10 free Instagram tools for PR pros and marketers

Instagram has become a must-have channel for PR and marketing pros’ social media strategies.

It is one of the world’s top networking sites, with more than 700 million monthly active users; more than 400 million are active daily. In addition, more than 250 million stories are shared each day.

Recent updates include Instagram ads, Instagram Stories and Instagram Business Tools.

Whether you want to find the most relevant hashtags, design stories, schedule posts or analyze metrics, these tools can help improve your Instagram influence and boost your follower base.

Here are some free tools to increase your Instagram following:

1. Canva

Canva’s drag-and-drop interface offers more than a million photographs, graphics and fonts so you can design professional layouts and stunning graphics. Learn how to improve your content marketing with Canva.

2. Buffer

Buffer helps you manage your social media platforms. Because Instagram doesn’t allow outside apps such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social to post directly to Instagram, with Buffer’s Instagram support, you can create an Instagram reminder.

Buffer Instagram support can remind you when to post; it sends a notification to your phone and loads a photo into Instagram with your pre-written caption. Learn more about you can pre-write your Instagram post via Buffer.

3. Hootsuite

As with Buffer, you can schedule Instagram posts. You can also manage Instagram and other social media platforms from a single dashboard.

[RELATED: Learn how to boost buzz, build brand recognition and engage employees on the hottest social media platforms.]

4. SpoutSocial

With Sprout Social, you can schedule posts, manage comments, monitor hashtags and analyze reports.

5. StoriesAds

HubSpot and Shakr, a video creation platform for modern advertisers, launched StoriesAds in April 2017. It’s a tool for creating video content tailored to Instagram’s vertical format. The website says it can be done in less than two minutes. It is free for a limited time.

6. UNUM

This free app with curated themes enables you to schedule, edit and theme your personal Instagram account or your brand account.

7. Later

This marketing platform is based on the notion that there should be “a simpler way to plan your visual content marketing.” It helps you plan and schedule Instagram posts.

8. Repost

This tool makes it easy to repost favorite photos or videos via Instagram, automatically giving credit to the original poster.

9. SquareLovin

SquareLovin is an in-depth analytics tool to help you gauge “likes,” comments per post and follower growth. You can analyze your account and access more-advanced analytics.

10. KeyHole

KeyHole is a real-time Instagram hashtag tracker. It also tracks Twitter and offers a simple visual dashboard. Learn how to use Instagram hashtags to maximize your exposure.

PR Daily readers, what’s your favorite free Instagram tool, and how do you improve your influence on the platform?

Matthew Royse is a digital marketing director of Forsythe Technology, a global IT firm in Chicago. A version of this article originally appeared on his blog, Knowledge Enthusiast.

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