Visually driven social media platform Instagram has numerous commonly known features, but there are also many that aren’t as well-known — even to the app’s power users.
Some of them are especially useful to real estate agents who want to save time and make their pictures have maximum impact.
Reorder filters, and find frequent choices faster
Instagram offers a huge assortment of filters that help users enhance their photos. Some of them brighten or darken certain sections of pictures or make colors more prominent, and those changes could all make homes look more flattering or draw attention to areas of property images.
Instagram handily offers ways to reorder filters and make the most-used picks easier to find.
Just click and hold on one until it gets dim, then drag it to a different position. There’s also a “Manage” tool at the far right of the filter list. It reorders filters all at once in a secondary window.
Hide filters to stop swiping through useless ones
Instagram also offers a way to conceal filters that aren’t helpful. To hide a filter, click and hold on one you don’t want to see.
Then, you’ll notice an “X” inside a square appear on the main image, along with the words “Drag to Hide.” While continuing to hold down on the image, drag it into that icon, which will hide it.
Revealing hidden filters after going through the process above is easy. It involves going to the “Manage” section of the filter list.
A list appears there, and visible filters have checkmarks next to them. Tapping a hidden one will make the checkmark reappear.
Stop some users from seeing an Instagram Story
Instagram’s Stories feature allows users to create a photo or video that only lasts 24 hours. Due to the timely nature of Instagram stories, they’re excellent for boosting interest in an open house on a short-term basis.
However, agents may want to prevent some users — such as competitors — from viewing the Instagram Stories they post.
To do that, they should select the gear icon on their profiles to access “Settings.”
Below the area referencing account options, there’s a “Story Settings” section. Clicking “Hide Story From” provides a field for users to input Instagram usernames. Click the “Done” link to save those settings.
Schedule posts to appear across multiple social media networks at once
Numerous tools bring synchronization to Instagram by allowing content to post to other networks simultaneously. CoSchedule can do that, along with Zoho Social and many others. One secondary app called Social Report offers a scheduling queue.
It’s possible to post to Instagram via email or text message, but distributing identical content across other platforms is time-consuming.
Agents should conduct thorough research to determine which social media publishing tools work best for them. Fortunately, there are plenty of options because Instagram is such a popular platform.
Approve tagged posts before they’re publicly visible
Real estate professionals are accustomed to people taking photos of homes just before buying or selling them. It’s pretty common for clients to ask if the real estate specialists want to be in the photo, especially if they’re grateful for the help in purchasing or selling a property.
Afterward, they may tag the person, which makes the image automatically appear on the tagged individual’s profile.
In many cases, that’s OK, but there may be instances when professionals in the real estate sector would prefer a delay that allows for approval first.
For example, maybe a real estate firm wants to promote its involvement in a high-profile property transaction and must keep the news about it under wraps until the official announcement gets sent out.
After tweaking settings, agents can set up their profiles and make it so tagged photos no longer appear in their feeds without approval. They should tap the three dots in the top right corner of the on-screen material.
Doing that brings up various options. The section called “Photos of You” has a “Tagging Options” area with “Add Automatically” or “Add Manually” choices.
Selecting the latter permits an Instagram account owner to approve or deny posts before they appear to others. After receiving a notification about being tagged in a photo, the person will have to tap the photo, then his or her username.
Then, they should pick either “Show on My Profile” or “Hide From My Profile,” depending on preferences.
Share instagram videos or without audio
Property-related Instagram videos don’t require audio unless a person adds dialogue to describe what’s happening. Sounds can be distracting, but Instagram provides a method to mute them in the content.
To mute audio, users should tap the plus (+) icon on the bottom of the screen, select the video, then choose “Next.”
That action makes a volume slider appear, and dragging it all the way to the left mutes the audio. It’s also possible to do the same with an Instagram story. In that case, there’s a volume button on the top of the screen.
Whether real estate agents use Instagram often, or are just going through a trial period with it, these little-known techniques could improve the experience. They can also help boost reputation and business, too.
Kayla Matthews covers smart technology and future trends for websites like VentureBeat, Curbed and Motherboard. You can read more posts by Kayla on her personal tech blog: Productivity Bytes.
