10 Instagram Hacks That Will Blow Your Mind
1 billion people use Instagram every day and there are over 800 million users watching Instagram Stories daily.
1. Hide your tags
Hide your hashtags, your location tag, and your handle tags (when you’re tagging people or brands). Sometimes, too much clutter on your Insta Story can detract from the message, photo, or video you’re trying to share. This is my FAVORITE tip that I use every single time I post a story. I even had someone ask me this morning how I tagged them without them seeing it visually on the Story? If you want to hide hashtags type out your hashtags (you can include up to 10 in your stories), and then pinch them to make them smaller and slowly drag them off the screen to the bottom right corner. Do the same with the location tag (by clicking the Sticker tool at the top) and when you “@” mention people or brands. This is a way of adding metadata (aka more information) to each of your Stories to increase the chances it reaches more people, but without compromising your aesthetic.
2. Use custom colors for fonts in Instagram Stories
Did you know there are more colors in the color palette than the little colorful dots at the bottom of your screen? There’s a hidden hack for this. To select the exact color you, all you have to do is open your Instagram Story and select the brush tool at the top. Now tap and hold any of the default color options at the bottom of the screen to open the color slider. Then, swipe across the slider to pick a custom color for your story. I love using light peaches and light pinks.
3. Add your brand font to your story
If you’re looking to better represent your “brand,” this is one trick to doing it. Download the app called “Over” and once you’ve downloaded it, Airdrop your fonts .OTF file to your phone. When prompted to open it, choose to open it with Over. And voila! That’s it. This is a lot like installing a font on your computer, but instead, to your phone.
4. Ever wonder how people share a post from their grid or feed to a story?
This one is easy. Simply tap the paper airplane under your own post on your grid or someone else’s, and select the “Add to your story” option. The benefit here is driving more people to your feed, so they can read more, engage with you, or take a specific call to action, like clicking the link in your bio or following you.
5. Create a custom color background on your stories
This trick is pretty helpful when you want to share an Insta Story panel with drawings and text rather than a photo or video, or when you share a post from your feed to your story and want to customize the background color behind the post. Just tap the pen tool in the upper righthand corner and select a color. Next, tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds until the screen is filled with a solid color.
6. Add a “Glow” Effect to Your Emojis
This one is simple, but fun!
If you ever want to make your emojis really stand out on Instagram Stories, there’s a hidden trick to make them glow. Simply open your stories, tap the screen to open the text tool, and select the Neon font. Boom. It should now glow!
7. Plan your Instagram Stories ahead of time with Planoly
When it comes to content, I’m a HUGE fan of anything we can do to better prepare and plan. Simply download the Planoly app and if you haven’t already, you can use my personal code for $10 off. https://www.planoly.com/referral/carlymask
Once you open the app on desktop or mobile, tap the S in the upper left hand corner (S for Stories) to start adding in each frame. From there, you can tap and hold each line and drag each panel up or down to order your Instagram Story in the order you want it to post.
8. Add a poll to your Story or ask a question
This is a great tool for soliciting feedback and new ideas from your fans or followers.
Tap the sticker icon at the top and you’ll notice the Poll or Questions sticker as an option to add to your Story. With the poll, it doesn’t just have to be a yes/no response, but you can also customize those two options by typing over the fields that say yes and no.
9. Select multiple images or videos to add to your Instagram Story at once
Click the blue plus (+) sign on your profile photo to get started. Hold the middle of the screen and swipe up to reveal your camera roll. Tap select multiple in the upper right corner of the screen. Choose up to 10 frames you want to share. This queues everything up nicely for you to post straight to your IG Story. Press next and start posting!
10. The only thing that sets you apart is you. Be you, everyone else is taken.
I know we all wish we could be someone else on social media, but that’s not what your followers want to see. The comparison game is strong, but you have to stay true to you. What do your friends keep coming back to you for?
For the latest Instagram hacks, be sure to find me over on Instagram @carlymask!