Table of Contents:
- Fresh-Faced Newbies
- Instagram Help for Everyone
- Turning your IG into a Business
- Instagram Help for Businesses & Influencers
- Photography Tips
- Priceless Rewards of IG
- Instagram Help: Keeping Up With The Evolution of IG
- Change is Happening
- Instagram Help For Everyone
- Dedication is the Key to Success
- Join our Facebook Group: “The Party is on Instagram”
Instagram help for everyone: Our Best IG Blog Posts You need to Read
Instagram help is here! Whether you are new to Instagram or a seasoned pro, we have insight to help you succeed and thrive.Welcome to our blog, The Design Twins. Jodie and I have written a lot of blog posts offering Instagram Help (40 so far, but who’s counting). So many, in fact, that we realized it would be additionally beneficial to organize them for you. No matter where you are in your Instagram journey we have blog posts to assist you.
Whether you are brand new to IG or a seasoned veteran we have useful tips that are designed just for you and your goals. Are you a business owner looking to grow your brand awareness? Or is your aim to potentially turn your hobby into a money-making business? Maybe you simply want to share your passions with the world. Regardless of your goals or starting point we have plenty of helpful advice to make Instagram work for you.
Fresh-Faced Newbies
Are you fairly new to Instagram? Start with our blog post, Grow Instagram Following: 10 Tips.This post tells you exactly how to begin so you set the stage for success. This post is also helpful to make sure you are using IG to the fullest. In it we cover important topics such as your account name, how to create an enticing bio, how to define your content, the importance and best practices for interacting, how to start your own hashtag and why this is a great idea and more.
Another important resource for beginners and veterans alike is our post, Our Top 5 Tips to Increasing IG Followers. Once you are set up, what should your top priorities be? This post reveals our best advice for Instagram success, things we really wish someone had shared with us before we began. Seriously, Jodie and I had to spend years here learning all this, but you don’t.
Next, you’ll want to make sure to read Instagram Questions Answered. In it we share about hashtags, how to use them and how to start one, how to make money, and basics like how to screenshot and share, how to use Instagram as a resource for answers and more.
Once you’ve digested these we highly recommend reading all our posts. View it like you are taking a free course. There are valuable insights that will be crucial as you travel on your IG journey, and important to keep in mind as you progress.
Instagram Help for Everyone
Instagram has plenty of rules that you’ll want to familiarize yourself with. These days more than ever it can be a very big mistake to ignore them. IG won’t hesitate to penalize you in seen and unseen ways, and they don’t really care if it was sheer naivete. Instagram is increasingly unforgiving, so protect your feed and read the rules. Head to Instagram’s Terms of Use page their Community Guidelines page to make sure you know what is allowed and what is considered terms for possible suspension.
Besides these important resources there are many “unwritten rules.” Since there isn’t a community handbook that describes what is correct etiquette, Jodie and I wrote this post to help. Actually it came in response to the large number of daily questions we receive. Instead of learning from your mistakes, as many do, you can proceed with this knowledge and avoid offending, which we think is so very preferable, don’t you? Instagram Etiquette
How do you find success on this unique platform? An overview that will benefit everyone is my post Insights into IG Success: Julie’s Instagram Journey, as well as How I Grew Over 100K Instagram followers.
Want help? Help determining when to post, editing your photos, analyzing your stats, creating and posting videos and more. We share our favorite apps we love and how to use them to improve your IG game: How to Grow on Instagram with These 10 Powerful Apps.
Turning your IG into a Business
If you fall into the “influencer” category this next post is for you. Turn your Instagram into a Money-Making Business: Part I. Whether it is your future goal to grow your IG big enough to become an influencer or you already have the numbers to be hired for your marketing, these principles are important to understand as you travel this path.
Frankly, this topic isn’t talked about enough. Too many people with valuable feeds don’t know what they have and are “giving away” their services. This is detrimental to influencers everywhere. It makes it additionally challenging for those trying to make their IG profitable.
When does your IG feed actually have value? How much can you charge and how do you realize your own worth? We share our experience and our research and help you understand your value so you aren’t giving it away. With all the time and effort that goes into growing a successful and authentic feed compensation becomes integral if you are going to spend the time necessary to develop your IG account into a business. Since time is money, thousands of hours creating something should and does have value.
Instagram Help for Businesses & Influencers
Want specific tips on how to make money and what IG can do for your business? Read Instagram Benefits: Part 2. This post covers topics such as benefits to businesses. We also cover the myriad of ways influencers can make money and/or earn free product from working with brands. We share the different opportunities available including collaborations, brand ambassadorship, and affiliate marketing.
Photography Tips
We cannot overstate the importance of photography in IG success. If you do one thing exceptionally it must be to take incredible photos. But what if you have no training? We had none. What if you have no equipment? That’s okay too. You can work with what you’ve got using apps and techniques we’ve learned. Our posts show you how we have gone from ground zero to being paid photographers, and how you can too.
We have several photography-related posts. We suggest beginning with Camera Phone vs Digital Camera: Pros & Cons. Next, we recommend reading our Instagram editing advice in Swoon-worthy Photos: Edit Camera Phone Pics in IG where Jodie shares her very best techniques that she basically taught me. She’s pretty amazing.
My favorite photography post is Unlock 6 Secret iPhone Camera Features. Why is it my favorite? Because these features will change the way you take pictures with your iPhone today. They aren’t hard to learn. Most people just don’t know they are there. Even if you don’t have an iPhone this post shares the inside scoop for all photographers. We share the top two essential pieces of equipment you need to be a pro. These tools are surprisingly affordable and easy to use and will change your photography game immediately.
