Undoubtedly, one of the biggest players in the social media space, marked by its widespread appeal and influence, is Instagram. With the focus solely on images, Instagram is one of the ultimate platforms for visual marketing.
With more than 300 million monthly active users and 30 billion photos shared through the app, there is a huge potential for brands with a smart Instagram strategy.
Brands also saw more engagement from Instagram than on Twitter. Socialbakers reported that among the top 25 most engaging brands, the average post engagement rate is 3.3% on Instagram vs. 0.075% on Twitter.
However, Instagram also poses some challenges for brands using Instagram as a marketing tool. Currently, Instagram is solely a mobile-based app, with the only true posting allowed by logging in and posting directly. All scheduling programs are considered against Instagram TOS and could put those accounts at risk of suspension or deletion.
This creates difficulties in streaming content and posting schedules for social media managers, agencies or brands who coordinate several different Instagram accounts.
But there are several tools out that can help those looking to strategically manage their Instagram account without a huge price tag.
Latergramme
Latergramme is an app that allows web-based scheduling of Instagram photos. After uploading images and creating captions and tags, you can choose when to schedule content. When it is time to post, the app will send a push notification to your phone to log in and post. You must download the app to your phone and you still must be logged into the correct account, but for brands who wish to control which images go out when, Latergramme is a great way to keep things organized.
Latergramme provides a free version which allows 30 posts per month and the ability to connect two Instagram accounts. The premium version allows up to 250 posts across two accounts and costs $20/month.
Ink 361
Ink 361 is a web-based Instagram viewer that allows users to manage and engage with photos in their feed and also search and discover popular tags, images and trending content from users. You can also get info on your network including followers and stats on your content. If you need a tool to discover and engage with people in your network, Ink 361 is a great place to start.
Ink 361 is free for users.
Iconosquare
For those looking for deeper insights into their Instagram accounts, Iconosquare provides great info about details of your posts, engagement, progress and more. You can see most engaged users, most engaging filters, tags and the best times to post as well as rolling data.
Iconosquare is free for users.
Websta and GramFeed
For brands looking for the latest trends, cutting-edge tags and influential users to collaborate with, both Websta and GramFeed are great search tools to find and connect with users. Both are great alternatives for Instagram on the web, and offer additional features including sending private messages, generating an RSS feed for your photos, stats and searching photos in geotagged locations for hyper-targeted marketing.
Both are free for users.
Crowdfire
Network building and connecting with similar users is critical to increase engagement, followings and grow brand awareness across Instagram. Easily see which of your followers are following you and new users to follow and connect with with Crowdfire. They also offer a scheduler for Instagram. Users with multiple accounts (or who wish to use a competitor as a benchmark) can see how two accounts compare and provides relevant info on the performance of each.
Free version and premium versions available for $10-100/month.
Repost
For those who prefer to do the bulk of their Instagram management via mobile, the free Repost app is a great option to quickly re-gram photos from other users that you like or that are in your feed. Instead of screenshots, cropping and copying user info, you can simply re-gram from the Repost app to quickly share to your feed while maintaining the info from the original poster.
Which tools do you use for your Instagram marketing? Leave a comment below and let me know your favorites.