Steps to connect Instagram app with Facebook

To begin with go to Options in your Instagram App. You can access options by clicking on the three black dots on the top right on profile page.

Under Options scroll down to go to settings. Here you will find Linked Accounts under Settings.

The account linking options to various social media is listed. If your social option is not in the list, then it cannot be connected. Facebook option is right on top.

On clicking Facebook, you will be asked to login to your Facebook account. A further prompt will ask confirmation for posting on Facebook. This is basically a request from Facebook.

Once the linkup is complete, Facebook options in Instagram app will show the following.

Sharing options for Facebook

Facebook is a sharing your activities on a timeline with friends and followers. If you have just a Facebook account, then your Instagram pictures or videos go straight to your timeline. They can be read by your friends and followers or everybody as per your privacy settings.

But in case of bloggers, most of us have a Facebook page too. In my case, I have two Facebook pages which are shown in the options below timeline. All the pages where you are the owner or admin will be shown under timeline. You can now change the place where the Instagram post will be displayed.

Note that Instagram post can only be shown either on the timeline or page, but not both.

The final check

Once connecting Instagram with Facebook Page is completed, we can check how it posts on Facebook. As per our setting it should post on the Facebook page and not on the Timeline.

Facebook provides a simple set of instructions to follow while linking the Facebook account with Instagram

https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/356902681064399?helpref=uf_permalink

The post How to connect Instagram with Facebook Page appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Date of review : Mid 2016

What is Pinterest

Pinterest is your personal collection of pinup boards. To use Pinterest, a user has to login.  If you dont want to use Email and Password for login, they provide Facebook login. Joining Pinterest is free and as on 2016, all services of Pinterest are free. Only time will tell whether the services remain free or business priorities take over.  After joining Pinterest, you can start with your first board and populate it with pins.

Difference between a board and a pin

A board is similar to a notice board or a pinup board where you can place pictures or printouts or any printed matter. Boards display information for a finite duration. As a Pinterest user, your virtual board can have permanent material or you may refresh it to server fresh content to your followers.

A pin is the material which you place on a board. In case of Pinterest, it is a photograph, an info graphic or a video clip. So in short, number of pins can be placed on a board. A Pinterest user can have any number of boards.

Adding a pin to a board

Pinterest allows a user to upload an image to a board or to pick up an image from a webpage by entering a URL. Once you enter the URL and click next, Pinterest displays all images from that webpage and allows you to pick the image to pin up.

This feature is specially useful to photo bloggers who can first publish a post of images or gallery and then use Save from Website button to add all or selected images to the board.

There are three clickable area as highlighted above.

• First the entire image links to the web page or blog post from where it was picked up by Pinterest using the ‘Save from a website’ option.
• Second is the Visit button which links to the web page again from where the image was picked up from.
• Third is the description which was entered for the pin, and now has published in a clickable link.

Pinterest however advocates the use of the browser button for the best experience. This button is available for major browsers and adds the image in a similar manner.

Pinterest Setting and Profile

Settings and Profile is the editable part of Pinterest. Settings is the all encompassing place to control the following options.

• Business Account Basic. Contains info like email address, contact name and the all important Delete Account button.
• Profile. Here user can have a username, business name, profile photo and link to your website.
• Notifications. To keep you updated with happening on your boards.
• Home Feed. To show recommended boards.
• Social Networks. Used to link up with social network. Bloggers be careful of not to overdo it.
• Apps. To manage any linked apps.

Bloggers should take care to linkup their blog.

Pinterest Analytics

Analytics feature is free at this time. It gives you minute details on how many hits a user had on a particular board and the details of the visit. Analytics are in detail and hence useful to a blogger to track pins.

Widgets

Developers section provides tools to prepare widgets for your website. Save Button, Follow Button, Pin, Board or Profile can be created to display on your blog/website.

Pinterest is a World Catalogue rather than a Social Network website. All similar web applications are marching towards a social network design. Pinterest has decided to stand apart by showing off their USP, a Pin Up.

