No doubt, Instagram is my favorite platform.
So when they drop new features, it’s like Reeses Pieces are falling from the sky and I’m out here with a bucket just livin’ life to the fullest.
These new Insta-features are sure to be Insta-hits with the Insta-peeps and I can’t wait to Insta-talk about them with you!
Now you can resize photos in Insta-Stories!
And it’s about time! Since your iPhone camera takes 4:5 ratio portraits and your stories are 9:16, there’s been a bit of a square peg/round hole thing going on a for a while. I still love the inShot app for this fix because you can do so much, but now at least you can natively make the whole 4:5 portrait squeeze into the 9:16 stories frame. Hey, it’s something!
Gifs are back! Tell a friend.
We had gif stickers for a second, then we didn’t and no one knew why. Turns out, Giphy, the company providing the Insta-gifs had a few racist Insta-gifs, which caused Instagram to Insta-pull the Insta-gifs package from Insta-stories (read about it here). But now they’re back and racism-free so let’s start seeing those gif-tacular Insta-stories Insta-stat!
New @mention tag…but why tho?
Now you can tag other accounts with an @mention tag in your stories…wait, this sounds familiar…OH! I remember. You could already do that. I think this was a trade for taking away gifs to say “sorry we took the gifs and didn’t tell you why. Here’s a sticker we made in 20 minutes that does something you could already do to keep you distracted while we fix it.” There are actually more design options for mentions if you don’t use the tag. I rate this one an Insta-fail.
Clickable Hashtags and Links in Bios
Now you can put clickable hashtags and mention other accounts in your bio. If someone puts your account in their bio, you’ll get a notification and have the option to deny your friend’s use of your profile link if you want. Which is pretty dang insulting if you think about it. I mean, it pretty clearly says “Hey, I don’t want to be associated with you.” Friendship over.
If it’s a porn account though, this is the total right move. Deny that craziness.
You can click here to read more about hashtags and links if you can wade through the dystopian ad-magedden disaster that Mashable has become.
But we’re still gonna stick with that ONE url in the bio tho…sigh…Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…
Complaining WORKS because the algorithm is a-changing!
So take that everyone who’s ever said that you can’t change things by griping about it on social media! Instagram received so much backlash about how poor the current algorithm is (ie. seeing a bunch of posts from yesteryear instead of more recent posts), that they are actually rolling out changes to make it more “fresh.”
Thank goodness. Most Instagram posts expire after 24 hours and start to grow fuzzy mold and smell like socks.
They’re also fixing that “randomly scroll you back to the top of your feed” problem they say. All around, these are the best two updates from Insta in a while. At least half of Facebook’s company are listening to the audience! You can read more about these updates in detail in this article from TechCrunch.
Insta-best
Especially now that Facebook changed their algorithm for pages, Instagram is, in my opinion, the best way to connect with your crowd organically. Honestly, for those of us who would rather not spend a lot on ads, it kinda always was. I love that they are continually improving the platform and listening to the customer base. I also love that I can take a photo of my dinner and have a little baby ride a kitten across it again. I mean, I could NOT have a baby ride a kitten across my dinner photo but who wants to live in that world?
What do you love or hate about Instagram? Are you using it well in your church? Let’s talk in the comments or join the conversation with me in my Seminary of Hard Knocks Facebook Group! Of course, you could follow me on Instagram too, which seems relevant right now. Thanks for reading!