When I started my blog and Instagram in 2017, I literally had NO CLUE what the heck I was doing. Google and YouTube were my best friends (and still are). Over the years, I’ve had to figure a lot of things out by trial and error, which is pretty normal for this type of job. I don’t have a trainer or a manual telling me how to do things. I really started taking this job seriously about a year and a half ago, because for the first year, I was just mindlessly swimming, not knowing what my purpose was.
After lots of trial and error and learning, I finally feel like I have figured out what works best for me when it comes to my Instagram, so I am creating a whole post dedicated to the apps and tools that have really helped to keep me consistent and allow me to create my best content.
Lightroom – If you are a content creater/blogger/influencer, then one of the most important things to creating good content is photo editing. Lightroom is the best tool for this, in my opinion. If you are not proficient with editing on Lightroom desktop, then I would highly suggest buying a preset for the Lightroom mobile app. A preset is basically a filter for your photos and will give your feed a cohesive look. You will still have to make some adjustments to your photos based on the lighting, your skintone, the colors you’re wearing, etc… but the preset will give you a great editing starting point. You can find tons of bloggers who sell their presets, or you can find some very inexpensive ones on Etsy!
I personally have tried a few presets, and I’ve also just edited photos myself in Lightroom. At one point, I just used a VSCO filter. I have tried it all! I have found that using a preset and making my own adjustments in the Lightroom app is the way to go for me. I have tried Alexa Jean Brown’s and Hello Fashion Blog’s presets. I liked them both, but I’ve recently started using Jaci Marie’s Spring preset and it’s been my favorite so far! I do have to make some adjustments after I apply it to my photos, but that will be the case with any that you use because everyone’s photos are different!
InShot – I cannot LIVE without this app. I create a lot of video content for my stories and for IGTV, and this is the app I use for that. I record all of the video clips on my iPhone, then I upload all of the clips into the InShot app. From there, I edit the video, speed up/slow down clips, add music, add text, etc… I do it ALL from this app and it’s so easy and user friendly. I promise, if you are creating video content for stories or IGTV, this is the best app you will ever use!
CutStory – Another app I can’t create video content without! When I post tutorials on my stories, I first create the video on my phone and in the InShot app as I talked about above, then I use the CutStory app to break up the video into 15 second clips to fit on IG stories. I prefer to do story tutorials this way rather than recording them directly from stories because I hate that Instagram cuts you off after 1 minute, and sometimes they upload out of order or don’t upload at all, so doing it this way gives me more control and ensures that there won’t be any weird glitches.
Another reason why I love pre-recording story tutorials on my phone first is because it takes away a little of the pressure of recording them real time in IG stories. And you also don’t feel rushed, since IG only gives you 1 minute until it cuts you off. When you pre-record tutorials, you can mess up and start over because you know you can just edit it out. I also add text to my stories in case people are watching with the sound off, and it’s really hard to add text while my phone is sitting on a tripod and I’m getting cut off every minute by IG stories lol. It’s just so much easier for me to record the tutorials on my phone, edit the video in InShot, cut the video in CutStory, then upload to IG stories with no pressure and a lot more time to add text, GIFs, etc…
VSCO – Typically, people use VSCO to edit their photos, but I actually use it to organize and plan my feed. I know many people use planning apps like Planoly and Later, but I’ve tried them and they just don’t work for me. They are too overwhelming and there’s just too much going on. I love VSCO because I just input my pictures into the grid and I can see what my feed will look like. No bells and whistles, just simple and easy. Also, some of the planning apps don’t read IGTV videos on your feed, so you may not get an accurate depiction of what your feed really looks like. You will see all of the other posts, minus the IGTV video. With VSCO you don’t have to worry about that since you are manually inputting your photos. So just keep that in mind if you are someone who posts IGTV videos frequently.
VSCO is also a great app for editing photos. If Lightroom is too overwhelming and you want something more simple, VSCO is the next best thing. I think it’s worth paying for the subscription ($20 per year) because you get access to so many great filters and editing tools that are very easy to use.
Notes – this may seem so simple, but I couldn’t live without my Notes app in my iPhone. This is where I keep all of my caption ideas. Writing captions can be really difficult, so I always have a running list of captions for me to choose from in case I’m stuck. I also use this to type out my captions before I post on Instagram, so that when it’s time to post, the caption is ready to go and I’m not spending time trying to think of one or write it out directly in Instagram.
Photo Albums – this one is pretty cut and dry, but it helps me so much when I’m planning my feed. Since I usually batch shoot my photos, I typically have 5-10 photos that are ready to go, so I created a photo album in my phone called “IG FEED” and that’s where I keep all of my photos that are ready to be posted. I find that separating them really helps me to know what photos I have and doesn’t get them mixed up with all of the other pictures in my camera roll.
Instagram Line Breaker – nothing turns me off from a post more than when I’m reading a huge block of text with no breaks. I personally love reading long, meaningful captions, but if it’s just a huge block of text that runs into a ton of hashtags, I am immediately turned off and usually stop reading the caption pretty early on. To keep my captions clean, appealing, and easy to read, I use THIS website to break up the text. All I do is copy my caption from my notes and paste it into the box, add spaces/breaks where I want, and then copy and paste it into Instagram when I’m ready to post. No more adding emojis or dots in between lines to break them up!
Retouch – this app is a game changer! This will remove any distracting objects in your photos, like people, signs, cars, a stray hair, anything!
Unfold – I love this app for a few different reasons. First, this is where I create my IG highlight cover photos. I use a website called Unsplash to find really cute stock photos, then I upload them into the Unfold app and add text to them. It’s so easy and much simpler than using something like Canva. Not that Canva is hard, but the way I do it is just simpler, in my opinion.
Second, I use this app to add fun features to my photos when I share them to my stories. For example, when I post an IGTV and want to share it on my stories, I use the cover photo for my IGTV, upload it to an Unfold template, and add a cute border, text, and/or graphics just to give the photo some character.
Lastly, when I’m sharing other creator’s profiles to my stories, I love using a template in Unfold to share their feed. It just makes their page stand out a little more rather than just sharing one of their posts.
Canva – I don’t tend the use the app very much, but I love using the desktop website to create graphics for my blog posts (like the one at the beginning of this post, and the one below), which I ultimately share in my stories when I have a new blog post that goes live. I think using an appealing graphic in your stories to share your blog post makes people actually want to go read! Canva has so many easy templates that are ready to go, you just have to plug in your personalized photo, change the text, and you’re done. I love using the website Unsplash, which I talked about earlier, to get really fun stock photos to use for my blog graphics. Then not only can I use that photo graphic in my blog post and pin it to Pinterest, but I can also use it in my stories to let people know when my blog post is live.
IGTV app – Many people don’t know that this app exists, and they try and upload their IGTV videos through the website. However, using the app is so much easier and much more user friendly! You can easily add the cover photo from your camera roll, add the title, caption, brand tags, hashtags, edit how your preview will look on your feed, and also edit how your main photo will look on your feed… all from the app!
Pinterest – we all know how fun Pinterest is, but it can be really beneficial to drive traffic to your Instagram. I will admit that I need to be better about doing this, but I love sharing my IG posts to my Pinterest page to get more eyes on my photos. And if the photo appeals to a viewer and they click on it, it will take them directly to my Instagram page, which can really help with growth if you are consistent with pinning your IG posts.
I really hoped these tips helped! Instagram is a world that can be really hard to figure out if you’re a content creator, and I truly feel like these tools have helped me tremendously. Thank you guys for reading and I hope that you’ll come join my Instagram fam!
