Instagram is always adding features that most people take no note of. But if you want to be a power user on Instagram, or just make your social media life a little easier, check out these hacks.

7 Useful Instagram Hacks

1. Use GEO Tags for Higher Engagement

Now hear me out on this one. There is a reason Instagram has now allowed you to virtually always tag where you are. One of the ways to get your content in front of a bigger audience is to geotag images and Instagram stories. Instagram users are known to look at tagged locations in their area to follow other users in the same area and when they are going on vacation  It’s like advertising your account and can lead to increased engagement.  PLUS, Geotagged images are a part of the Instagram Algorithm.  BUT be smart about this tag. No need to directly tag your house or your kid’s school. A general city tag like: San Francisco works just as well.

2.Adjust your settings to approve tagged photos before they show up in your profile.

When someone tags a photo or video of you on Instagram, Instagram adds it to your profile automatically. You can change that, so that like Facebook, you can manually select which photos that people tag you in show up on your profile.   

To do this:

• Click the little gear at the top of your profile,
• Next, under account: tap  “photos of you and select ” Add Manually”.

You will still get a notification when someone decides to tag you in a photo. When it happens, if you want to allow that photo on your profile, tap on the photo then tap your username and select “Show on My Profile”.  If you don’t want to allow it, tap, ” Hide from my Profile” instead.  

3. Use Line Breaks in your Captions

Instagram has become a great place to microblog. But most people will NOT read one long run on paragraph. To create line breaks in your caption

• tap on the 123 key in the lower left corner of the keyboard. This will bring up the number keys and the RETURN key.
• Hit return to create a space, click on the symbol or character to create a break( use bullet points, dashes to hold to the space of an empty line)
• The underscore symbol is the most common and easiest to use. Press it twice to create a line.

If you want actual paragraphs, on an android phone hit return on the mobile keyboard,  IOS users can write our your caption in a note app and copy and paste it to Instagram.

4. Create A Solid Color Background for Instagram Stories

This is pretty useful when you want to share just words in your Instagram Stories on a blank background.

To Do it:

1. Take a photo.
2. Tap the pen icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen and select a color
3. Tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds until the screen is filled with that color.

( tip: the screen will have a solid color fill if you use the marker or neon brush. The color will be translucent if you use the chisel-tip brush)

5. Filter Comments Based on Keywords

Instagram has trolls. Lots of them. To avoid getting comments that are offensive or spammy, you can filter your comments so that certain keywords do not show up.

How to filter comments:

1. Tap the gear icon on IOS or the three dots on Android to go to Options
2. Choose Comments
3. Toggle the Hide Offensive Comments and Use Default Keywords option on. This feature will hide comments that contain words or phrases that are often reported as offensive.
4. If you want to be more specific: Toggle on Enable Keyword Filters under Manual Filter: You can also choose to add your own list of custom keywords that you’d like hidden from your posts. 

6. Post Blue Photos

According to research, Blue photos perform better on Instagram than red and orange.  This makes sense. It may be because the color theory suggests that blue is calming, relaxing and even peaceful.  People use social media as an escape so they might be more attracted to this type of content.  So if a photo has a slight blue filter to it ( like E1, HB1, F2 on VSCO) or is from a beach setting it will get more engagement. Think about it, your beach photos always do well…

7. Save Drafts for Later

Sometimes you have the perfect photo, but not the perfect caption. Or you have the perfect photo and caption, but know that posting at 2 pm in the afternoon will get you no engagement because your audience is not online a that time. Whatever the reason, Instagram has added the ability for users to save posts as drafts. Once you save that post, it keeps all of your edits ( photo, hashtags, caption) until you are ready to come back to it.

How to do it

• Upload a photo or video
• Edit the post( add filters, captions, tags, location)
• Hit the < icon in the upper left hand corner of the screen to go back to the editing screen
• Hit it the < icon again
• A menu will appear, select SAVE DRAFT.

When you are ready to post that photo

• Tap the + icon
• A new DRAFTS section will appear right above Camera Roll.
• Tap on the photo you want to post or select Manage to see all of your saved drafts.
• Select a post and share as usual.

I like this option because it’s an easy way for me to have posts already drafted and ready instead of having to use a third-party app.

So there you have it, 7 Useful Instagram hacks that can help you make the most of Instagram. Do you have any Instagram hacks you want to share?

If you want to take your Instagram to the Next level, sign up for my course, Instagram Better: A Plan for Building An Authentic Community.

So there you have it, 7 Useful Instagram hacks that can help you make the most of Instagram. Do you have any Instagram hacks you want to share? Share them in the comments!