How To Format Instagram Posts and Captions In 2019
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Are you looking for ways to grow your Instagram account and increase your account engagement? If you answered yes, there are a few places to start to assure that your Instagram account is up to snuff. The first is making sure that your Instagram bio is optimized and the 2nd is to make sure you format your posts properly. I'm going to show you how to format Instagram posts and captions for your business!
1. Use The Correct Instagram Photo Size
Make sure your photos are the correct size for Instagram. This should go without saying that you should use square photos on Instagram, but I'm amazed at the number of accounts that still publish landscape photos without cropping them and most of the text gets cut off.
The correct image size for Instagram photos is 1080px by 1080 px. Now, if you're going to use a larger widescreen photo, just format it before you post it to Instagram.
How to format a landscape photo to fit on Instagram posts
Click your "+" button to add a photo, next click the button in the lower left-hand corner. Now it's sized correctly. Then, click "next" and go through your other steps to filter the photo, add, location tags and etc.
This is a basic tip. But, you don't know how many times I see people's photos that they've probably just shared directly from Facebook and half the wording is cut off.
2. Use Your Location When You Post To Instagram
Posts with locations get 79% more engagement. This is how to add your location to your Instagram post. First, click your "plus sign" to add your photo. Choose the photo you're going to add.
Click next, choose your filter and click "next" again. This is where you write your caption. You can tag people and you'll see the "add location" option. Simply type the location of choice. This is a simple tactic to get more engagement on your post.
3. Choose The Best Time To Post To Your Instagram Account
This is going to vary from account to account. I hear all these gurus talking about using this tool, or use that tool to find out when to post. I find the best tool to be your own Instagram analytics.
To find the best time for your account, click the icon in the top right-hand corner with the 3 bars. If you don't see those bars, you need to make sure you have your account set as a business account. This is one of the major benefits of creating a business account. You'll get access to your Instagram insights or analytics.
The next thing you want to do is click on "insights" and then "audience". Under followers, it's going to tell you which hour of the day has the most followers that are active. All you have to do is look at this graph, and it's going to let you know exactly when "your" followers are online.
You can also break it down into days as well, but I find, looking at this right before I post or the day that I'm going to post in the morning, I'll get a good indication of the best time to post to my Instagram account.
4. How To Format Instagram Post Caption With Line Breaks
I'm going to show you how to format your Instagram post caption or description with like breaks and show you how you can post an emoji first on another line. Some people are under the impression you can't do that, but I'm going to show you how.
An easy way to make sure that your Instagram captions are formatted the way you want them is to use another app to format your caption and then "copy and paste" into Instagram. I like to use my iPhone notes app but you can also use Evernote or a Word counter app as well. I like to use is Word counter because it also counts characters. But, use some other app or tool prior to posting to Instagram.
*Update December 2018* Instagram will allow you to add spaces between lines just like any other app. Yes!
Another little bonus tip, some people think that there's not a return button in the Instagram app. There actually is. All you have to do is hit the "123" button and voila, you've got the return button!
How to insert an emoji at the beginning of a new line. On the line above, you'll want to make sure that there's no space before adding an emoji. Insert your emoji and click return so that it will be at the beginning of your next line. you'll repeat as needed.
5. Add Your Instagram Username At The End Of Your Posts
Try putting your username at the end of your Instagram post caption/description to encourage people to follow you. One thing I like to insert at the end of some of my posts is: "Follow @yourmarketinglady for more like this."
This works great when new people are finding your account, all they have to do is click your username and they'll land on your Instagram profile.
Some people will find you on Instagram in various ways. They might find you on the explore tab. They might find you on the home tab or via a hashtag search.
Most of the time, they're not even on your profile when they actually see your post. This is a great way to encourage more people to follow you and hopefully gain more engagement as well.
That's how to format Instagram posts and captions for your business. Let me know in the comments which one of these Instagram posting tips helped you the most. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel so that you won't miss a new video.
