Page 217 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

As you go through the photos on the site, you see examples of the types of stories
we suggest. Included are interesting street-life photos, product images, company
events, people being served, users wearing the product, and others. Think about
what images you might collect that tell your story in photos and demonstrate that
you are thinking about the community at large.

Share your own images and others by linking your account to Facebook, Twitter,
Flickr, and Tumblr directly from Instagram. It will help your message spread.

Using tools to manage your account
from your computer

Because Instagram is a mobile platform, seeing your account on a larger computer
screen is sometimes useful. For this purpose, several tools have been developed
that allow you (and everyone else) to get the big-picture view on Instagram. These
tools include:

» Iconosquare (http://Iconosquare.com): Free; formerly Statigr.am.
Iconosquare is used by 40 percent of the Fortune 1000 and has very robust
features and a nice display of your own account. You can see your statistics
and help promote your images to others.
» Combin (https://www.combin.com): This is an Instagram growth tool
that’s aimed at organic audience attraction. With its powerful search, you can
find accounts and posts from your target audience by hashtag, location,
hashtag+location among followers and commenters of your competitors.

» Boomerang from Instagram: This app, which is available in the Apple and
Android App stores, lets you create gifs of your photographs or videos that
go forward and back in time. These videos don’t have audio but allow you to
capture perfect behind-the-scenes type moments in a very Instagram friendly
fashion.
» Foursixty (https://foursixty.com): With Foursixty you can sell your
products on Instagram by linking them to your product pages. Your custom-
ers can add items to their shopping carts directly, instead of having to browse
your website.

CHAPTER 12 Delving into Instagram 201