Instagram reached the impressive milestone of over 1 billion monthly active users, and among those users are lots of Instagram content creators.
While this is amazing in so many ways, it also means that you have more competition, so you need a great strategy to stand out.
Growing your account running ads definitely works, but do you want to be constantly paying for growth?
It can be tough to decide which tools you will be using to create your content or check in-depth data from your posts, but we got your back and put together a list of the best tools out there.
The tools below will help you create unique content, boost your social media presence, automate your Instagram dm and drive more engagement.
The best apps for Instagram marketing
Display Purposes
Display Purposes is a web tool that helps creators generate hashtags for their content.
Hashtag management is tricky and this tool fills in useful hashtags related to the ones you write down, making it easier to include new hashtags in your posts.
There is also a manual mode that will provide a list of relevant hashtags, which you can then copy and paste to your list.
Price: Free.
Iconosquare
We heavily recommend Iconosquare if you want to manage your content effectively.
You can use this tool to schedule posts and stories for Instagram and Facebook, check your analytics and real-time engagement.
As an Instagram content creator, you should always be checking your analytics, even on the go. The real-time monitoring is awesome because of this
Another amazing feature is Conversations, which will show you what people are talking about in your posts.
They also provide you information on the competitors, so you can study how to improve based on what they are doing.
Price: $59/month
Phlanx
Phlanx is perfect for the Instagram content creator who wants to get started in influencer marketing.
It’s hard to get started and to find the right influencer to promote your campaign, you need to be aligned on content and personality, Phlanx will get you that perfect match.
In addition to that, their UI is really easy to navigate and the search tools are extremely helpful.
Take note that while the tool works wonders, their support team is not that responsive, so questions you might have could take a couple of days to be answered.
Price: $50/month
ShortStack
ShortStack is one of the most used tools for creating and managing contests on Instagram.
As an Instagram content creator you should definitely consider starting a hashtag contest as this will boost your page with followers and user-generated content that you can use for quite a while.
ShortStack helps you running this type of contest effectively, all you have to do is choose the hashtags and follow the instructions on the website using one of their landing page templates with your rules, and set up a form for content submission.
After that is done people will join the contest and ShortStack will work things out for you and choose a winner randomly.
They do offer a free trial, so you can test it out and see if it works for you!
Price: Starts at $99/month
The best apps for Instagram design
Snapseed
Snapseed is a photo-editing app created by Google, you can do great work on your photos and fine-tune them with brushes as you would on Lightroom or Photoshop.
One of my favorite features, however, is Stacks. You will edit a photo and save what you did as a template, which you will then apply to other photos, similar to what you can do in Lightroom, but for free.
With this, the tool ensures you’re posting aesthetically consistent content and you won’t have to spend a lot of time on each photo.
Download Snapseed on Android, and iOS.
Price: Free
Later
Later is an amazing tool that helps you as an Instagram content creator in organizing your feed.
You will be able to create content with aesthetics consistent with your brand identity, and schedule posts using their handy visual interface, which includes a drag-and-drop feature.
It will be super easy to work with and you can even preview what your feed will look like to your audience.
This tool is especially useful for small brands or social media managers running up to 5 accounts.
The best thing about Later is that they have a free version if you are only managing one account.
One thing to note is that their premium plans only go up to 5 accounts, so you would need multiple subscriptions if you manage 6 or more accounts.
Price: Plans start at $15/month
Photoshop Express
Photoshop is great for photo editing and we all know that.
The mobile app is no different, even if it doesn’t come packed with all the features of the desktop application you will find great tools such as spot and dust removal and an overall retouch with a single tap.
One feature that I find amazing as a photographer is the ability to add a watermark to my photos from my phone, but you will also be able to access presets and filters very easily.
Download it on Android and iOS.
Price: Free
The best growth tool for every Instagram content creator
Nitreo
Needless to say, we recommend Nitreo to users who are looking for a tool that provides organic growth free of risk and effectively.
Nitreo puts your Instagram on autopilot, helping you get more Instagram followers. With a 97% customer satisfaction rate and multiple awards won – we guarantee you’ll be a happy Nitreo user.
Once you’ve categorized your account and synced your Instagram profile, you’re prompted to add at least 5 hashtags and 5 accounts that are similar to yours. Nitreo engages with hashtags you’ve added.
You also have access to other features:
- Target the right hashtags and users for you
- Use gender targeting to filter your audience
- Make suggestions and improvements over time
- Accurately log performance of each target
- Let your account manager jump in to refine your settings
Price: Starting at $49/month
Red is the content creator for this blog, working directly with the Nitreo team, he aims to help clients and Instagram users to optimize their content and metrics. He is also a photographer obsessed with urban photography and portraits, so you can expect a few posts about Instagram photography from time to time as well.
Red has worked as a Portuguese translator and interpreter for over 7 years, he also felt really weird writing this bio in the third person.