A Picture is worth a thousand words, Instagram how-tos

Each day, 1.2 billion people around the world use social media and two million advertisers utilize these sites to market their brand. Instagram alone has 500 million active monthly users. For beginners, posting on complex platforms like Instagram can get quite confusing and frustrating at times. Do NOT fret; that’s where we come in! Since we adore your partnership with us here at OverDrive, we want to help you connect with your users and enhance your digital checkouts as much as possible. How you might ask? Let us break it down for you by chapter.

Chapter 1: Instagram for beginners

Important things to know:

• The platform can only be used via a mobile smart phone
• It allows you to post photos and videos (e.g. digital content, special events, contests, etc.)
• Permits users to include the location of their photo for additional public marketing
• Includes a space under the photo or video for “captions” or descriptions
• Much, much more

Chapter 2: Don’t make them read

We understand that your goal is to push people to read and reach their fullest potential. Social media (Instagram in particular) is mainly used for photo sharing with short descriptions of the post. In order to explain what exactly we mean by this, we tried to make it easy for you… To help with your social media marketing strategy, we have created a social media campaign that will show you not only suggestions on what to post, but also some images created for YOU.

Chapter 3: Let’s get “whizzy”

OverDrive knows quite a bit about technology and we want to help you learn too! Here is a step-by-step process to help you become a whiz at Instagram:

1. On the home screen, click the plus icon at the bottom of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the screen, you can choose to upload a previous photo/video (click on Library) or take a new photo/video (click on Photo or Video). NOTE: Feel free to share multiple photos/videos at once or make a collage of photos using the icons in the right corner of the upload screen.
   
3. Click Next at the top of the screen
4. Apply filters to add a little fun to your image and spice it up for your readers! (recommended)
5. Click Next at the top of the screen
6. Add a caption or description of the photo by clicking into the box that says Write a Caption.

7. You could stop there, but why not add a few extras to make your post even more discoverable? Tag your library, an author, an organization, or anyone you please by clicking Tag People.
8. Click Done.
9. Click Add Location and search for your library’s name or address so people can visit!
10. Click Done.
11. You can link your library’s Facebook or Twitter account before posting to share there as well.
12. Click Share and vaoila! You’ve done it.

Chapter 4: Check your work

In order to review your post or get a sneak peek into how others can find your posts, there are a few simple steps:

1. When back at the home page, click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom left.
2. At the top of the page, click inside the bar that says Search.
3. Type in your library’s name, any key words/phrases, hashtags or locations that you included in your post.
4. Click Search at the bottom right
5. At the top of the page there are 4 tabs: Top, People, Tags, Places. Click on these to filter and narrow down your search.
6. Click on the option that was included in your post and you can scroll through to find yours!

Epilogue: Congrats!

You have now become an Instagram whiz! You now know about the platform, what works in a post, how to post it and even how to track your marketing on the site to see it in action. We believe that these small, frequent changes in your marketing campaign can have a large impact on your library outreach as well as your user engagement. So grab another cup of coffee, put on your creative hat and start connecting. Happy Posting!