Also important in the editing game are Apps. Read our recent post How to Grow on Instagram with These 10 Powerful Apps. This covers editing photos, videos, when to post, how to track your analytics, and more.
Priceless Rewards of IG
These two posts share Jodie’s Instagram journey and what IG has meant to her life. It has been about so much more than building a business or the tangible rewards. It has changed her life, brought her out of depression, and filled her with new purpose, motivation, friendships and real joy. We know you will love reading 3 Keys to Instagram Success and The Truth Behind the Pretty Pictures of Instagram. They will inspire you we promise.
Instagram Help: Keeping Up With The Evolution of IG
This is perhaps the biggest struggle. Here we are minding our own business, posting away, and things around us are changing, and usually not for the better. Well, who’s to judge. Let’s just say they are not changing for the easier.
What once worked doesn’t seem to work the same. Sometimes we wonder, is anyone even seeing our posts? It can seem like a futile game. We know, we feel it too. That’s why Jodie and I try to keep you abreast of the latest news, the latest changes, and we help decipher the ins and outs so you don’t have to go it alone.
These are our latest Instagram help posts that keep you informed of Instagram changes, from hashtags & “shadowbanning” to algorithm navigation. These posts are based on our combined ten years of experience devoted to this platform and also intensive research.
10 Instagram Mistakes You Are Making
Are You Using Hashtags to Win on Instagram?
How to Create Instagram Posts that Go Viral!
Change is Happening
Can we just take a quick moment and address Shadowbanning? For many of you who are “in the know” you may already be aware that this is the perfect example of how we are all just muddling our way through this crazy maze that we call Instagram.
And we’re doing it all while blind folded. Just weeks ago Jodie and I wrote a full article based on extensive current research on the topic. In a short span of time the entire diagnosis has been debunked.
That’s because Instagram is in charge, and they don’t tell us what’s going on. It’s up to us to figure it out as we go. Our Shadowbanning post is now totally obsolete. New information has just surfaced which explains the odd occurrences previously being blamed on Shadowbanning just weeks ago.
What we are actually dealing with is artificial intelligence and a new automated capability which can read our photos by a process of visual recognition. Will hashtags eventually be a thing of the past? Stay tuned.
We hope you will subscribe to The Design Twins so you will stay in the know. Jodie and I are ready to help you face the next new challenges on IG.
Instagram Help For Everyone
People come to Instagram for all types of reasons; too many to count. Some come with purely business motivations and others realize somewhere along their journey that IG may develop into a business. Others are happy sharing their passions and making friends. Whichever scenario describes you it doesn’t matter.
To be honest, there is something for everyone in each one of our Instagram posts. Jodie and I are “veterans” on IG, and yet we learn new things all the time that we can’t believe we never knew! Of course because the platform is continually evolving we have no choice but to stay in the know. What worked yesterday just may flop today.
And if you’re new it’s never too soon to see the big picture or to get a glimpse of business opportunities you never imagined. Heck, Jodie and I didn’t have the smallest idea of turning our IG fun into a money-making business when we started posting our passions for home decor.
Dedication is the Key to Success
If you follow our Instagram help advice success is nearly inevitable. We believe if you are strategic while still being authentic you will achieve success. It will take dedication and commitment, but you will get to where you want to go as long as you don’t give up. Keep growing, keep improving, and as we always say, make sure to enjoy the journey. Joy attracts.
Join our Facebook Group: “The Party is on Instagram”
If you are looking for support along the way you are welcome to join our Facebook Group called, ‘The Party is on Instagram.’ This is a forum for people from different backgrounds to come together with the purpose of posing questions and helping one another on any Instagram related topic. Note: Please read and abide by the rules. It is not for soliciting business. It is about helping one another navigate the in’s and out’s of IG. Click here to join NOW.
We hope you will pin this to your Pinterest Boards, share with your circles of friends, and share on Facebook & Twitter. We also welcome your feedback & questions and love hearing from you. Wishing you great success. See you on IG!
With love & gratitude,
Julie & Jodie
The Design Twins
Thank you again girls for the information you provide to us. Speaking for myself, I love that you are willing to take time out of your busy lives – to help those of us on the other side of a little square.. My reason for joining IG was to try and come out of my own state of depression and to connect with others.. I understand what Jodie has went through, I’m still dealing with it. It’s a battle everyday but the people I have met via these little squares are amazing. I laugh, I cry and I’m learning from all those I follow. I look forward to seeing those beautiful little squares throughout my day. So thank you for allowing me to share in your lives, I love it! I’ve read your post regarding iPhone pictures but would you by chance have any secrets for android users or know someone who might be willing to share? I’m a hard core android user and quite honestly, (and you’ve seen them) my phone has “moments” of good pictures but mostly poor quality. The edit option is not very good on my Samsung so I normally use the IG edit. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I take beautiful pictures via my camera but my phone, not so much, as you know… Thank you again and have a beautiful night!
With branded content being more popular for generating engagement, one of the key benefits of Instagram is that it can help you build trust. People buy from people and Instagram will help you to create that emotional connection with your audience. The great thing here is that it allows you to share the day-to-day experiences of your business in an informal and casual way – therefore giving a personal feel to your business.
Stanley,
Thanks for the great tips regarding Instagram, we are glad you found our blog helpful and hope to see you here in the future! It is most certainly a great tool for any business!
– Jodie & Julie
I’m new to your site and am glad to tell that your blog is fantastic and easy to navigate. I’ve spent a lot of time on this site and will continue to do so. Best wishes for the future.