Save

The post The Blogger and Pinterest (dis)connect appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Date of review : Mid 2016

Difference between a Facebook account and Facebook page

Simply put in, the Facebook Account is for people who are your friends, while the Facebook Page is for people who are your customers. While as a blogger, you can choose to use only the account to link up with friends and post links to your blog articles. But eventually you will the saturation point of either adding more friends who may or may not be interested in friendship and/or reading your blog.

Facebook Page on the other hand is designed keeping business interests in mind. It has a large number of tools to showcase your business to your customers. Facebook is constantly upgrading and adding more features to the page for business. For bloggers using a Facebook Page the following things are essential.

• A brief about your blog
• A brief about yourself
• A gallery of your images
• A link to your blog
• Profile picture and Cover Page
• Name and Username
• Phone Number and Email Address

Difference between a Name and Username

A Username will be displayed in the format as a URL.

A username is searchable by appending the character @. It will also be displayed under the name. So in the above example, soonev is the username while the name for the page has been given as soonev.com.

A username has to be available to be claimed. Once claimed, it can be changed, but it will take some time so that it is available for others.

Selecting a name will be governed by the policy guidelines of for names.

Insights

Insights as the name suggests, gives you analysis on each activity that your page has encountered with the audience. It shows the organic and paid hits clearly. Insight also covers page activity like which info was accessed by visitors.

Publishing Tools

Publishing tools allow user to schedule the publish of a post. It also gives a snapshot of details of each post. There are a lot of tools available for business users. Explore and tune each setting so that it can help your blog the best.

Save

Save

Save

The post The Blogger and Facebook (dis)connect appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

What is Instagram

Instagram is primarily a smart phone app. It has been designed to be used only on a smart phone. Photos can either be clicked though the phone camera or can be selected from the gallery. The front camera is the primary instrument of choice for selfies which are quite popular on Instagram.

Copyright and privacy concerns have been given the highest importance and hence you cannot download images from Instagram, not even your own images.

How to use Instagram

Primarily two steps involved over here

• Uploading of images
• Following friends or people with similar interests

Instagram has Five primary buttons at the bottom to help you navigate through the app.

• Home button where the images and videos of people you follow appear as they keep posting.
• Search button to find everything from People, Tags and Places. It also displays search history.
• Camera button. This one is aptly placed in the center for easier access. It allows you to click photos, videos or choose from the gallery.
• Like button shows you history of likes of your followers and you.
• Profile button where you can see images uploaded by you as a gallery and also profile settings.

The design is clutter free and easy to use. When you see images or clips posted by the people whom you follow you can either like them or comment on them. The like button is in the shape of a heart and once you click on it the heart shape turns red. You can also send a direct message to your follower or friend. You can also selectively turn on notifications for specific people.

How can bloggers use Instagram

In case of Bloggers it is all about connecting and links. Both are dealt with in a subtle manner in Instagram. Check out the following options available to Bloggers

In the profile, Instagram allows a link to your website. The link is clickable and opens the website in the mobile browser of the user.

It also allows you to display your user name and a brief about yourself and your profile picture. All this can give instant recognition to a Blogger. You can connect with social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook and your photos or clips are posted there too. You need to link your accounts and give necessary permissions first.

First you choose a photo from the gallery, next key in the key information like location, description and tag people and you can also choose which social account it can be posted as an Instagram upload.

After the image is uploaded, it is visible in your feed and also to the social account where it was linked.

# and @ on Instagram

@ tag is for people and # tag is for posts, to put it simply. In case of hash tag or # tag, Instagram will allot a page to the tag so that all the posts which mention that tag will come on the same page. Tags are another powerful weapon in the arsenal when bloggers use Instagram.

In case of the above image, I have inserted the hash tag thetimelock. It can be inserted in the image info or comment. Here is how the results are visible in Instagram.

To understand hash tag in detail here is a FAQ from the official Instagram help.

https://help.instagram.com/351460621611097

The @ tag is linked with people using Instagram. So when you use @ and start typing in the name of a person, it will be visible in the search results. Same like # tag you can use the @ tag in a comment or in the image info.

Conclusion and Summing Up

Many bloggers use Instagram to showcase their post. A blogger can use Instagram to connect with people and with its clutter free design, it is sure to attract more attention to your picture.

The post How bloggers use Instagram appeared first on Start Blog Writing.