Tuesday, August 8, 2017

#TechTipTuesday - Instagram

Continuing our exploration of communication tools, this week we will look at Instagram.

If you are just starting out and looking to share more, then Insagram may just be the tool for you. This Facebook owned application is one of the fastest growing social media services out there, and is is excessively simple to use, while still remaining a very powerful tool.


Once you have created your account you can either follow others or chose not to. You can also connect multiple social media accounts to Instagram so that when you post a picture with a caption you can opt to have it also share directly in these other social media apps ALL FROM ONE PLACE.

This is probably one of the top sought after features when it comes to sharing. With a few clicks you are able to send the single picture to multiple places rather then having to post the same things 3 or 4 times.

I often encourage first time bloggers to start by just posting a picture a day. Capture a moment in your learning space and  tell the story of the deep learning taking place in a few short words. Instagram is designed for this and would be a great way to share with your families. 

Families can either follow you, if they have their own Instagram account, or they can just go directly to your page by entering in the unique url. For instance mine would be https://www.instagram.com/thetechspec/

For those of you wanting to share multiple pictures of the learning going on each day, you can post multiple pics in a single post. Doing this will not over run your followers streams with pictures. To do this, click the plus button to add a photo then click the button on the bottom right hand of the screen which looks like this

Then you will be able to choose multiple pictures for a single post.

For those of you interested in sharing more each day, you may want to check out the Instagram Stories Feature. 

By swiping to the right when inside instagram you will be taken to a "camera view" where you can take a picture inside of the app and then post to a story. (You can also load a picture previously taken by swiping down inside the camera mode)

The story is a place where photos you post there will go away 24 hours later. It is a quick and easy way to share loads of learning without having to feel like you must craft the perfect picture. You can also "go live" within the stories feature and stream the learning live.

Pro Tip: Photo's posted in Stories are best in portrait mode. 

I could spend two more posts writing about all the potential greatness you could do with Instagram, instead I am going to encourage you to go check it out today.

As always,
Stay tuned and stay connected

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