Today we continue our series about photos and videos that captivate your audience with 5 editing techniques to get the look you want. Use these tips to make the most of the pictures you share. 1. Crop to get the best image possible. Remember that people are viewing this on a small screen, so cropping
Yesterday, I covered what to post about on Instagram. Today, we're going to get into how to improve your photos, even if you're not a pro photographer. Ready? 1. Make your shots more interesting by using the the rule of thirds. If you're not familiar with this, imagine a grid of 3 boxes by 3
Do you struggle with what to post on Instagram? Recently I asked "what's your biggest challenge with Instagram?" and a lot of you responded with the same answer: "What should I post????" Here's a list of 7 things you can use as content. 1. Show the behind-the-scenes of your business or your life. Provide a
So much Instagram news today, it's crazy. First, if you use the Close Friends features within Instagram Stories a lot, you'll love this. Instagram has launched a new app called "Threads" that I talked about a while ago. Threads is a dedicated messaging app for interacting with your Instagram Close Friends via photo, video, or
Creating an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing Skill can be confusing. Here are the 5 steps to getting started quickly! 5 Technical Steps to Creating, Recording, and Posting Your First Flash Briefing Register for a developer account at https://developer.amazon.com, and create your Flash Briefing Skill. Find a Flash Briefing hosting provider. You can use a company
Yesterday, the audio of an internal Facebook meeting held by Mark Zuckerberg was leaked. It's long, but I'm going to focus on the relevant part that applies to the future of Instagram vs. TikTok. If you're not familiar with it, TikTok (formerly Musically) is a top downloaded social media app where people create short lip-syncing
Before I started my Amazon Flash Briefing, there were some key things I had to decide. To ensure you reach your goals, determine these 5 things before starting. 5 Important Things To Decide Before Creating an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing Pick a niche topic that people are searching for information on, preferably one that is
Amazon Alexa Flash Briefings are short audio programs between 1 and 10 minutes that anyone can create. Here are 5 reasons to create an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing. 1. You have a topic you could talk about for hours. You don't have to be a leading expert on a particular topic, you only have to
Did you know that you can use your Amazon Echo to listen to personalized news content on-demand? I've been using Amazon Alexa Flash Briefings for the past 18 months - I started out listening to a wide variety of content, then began the process of making my own Flash Briefing, called "The Instagram Stories", which
Instagram has been testing hiding the "like count" photos get in the feed. This week, the Head of Instagram, Adam @mosseri gave some insights into why they're doing this, what the response has been, and how he feels about it. "Ultimately, if we make decisions that are bad for business but that keep people safe
Have you ever been harassed on Instagram? Bullying on Instagram is a real problem. The Head of Instagram, Adam @mosseri gave a great interview about the depth of the problem and the solutions they're putting in place to address it, in the form of new features. "I and our researchers talked to a bunch of
Save this post!! This is the DEFINITIVE post to explain the confusing terms in the Instagram Analytics. Save this post because you'll be coming back to it often to figure out what these terms mean. Background info: If you're not using an Instagram Business or Creator account, you're missing out of tons of valuable info
1.What is a hashtag? Hashtags (# sign) are for grouping posts together so people can find your post. Searching a hashtag lets you see all the posts with that tag. You can even follow hashtags you want to keep close tabs on, and the best posts from that hashtag will show up in your feed
There's SO much Instagram news right now it's literally C R A Z Y. Boomerangs are getting revamped. Layouts are being brought to Stories. The Story Camera is changing. So much more! Instagram's Product Team probably doesn't sleep. 1. Instagram is revamping Boomerangs, including different modes like Classic (the one we know and
I have whiskey and I'm sitting on a throne, which means I keep breaking down Instagram into small, understandable pieces for you. Over the past few days on my #alexa show, I've been going super deep into Instagram's "Close Friends" feature based on a @verge interview of @Robby. Robby Stein is Product Manager at Instagram
Today I'm going to do a deep dive into Instagram's "Close Friends" feature based on a @verge interview of @Robby. Robby Stein is Product Manager at Instagram in charge of the consumer product team across Stories, Feed, Messaging, Camera, and Profile (OMG that's so much!!) This is really important if: 👨💼 You want to keep
Today's topic: FREE information to get as many likes as possible. It's called Instagram Insights. Here's the background info - the Instagram algorithm rewards posts that get a lot of likes and comments very quickly after being posted. If your post gets rewarded by the algorithm, it will show your post to more and more
HUGE INSTAGRAM NEWS! If you have a Creator Account, @instagram has added the ability to schedule Feed posts and IGTV posts using Facebook Creator Studio! If you're the kind of person who plans out their content in advance, or if you're scheduling posts using an app like @latermedia or @planoly, this gives a free alternative
Yesterday @tailwindapp had a great blog post - "Instagram Creator Accounts - Should I Switch?", which I featured on my show today. I've had the Creator account for nearly 2 weeks now (and I finally got the Music sticker! Are these things related?!?) Let's get deep on the different kinds of Instagram accounts so you
Today's the day I'm at the Voice Summit in Newark, NJ talking about the difference between Podcasting and Micro-Casting. My Micro-cast is available every day on Amazon Alexa (with an Echo or via the Alexa app) when you say "Alexa, tell me the news”. Based on the what I've created (12,000 subscribers!) I'll be answering
