Hear me out. Posting consistently on Instagram (with a consistently branded aesthetic, naturally) doesn’t have to take hours or be the most dreaded task of your week. With the right tools in place, you can transform Instagram from a chore to a powerful tool for your business – one that helps convert potential clients by demonstrating your authority and professionalism (and, of course, your style!).
Without further ado, here are my top 5 time-saving Instagram tools.
PREVIEW
Preview is without a doubt one of my favourite apps to use for Instagram! It allows you to visually plan the look of your grid BEFORE posting* – it lets you move around future posts to see where they fit best, which makes all the difference when it comes to creating a purposeful aesthetic! After all, when potential clients visit your feed, it’s an opportunity to show off your marketing prowess. You want to make sure your grid isn’t unbalanced or messy – which is where Preview comes in!
In addition to letting you pre-plan the look of your feed, Preview allows you to write your captions ahead of time and schedule your posts in advance. It’s an all-around great multi-purpose tool that can save you time AND up-level your Instagram feed – in one neat little app.
*Instagram itself has yet to offer this functionality, so enlisting the help of an app like Preview is key. (And did I mention you can download it for free?!)
UNSPLASH
I know I profess my undying love for Unsplash fairly frequently, but this site really is that great! You don’t even need to upgrade to the pro version because the free version offers incredibly high-quality stock images.
I suggest spending a few minutes on Unsplash every month (seriously, that’s all you need!) and downloading a bunch of brand images you can save to use in a pinch. Some of the best ways to use them? As backgrounds for your Instagram stories or to just generally elevate the look and feel of your feed. You know what they say: A great on-brand image is worth a thousand words. 😉
LIGHTROOM
The Lightroom mobile app is free and it’s powerful! It’s what I use to edit every single one of my photos for Instagram (even stock photography that I pull from Unsplash) just to be sure every image is perfectly on-brand. Lightroom makes editing images SO quick and easy and gives you unparalleled control over what the end result looks like.
Pro Tip: Establish your brand presets and you can literally edit any photo with one touch!
UNFOLD
Unfold is a paid app, but it’s worth its weight in gold if you want to create gorgeous Instagram Stories! This app has hundreds of stylish templates you can easily customize for your Stories. Oh, and let you easily incorporate your branding on the go. No big deal. 😉
Using a template will elevate any Story and add so. much. more. professionalism and visual appeal. And Unfold even has some video templates!
CANVA MOBILE
Last but certainly not least (you know I’m a Canva diehard!), Canva mobile helps you create branded posts on the go. Because let’s get real – the life of a Realtor can be a little hectic and unpredictable! Canva mobile allows you to access all of your pre-designed elements and posts directly on your smartphone (perfect for those days when you’re on the go or forgot to post!) and skip the extra step of emailing yourself your designs.
These 5 apps are HUGE time-savers and will help ensure consistency in both your overall branding and your social media strategy. Download them today and I promise you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them!!
