Hello, lovelies!
When I had that big giveaway for the sewing machine a few weeks, I was inundated with questions about how to use Instagram. So I’ve created a little video tutorial for how to use it and why you might want to use it.
Instagram is my absolute favorite way to connect with other quilters. I’ve made real friends there! Quilting can be a very isolating hobby, especially if you are like me and don’t have any guilds around where you live or don’t have any “real life” quilty friends. Instagram can be that place for you to get the feel of being in a group or community without ever leaving your home or even getting dressed. 🙂
Let’s dive in!
Overview
Reasons to use Instagram
- To connect with or be inspired by other quilters.
- To be eligible for the majority of giveaways that take place.
- To view and be inspired versions of a pattern.
Common words on Instagram
- Post – A post is just a picture that you create and add on Instagram. To “post” is the act of adding a picture on Instagram. It can have a caption, but it doesn’t have to. During quilt alongs (in mine anyway), you’ll need to post a picture of your progress using the correct hashtags to be eligible for giveaways.
- Story – A story is a video/picture/anything that lives on Instagram for only 24 hours and then disappears. This is nice for behind the scenes, family stuff, or anything you don’t want to live forever on Instagram.
- Reel – A reel is a short video up to 60 seconds, sometimes set to music. If you are familiar with TikTok, it’s the exact same thing. They are meant to be fun and entertaining.
- Home – Home is the place Instagram takes you immediately upon opening the app. This is where all the posts of people you follow are located. Stories of people you follow are across the very top of this page as well.
- Explore – The explore page is a page that has been curated by the algorithm of things Instagram thinks you will like.
- Profile – The button on the bottom right hand corner (features your profile pic) will take you to your profile. This is the place where you will “follow” accounts if you like.
- Follow – The big blue button near the top of everyone’s profile will allow you to follow them. By following an account, the posts of that account will then be viewable in your “home” screen.
- Hashtag – A type of filing system. They always begin with the # symbol and will have NO spaces within them. For example some hashtags that are pretty cool for quilters are #quiltersofInstagram #quilts #patchwork, etc. Use the hashtags in your posts, reels, and stories.
- Tag – Tagging someone in your posts will alert them to your posts. For example, if you made one of my patterns and tagged me I would get a notification about it. To tag someone, you put the @ symbol in front of their name. Again, NO spaces. For example, if you wanted to tag me, you’d type @southerncharmquilts .
- DM – This stands for direct message and is a PRIVATE message. I can’t tell you how many REAL friends I’ve made just by chatting with people a little each day in my DMs.
A few more things
Large accounts with a lot of activity or accounts who follow a lot of people might miss notifications. Instagram only shows you your last 100 notifications. So if you tag someone in your post and they never like or respond to it, this doesn’t mean they are ignoring you. It could very well be that they never even saw it. Always give people the benefit of the doubt on Instagram when it comes to seeing/liking your post. We are all humans and there is only so many hours in the day. There are days when my DMs get so full I can’t get to them all. This goes for comments as well. I try to respond to as many as I can, but sometimes my very best isn’t enough to achieve this.
Below is a few graphics to remind you of what’s what! I hope this helps you learn more about Instagram.
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