Instagram? Does anyone know how to use it?

[Former_Member]

I am very computer savvy but for some reason Instagram confuses me? Does anyone use it? I need a step by step run down of how to work with it to promote my shop.
I think my biggest problem with it is that there is not a good computer interface. Pictures are added through your phone. Well, all of my good pictures are sitting on my computer. So how do I get them on Instagram? Do I have to transfer them to my phone. If so, what a pain!

Any help would be so appreciated!

[dcbijou]

I use it a little for my shop account - I have a personal account in addition to my shop account, and tend to stay logged in to my personal account more. Using hashtags when posting photos helps to get others to see your photos if you don't have a lot of followers, and you can link your twitter/facebook page to instagram so that when you post a photo it automatically posts an update to twitter/fb.

There are probably a few "hacks" to be able to post to instagram from your computer - a simple google search says there are sites/workarounds to do that - but an easy way to use your good photos through the phone app would be to store your photos online, like google drive/photos or box. If you have those apps installed on your phone, you can access the photos that way, and just crop them into instagram's square format.

Using Google drive/photos or box doesn't take up extra space on your phone's memory either, and you can use those apps to periodically transfer/backup your phone photos and access them on your computer later on.

[Former_Member]

Wow, Diane!! Thank you so much for your help!! This was exactly what I needed. It solves my problem perfectly and not only that problem but another one I was having! It was really easy to set up and I am so thrilled. I so appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge with me!!

[Former_Member]

So, does anyone know any good hashtags for girls clothing?

[Former_Member]

I am interested in the hashtags myself. I know they some how bring people to you but, it confuses me how? And like Christine what are good hashtags and how do you come up with them? And when you use them are they just put at the end of the message, only?

[dcbijou]

hashtags generally go at the end of your photo caption, but you can work them in to your message if you don't want to type words/phrases out twice. I use some generic tags like #etsy #handmade when posting previews of items. You can make anything a hashtag, even a full run-on sentence. The tag can't have any spaces in the words or it will only link part of the phrase - e.g. if you want to tag "my shop is having a sale" it would be tagged as #myshopishavingasale; if you added spaces between words it would only link #my.

You can search for tags in instagram to see how popular they are; there's a tab to search for users and tags, so you just enter the tag you're looking for (include the hashtag) and you'll see photos others have tagged with that phrase. Browsing through those photos you'll see other tags that might give you ideas on how to tag your items.

[Former_Member]

Wow! Diana! Thanks! You really cleared it up for me. Thank you for taking the time to explain.

[Former_Member]

I use www.dropbox.com to share my photos between all my devices. When you take a picture on your phone or upload something to your computer, it automatically is shared with any device with dropbox on it.