Most photos on Instagram use a square format, although you can make photos portrait or landscape as a rare exception. So you'll want to create content with this in mind. When you are adding a post, you can use the two arrows in the bottom corner of your screen to switch between square and portrait/landscape modes. You can see in the example below that even though part of the image will be cropped in the square mode, it better fills the screen and looks better overall.
You can add to your story by clicking the plus sign in the upper left hand corner of the screen next to your profile photo. Unlike regular posts, stories use a portrait orientation, which means you won't need to crop your content. Instead, you'll have a host of new options and features to choose from.
Instagram Reels are based on the popular TikTok platform and allow users to upload 30 seconds of content that they think might go viral, accompanied by music.
Successful reels are likely to tie into an existing trend, so creating good reels will involve being active on Instagram and/or TikTok and watching for a trend that you can adapt for your own purposes.
The advantage to creating reels versus any other kind of Instagram content is that Instagram is far more likely to show your reel to a user who does not already follow you than to show any of your other content to them.
To create a reel, you can use the plus button on the main screen and choose reels from the bottom of the screen. Then, you'll be given a set of options along the left hand side, such as for audio, reel length, and effects.
Along the bottom of the screen are the options to add a photo from your camera or to flip the camera around if desired.
Instagram is a visual platform. Thus anything you post needs to be visually interesting.
Content that works well on Instagram:
Captions:
Stories:
Reels:
Algorithm:
With every post, make sure to use appropriate hashtags. Decide on what hashtags you'd like to be standard to represent your library and then add more from there. Here are some examples of hashtags you might use. You can search for a hashtag on Instagram to see what others are posting before you create your post.
| #YourLibraryName | #YourCampusName | #BookFace | #LiteraryCharacters | #Finals | #Puzzles | #LibraryFaces |
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| #SundayRead | #MondayMotivation | #TipTuesday | #WhereIsItWednesday | #tbt | #FactFriday | #WeekendVibes |
| #ShelfieSunday | #MotivationMonday | #TechTuesday | #WhiteboardWednesday | #FridayFun | ||
| #SpotlightSunday | #MovieMonday | #FunFriday | ||||
| #SundaySpotlight | #FridayReads |