The Wednesday Social: 5 Instagram Features We Can’t Live Without

Oh happy Wednesday!

Welcome to this week’s social, where we’ll discuss big things happening in the social media space…

Let’s talk Instagram, specifically the 5 features that we can’t live without as social media marketers. Over the past year, Instagram has kept the platform fresh with inventive new features that allow for a more creative, custom experience. Here are the features we never want to ‘Gram without…

1) Drafts

Instagram rolled out this feature to allow users to create and hold Instagram posts for future publishing. It’s great for preparing ideas that aren’t ready to hit the feed. We use it to plan ahead and save time when we need to post and engage quickly. For IG users who are more artistic, you can use this feature to check the layout/consistency of your grid.

2) Saved Posts

Ever stumble across a photo that was inspiring, informative, or extra memorable? Save it for reference later! Instagram’s saved post feature is a great personal and professional resource. At BW, we like to queue up relevant posts to eventually re-share or mark content that we admire to spark a new idea. Other uses we’ve heard of: bookmarking a great place to eat, saving a photo for fashion inspiration, noting a cool location you want to eventually scope out and Instagram for yourself, etc.

3) Uploading Pics from Gallery to Instagram Stories

Have you ever felt conflicted whether to take a “real” photo or video or capture the content via a platform for immediate publish? Fret no more. You can upload media directly from your phone gallery to Instagram Stories. That way you still have the original to use for other purposes and still upload great content to your story that you may not have originally been able to do. 

4) Sending Posts Directly

This private feature serves an array of purposes for sharing an Instagram photo or video with another Instagram user, as explained here. We like this feature for its simplicity and effectiveness in sending information and engaging quickly- sans screenshots.

5) Boomerang

WHO DOESN’T LOVE GIFS? And the lure of being able to make and create your own custom gif is so addictive. Instagram allows users to post Boomerangs on an Instagram feed or story. BW loves Boomerang because it adds variety to content, elicits more engagement, and sends a more memorable message. Get on the Boomerang train.

We applaud Instagram for keeping the platform fresh and fun by consistently rolling out new features. We didn’t mention all our favorites, but here are a few that deserve an honorable mention:

Hiding Instagram Stories

If for whatever reason you want to hide your story from a select few, you can. Instagram breaks it down on their blog here. Once in the settings, you can individually hide your story content from followers before publishing. Though we don’t use this, we hold the right to admire this option.  

Managing Instagram Filters

Did you know that there are 40 Instagram filters? That’s a really wide variety, which is why being able to manage your favorites is super helpful. Sprout Social advises how to here. This is an effective way to keep and give your Instagram a consistent look while saving you the time of scrolling through all 40 options.  

UNsend Direct Messages

That’s right, you can right click on a sent message and it DELETE IT… at least from the conversation; the only catch? If the person has already seen it, the damage might already be done! Special note: use messages wisely and double check things for spelling, positivity before you send them.

Let’s hear from YOU. What are your favorite Instagram features? Find us on social to let us know: @bwsocialco.

Visit us next week for another edition of The Wednesday Social and if you have any specific requests on what we should talk about, email us!