when you upload a Story with more than one image it treats each image like a separate post.

Head on over to the calendar area instead and click on create post.

Ensure you choose a date for publishing. Select post type as Story and upload your images.

You will get an error message that their post size for Stories is 1080×1776 because this feature is in beta.

Simply use their edit image feature to crop each image to their Story size then when you’re finished then schedule your Story.

Because this feature is in beta it can only handle 1-4 images for an IG Story post.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to add hashtags, emojis, GIFs or any of those interactive features.

Up next is an application that I never heard of before. It is called SocialBu.

In terms of pricing, it is very reasonably priced as you can expect to pay $20 a month on the pay as you go plan.

The main reason to choose the Standard plan over the Starter plan is the Standard plan comes with Instagram Story stickers.

You also get 800 monthly posts on the Standard plan compared with only 150 on the Starter plan.

In terms of the user interface, SocialBu’s UI is very simple in terms of its layout.

Unlike Sked Social when you upload images to SocialBu they are not automatically arranged in the correct order.

This means that you may need to upload them one by one or two at a time.

After scheduling a Story you will be able to see it sitting in the queue as seen in the screenshot below.

I had to try out the Instagram Story sticker feature and let me tell you that it is just okay.

You can only add one hashtag and it only works when your Story has a single image or video up to 2 minutes in length.

If you are absolutely stuck and you need to upload 63 Stories over a 3 week period then SocialBu is a good option.

The only drawback is if you need at least one hashtag per Story, ensure that each Story has only one image.

The next one on the list is the Combin Scheduler which allows you to auto-post your Story posts to IG.

Unlike the other applications above, Combin Scheduler is a desktop app that you need to download.

The Combin Scheduler is also a free application so there’s no cost to use it for scheduling.

To schedule a new Story post just click on the “Add New Story’ button and you will be brought to a screen like this one below.

You would not need to upload one image at a time if your Story post contains more than one image.

Just highlight all the images and drag them over to Combin, add a date and time and click ‘create’.

The new Story post is then added to your calendar.

One big drawback of the Combin Scheduler is that your computer needs to be on around the time your Story is set to publish.

The final application on the list is Inssist which technically speaking isn’t an application but a Chrome extension.

It allows you to see Instagram using their cool visual interface. Inssist has said that you can post to Stories from their interface as well.

I have certainly tried using it for carousel IG posts and it works beautifully.

One amazing feature of Inssist is the ability to add alt tags for your single and carousel images which is such a time saver.

Their post assistant is such a handy feature to quickly add and schedule images in a cinch.

Other features offered by Inssist include the ability re-gram posts, reposting, downloading content and checking the health of your account.

I have to be honest and say that I am struggling quite a bit to post to Stories using this app.

There is a possibility that I am doing it all wrong because many of my IG peers are using it for Stories.

If you really need to add 3-10 hashtags, GIFs, emojis and other engaging features to your Story posts but you don’t want to use Storrito here’s a work around.

Create all your Story posts for your 3-week campaign and have the Swipe-up link, hashtags and images ready to go.

Starting with the first Story post upload all the images for that post to your phone (I know it sounds counterproductive but bear with me).

Open the IG app on your phone and swipe left as if you are going to post a Story.  Select all the images from your phone for the post.

Add all the hashtags, emojis and engaging features to each image ensuring that you save each image back to your phone after adding the engaging features.

Download all the edited images from your phone to your laptop or desktop and save it in a specific folder.  Do remember the order of the images.

Upload the images to SocialBu, Storrito or your preferred scheduler.

Schedule the Story post to go out on your specific dates and be sure to recycle it every 2-6 weeks or less.

Rinse and repeat for all the other Story post in your content bank.

Don’t have time to complete this tedious task but you understand the benefits and want to get results from IG Stories?

Book some time in my calendar here for a chat on how I can help you to schedule these out for an entire quarter.

Using Instagram as part of your social media plan has its benefits as a platform.

As you probably know, getting the most from Instagram requires you to have stunning images or a clever strategy.

