Top Social Media Tools

While many think of Instagram merely as a popular social channel where people express themselves through creative images (or even a selfie), the platform has actually become a lucrative business for some.

We work with a lot of Instagrammers at Webfluential, people who've been able to successfully transform their passion for creating into a career via the app. We've learned a lot from these creators, and we've incorporated all of these learnings into a new infographic which looks at the essential details of how to post, what to post and what performs best on the network. 

If you’re new to Instagram, or you're looking to boost your Instagram presence, this infographic is the ultimate guideline to your future posts.

A new report on prestige brands says that Instagram is the Superman of social media, especially in terms of engagement.

“Instagram has demonstrated more traction than any other platform in 2013, and it registered the strongest year-on-year growth among mobile apps,” says Scott Galloway, founder of L2, a think tank for digital innovation, in its report. And with its clear strategy for monetization and “continual innovation, it's an obvious choice for consumer brands.”

The survey of 249 luxury brands finds that 93% are currently on Instagram, up from 63% in July of last year. And while it is just one-tenth the size of Facebook (which acquired it back in 2012), it has 15 times the level of user engagement that Facebook does. And Pinterest, about a third of Instagram’s size, has only about a third of the level of engagement that Instagram users do. All that “makes Instagram arguably the best tech acquisition of the past five years.”

With over 600 million active users, Instagram is now a key consideration - not only is the platform buzzing with your target audience, it’s an ideal option for executing your visual strategy. Top brands are successfully using Instagram to boost their brand image, foster follower relationships, and increase revenue. Including Instagram in your digital marketing strategy can accelerate real growth in your business.

There are many options for using visuals in your marketing. A good idea is to establish a plan that aligns with your overall business goals and can be integrated in your overall marketing plan.

Once you get to this point, here are a six tools to help bolster your digital marketing efforts with Instagram....

Instagram has no match among photo-sharing social networks, which is why businesses are eager to include it in their social media strategies. It’s taken the network five years since its official launch to begin rolling out advertising, due to the developers’ long-standing goal to make the integration of advertising content into normal browsing experience as seamless and natural as possible.

For businesses, this means that in order to find success on Instagram, they must first get to know the network and its users on their terms.In the past, we have covered essential Instagram elements such as filters, hashtags, and captions; but few Instagram pros manage their presence on the network without some help from hardware and software tools specifically designed for photo sharing.

Whether you’re just getting started with Instagram or need a boost to your follower count, we’ve picked the best Instagram tools to help you manage your photos.

Most of these tools belong to the same four categories: photo and/or video editing, layout, engagement, or metrics. Finally, I’ve thrown in a couple of hardware tools, because let’s face it: even the most skilled iPhoneographers out there need a (steady) helping hand in form of a hardware upgrade....

When I started having fun with Instagram I didn’t know much. I heard that Instagram is great for brands, but what I didn’t feel right is that Instagram is a good fit for the tech business like ours which is not about pretty photos.

At Colibri IO (a tech startup that loves creating marketing tools like River) we don’t really have that much to show off. What can we show except screenshots? But wait, really? Here’s what I’ve learnt, but first, let’s start with why you should be on Instagram....