Today's the 3rd part of the series I've been doing based off an interview from @verge about Instagram's Direct Messaging, featuring Connor Hayes, Instgram's head of Product for Messaging. If you missed the last 2 parts, check out my previous posts. Last October Mark Zuckerberg said a growing number of users are shifting from posting
Today I go deeper into the highlights of @verge's interview with Instagram's head of Product for Messaging, Connor Hayes, all about Direct Messages. He explained that "when we do go talk to people in research, we know that younger people, especially, tend to use a lot of different messaging apps and spread out their conversations
It's easy to underestimate the power of Instagram Direct Messaging. @verge did an interview with Instagram's head of Product for Instagram Messaging, Connor Hayes, specifically about Direct Messaging and how it's used. It's a long interview with a ton of very valuable insights, so I'm going to break it up into a few posts with
Sarah Wallace helps coaches and consultants launch their businesses using Instagram. She's been helping brands on Instagram over the past 5 years in health and wellness industry, but recently pivoted to helping individuals. Do you get caught up in building your logo, your website domain name, your website design, or all the other millions of
From now on, I'm going to try and post more quick content tips. Ready? If you want a bigger audience, post images and videos that are so great, your followers feel compelled to share them by tagging other people. How do you do that? Post content that's either: 1. funny. 2. entertaining. 3. extremely interesting,
Last night Business Insider had a great article - "Instagram is Gen Z's go-to source of political news — and it's already having an impact on the 2020 election”. I covered this in-depth on my Alexa show but there are 2 points I wanted to highlight. 1. Where Generation Z gets its news - 59%
Have you not gotten the results you've wanted from Instagram? There's a reason. And you might not be doing anything wrong. Jenn is the author of Instagram for Business for Dummies plus the Director of Marketing and Communications at an Aerospace company in San Diego. On the side, she's been speaking about Instagram for the
What's going to be the next "BIG THING"? What's going to be the next "Instagram"? What's going to be the next platform everyone is on? I think about this all the time. Here's what I know. Take EVERYTHING you've learned from Instagram because it will apply to the next BIG THING - whatever that is.
Back story that you need to know first: the top 3 biggest people on Instagram are @cristiano (Cristiano Ronaldo), @arianagrande and @selenagomez. This week, Selena Gomez said in an interview that she doesn't have the Instagram app on her phone, and only uses a friend's phone periodically to check in on her account. I talked
Instagram has so many new features they've announced that all feature the word "Creator". The newest option Instagram is now offering are Creator Accounts. This is confusing because Instagram uses the word "Creator" to describe the new scroll wheel of options in the Stories camera (called "Create Mode") AND the Creator Studio within Facebook
Alex Branning owns a digital marketing agency and hosts a podcast giving advice about marketing to entrepreneurs. Alex is very focused on Instagram Ads directly on Stories, and teaches his clients 2 things - first, how to grow their audience and then to monetize that audience. He teaches his clients that video quality needs to
If you want to sell a product or service on Instagram, you can't just start by posting pictures of your product or service. You need to give value, because Instagram does not exist just so you have a platform to sell your product or service on. Mats David Awesome Goldberg is the owner of The
Did you ever think of niching as a marketing tool? Being incredibly specific is the best way, because it lets you weed out the potential clients who are not a good fit, and gets your ideal customer excited. Megan Van Groll gained her experience in social media by volunteering at a local non-profit, joined the
Malvika is the founder and digital content creator behind the platform "Style by Malvika", focused on creating content in the luxury fashion world. According to Malvika, the key to Instagram is finding the balance between aspirational and relatable. Those can be contradictory, so it's important to meet somewhere in the middle. Small business owners can
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Alexa Conference in Tennessee! Everyone was super nice, and I learned a ton. Here are my key takeways: Keynote on the Future of Voice: 1. Smart speaker devices are being purchased faster than any other device in history. It took smartphones 5 years to reach 50%
Aaron Render hosts a podcast called "Uncontained" where he interviews people in the entertainment industry - actors, musicians, comedians - about their roots, what advice they'd give, how they promote themselves, and what's kept them going when others tell them they won't succeed. In this episode, we talk about how Aaron can use Instagram to
Josh Klemons is a digital storyteller and strategist. He helps brands find, hone, and tell their stories online. Josh works with brands on Instagram Stories, and shares the reasons businesses should be using Stories, which are pieces of content that are only visible for 24 hours. He calls them "ethereal" - which means "characterized by
Michael Sherman has a digital marketing firm called "The Interactive Imprint," a full service South Florida interactive marketing consulting company focused on social media and influencer marketing. He recommends companies focus their social media efforts on being original and showing what's behind-the-scenes from a human perspective. It's not a sales tool like other platforms are
Lauren Davis helps organizations improve their branding, social marketing, and public relations. She's a small business owner of a brick-and-mortar store, and has ingrained herself in the local community in her city. Want Lauren's key strategies to using social media wisely as a small business owner? Lauren teaches her clients the importance of creating an
A few weeks ago, I joined a Facebook group to help me find guests for my Instagram themed podcast, called “The Instagram Stories”. I posted my request for guests who were versed on building a following, then checked back later to see this response from a random person: “Daniel, I’ve had a few friends recently