That clever strategy may involve using carousel posts as well as IG Stories to get more engagement from your audience.

Apparently auto posting to IG Stories is against the terms and conditions of Instagram so keep this in mind.

This is the reason why finding applications that support posting to IG automatically is very difficult.

If you are struggling to come up with ideas to post every day or week.

Or you could really use some help in the area of writing engaging captions then I have great news for you.

Grab the 90 days in 90 Minutes content bundle where you will never have to face a blank screen again.

It comes with 365 days of done-for-you captions, a 12 month content calendar.

As well as a video series on how to plan 90 days of high-converting content in 90 minutes, grab yours here.

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

When I started this blog in 2017, I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally.

Reducing illiteracy globally is a huge undertaking which is why I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years.

I want them to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post How to Auto-Post to IG Stories from Your Desktop appeared first on Success Unscrambled.

Does the thought of going live on Instagram or uploading videos to IGTV continue to leave you baffled?

You have heard that video marketing is great for your business but understanding IGTV vs IG live is a challenge.

Gone are the days when you simply create a video using a complex DSLR camera or video camera.

Creating video for social media has an additional element of complexity because your viewers have the potential to get bored quickly.

Can you relate to this?

A few days ago, you recorded a simple video of you walking outdoors or showing off something new.

Later on, you decided to share your footage on Instagram but it got cut off because it was longer than 15 seconds.

The video post didn’t perform as well as expected and you cannot figure out why.

You just don’t like the final version of the clip although you tried fixing it 100 times.

If only there was a way to easily post video footage on IGTV or go live on Instagram without the complexity.

In the post, you will learn the differences between IGTV vs IG live as well as which one to use for your campaign and how to get started.

Before looking at the differences between IGTV vs IG Live let us spend some time looking at video marketing statistics.

At the time of writing this post, a total of 85% of businesses use videos in their marketing efforts according to Hubspot.

A whopping 75% of video views occur on mobile devices based on research from eMarketer.

Did you know that 92% of people watching a video will share it with others? This is based on video statistics from WordStream.

One of my favourite statistics that I continue to find baffling is the percentage of people watching videos with sound off vs sound on.

85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound while 60% of Instagram Stories are watched with sound on.

Have you ever wondered about the drop-off rate when it comes to video?

Well, 33% of people will stop watching after 30 seconds, 45% after 60 seconds and 60% after 120 seconds.

So, what does this all mean?

When creating a video for IG it needs to have sound on with captions of-course.

While Facebook will be fine with sound-off ensuring that captions are included.

Also, keep the first 30-120 seconds super interesting to increase retention rates.

Always cater for mobile devices so that you can please the crowd.

Now that you know a few tips on how to create engaging videos for Instagram and Facebook.

It is time to look at the features of IGTV compared to Instagram Live.

A feature or app that was released around the middle of 2018, IGTV can be seen as an alternative to YouTube.

The fact that they have a separate app outside of the Instagram app is amazing.

In other words, you can decide to just use IGTV as a stand-alone app without having to see the Instagram feed.

If you are a frequent user of the IGTV app you will notice that many of the videos are just 1-3 minutes in length.

The thought of creating videos for IGTV can feel a bit apprehensive but knowing what is allowed is half the battle.

For best results, you should burn subtitles or caption into IGTV videos before uploading them onto the platform.

As of now, there is no way to upload a separate SRT file to the IGTV platform so captions would need to be hardcoded into the video file.

The good news is that you can upload a video to IGTV using your desktop via your web browser.

Simply click on IGTV, then click the upload button.

You will then see this screen. Go ahead and upload your video, enter a title and a description.

Adding your own custom cover photo will also help to gain attention in the IGTV feed.

If you would like to upload to IGTV using your phone this can be easily done by having a video that is between 1 and 15 minutes in length saved to your phone.

Open the IGTV app and click the plus button on the top right. Select the option to go to your camera roll.

IGTV will only highlight the videos that meet the criteria. Choose one them that is available.

You will also need to have your desired cover image already saved to your camera roll.

After choosing your desired cover image click next and you will be given the option to add a title, description as well as adding it to a series.

There is also the option to turn on auto generate captions in the advanced settings.

Now that you have a good understanding of how to use IGTV for video marketing, it is time to look at IG Live.

When compared to IGTV, Instagram Live can be a little bit more complex in the way it works.

If you have ever gone live on Facebook then going live on Instagram will not be as scary for you.

Unlike Facebook, going live on Instagram can only happen using your phone.

There are a number of things you need to know before going live on Instagram.

Going live is actually a lot easier than you can imagine. Simply head over to your Instagram app.

Click on the plus button right next to your profile photo.

You will be brought to the IG camera app where you will have the option to do a Story, create Reels or if you swipe to the far left you will see the ‘Live’ option.

Remember to add a title so that anyone watching will know what your Live show or presentation is about.

The fun thing about using the Instagram camera app is that you will have the option to use a number of presets that are available.

As scary as it sounds, you just click that button with the live symbol on it and Instagram will then check your connection.

After that you will be live to the public.

If you made a mistake, it is okay you will have the option to delete the video and start over again.

At this point, you are probably wondering about the pros and cons of choosing one medium over the other.

Well, it really depends on what kind of campaign you are running.

The best way to help you decide is by using this simple rule of thumb.

If you want the video to be available on your feed as an evergreen resource then IGTV is the best option.

However, if the content you are producing has an expiry date which means it would not be relevant in the future anymore then IG live will be the best option.

Here are a few examples to help you decide where to place your content by medium.

If you are familiar with Instagram Stories you are probably struggling to understand the advantage that Instagram live have over stories.

Well, IG live gives you the ability to create up to 60 minutes of content but Stories has a limit of 15 seconds.

With IG Live you can also do the following:

While both IG Live and IG Stories disappear after 24 hours the major difference is the ability to have live interaction with your viewers.

So, you may also be wondering whether it makes sense to go live on Facebook when compared with Instagram.

Facebook gives you a lot of flexibility to go live from your phone or from a computer.

However, your Facebook live video does not disappear after 24 hours.

With Facebook live there are preset filters that you can use but they don’t seem to be as professional as those available on IG.

Both IG and Facebook allow you to go live with a co-host.

IG Live has the added benefit of allowing you to post viewer questions onscreen.

A big drawback of FB Live is that you don’t have the ability to natively switch between yourself and sharing a screen after going live.

However, this can be accomplished using a piece of software called SteamYard or ReStream.

The most important benefit of doing video marketing for your business is that it helps increase conversion rates.

Looking at the amount of times small business owners produce video regularly you will notice that it is very low.

This is because finding time to batch create videos for 90 days can be difficult.

Simply because there is the age old problem of not knowing what to post.

Are you struggling with planning out 90 days of content for your content calendar?

What about the experience of facing a blank screen when you sit down to create marketing content, are you experiencing this too?

Maybe you are one of those who starts off really well creating content for 2, 3 or even 4 weeks and you run out of steam along the way.

If you experience any of these struggles then there is a chance that I may have a solution for you.

Would you like to be able to plan 90 days of high-converting content which will take you less than 8 hours to get it done?

Then take a look at this amazing bundle here and let me know what you think?

Remember to subscribe to the Success Unscrambled podcast where you will be the first to hear what’s happening in the entrepreneurial and digital marketing world.

Your positive review of this podcast is vital to keeping it alive and running for the next 12 – 24 months so please leave a positive review for us on iTunes, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast players.

In 2017 I had a burden on my heart to reduce women illiteracy globally so I started this business to help female entrepreneurs with marketing.

To be more specific, I have decided to help 1,000 women over the next 10 years to become wildly successful in their online business through simplified marketing strategies.

That way we can build a strong business network of women who can donate 1% of their profit and together we can help reduce women illiteracy worldwide.

Would you like to be part of this movement? Shoot me an email using alvern (at) successunscrambled (dot) com.

The post IGTV vs IG Live Which One to Use for your Business appeared first on Success Unscrambled.