Instagram is one of the top social media platforms in the world today, and harnessing its potential means being able to reach tens of thousands of users, especially since Malaysia has more than 14 million Instagram users as of 2021.
Shocking, right?
The thing with Instagram is that it is a photo and video-sharing app with a number of unexplored tweaks and settings – all of which can prove to be wonderful assets to your official business account. The Instagram advanced settings is one of those indeterminate territories.
The advanced settings on Instagram can be rather hard to detect since it’s pretty well-hidden. Here, we’re going to lay out in a step-by-step fashion, how you can access these settings, why you need them, and what they can do for you.
How to Reach the Advanced Settings on Instagram
Having greater control over your Instagram post will only benefit you, especially if you use Instagram for business.
Let’s start with the million-dollar question: “where is advanced settings on Instagram?”
TLDR – the advanced setting on Instagram is not a readily available feature on your usual Instagram feed.
Instead, there is a specific tab for these settings – but you’ll have to go through some steps in order to access them. These steps are more or less your regular steps taken when you want to make a normal post.
Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Locate The ‘Plus’ Button
Usually, when we want to post any content on our Instagram account, be it a regular post, story, reel, or live, you’ll have to locate a box with a plus sign within it.
It can be found on the top right corner of your screen once you’ve logged into Instagram.
Step 2: Choose ‘Post’
Once you click the plus sign icon, a small drop-down menu will appear. From here, choose the ‘Post’ option to make a regular image or video content.
Step 3: Choose your Image/Video
Choose the image or short video that you want to upload. Once you’ve searched your gallery and settled on an image or video, proceed to the next step by clicking on the Next button.
This is the button that appears on the top right.
Step 4: Filter and Edit
Here, you can choose a filter for your image and also edit several image details like brightness, contrast, saturation, and the like. This step is optional, and you can leave your image as it is.
Once done, you may proceed to the next step with the arrow at the top right.
Step 5: The Final Page
On the final page before you post is where you can fill in captions, hashtags, and other details. It’s on this page that you will find the ‘Advanced Settings’ button.
Click on it and you’ll find the Instagram settings you’re looking for on your Instagram posts.
In the Advanced settings Instagram page, you’ll find several aspects of the post that you can tweak. Let’s find out how a few simple tweaks can help your social media marketing content perform better.
What Do The Advanced Settings Include?
Once you know how to get to advanced settings on Instagram, it’s time to find out what each element here does.
We’re going to briefly cover what each part in the advanced settings means.
Once you open the Advanced settings, you’ll see the following list of things. Needless to say, changing these elements will inherently change the nature of your post.
Hide Like and View Counts on This Post
This will make your likes and view counts invisible to your followers and the public. Knowing how to turn likes off on Instagram comes in pretty handy when you want less competition and more statistical privacy.
To turn off the like and view count, simply slide the button to the right until it turns bright blue.
Understand that once this option has been turned on, it is still reversible.
Turn off Commenting
Certain posts may invite unwanted comments, which can cause your content to be flagged. Turning off the comments can save you a lot of trouble. With this button turned on, users will not be able to leave comments at all on your post.
As with the previous option, it can be turned off at any time when you visit the menu at the top of your post. You can easily recognize it as it looks like a line of three vertical dots.
Share Your Instagram Posts to Facebook
Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta, so both equally popular social media sites are currently linked. If you have a business page on both these sites, creating and sharing your Instagram photos on both platforms will save you a lot of time.
This option also allows you to determine the privacy of your Instagram post on Facebook, whether you want it to be public, only me, or just shared among your friends.
Write Alt Text
This section allows you to write a brief description of your image, usually for the benefit of the visually impaired. Instagram alt texts ensure that your content is more inclusive, as it is generally an image-based medium.
When you use a descriptive alt text, it is one way of letting disabled users experience the Instagram app better.
Additionally, when you use the write alt text option, your image alt text will appear when images fail to load properly. This will allow users to still be able to understand what’s being presented, even if they don’t have adequate internet connection to fully load the image.
Let’s use this sample alt text from this Instagram post by One Search Pro Marketing as a demonstration.
Add Paid Partnership Label
This option is only for Instagram photos business accounts. It allows you to tag a business partner in your posts.
Minimum Age
Some accounts in certain locations also include the option to set a minimum age for viewers. This means that only users above a certain age will be able to view your content.
Keep in mind that the advanced setting options vary for different accounts, albeit the options listed above are generally the ones we see.
Can I Use Advanced Settings to Get High-Quality Photos?
The simple answer is no. The advanced settings in Instagram posts do not provide any options for you to upgrade your photo quality to a high-quality one.
Instagram does, however, have a system that automatically optimizes your image for the platform. This means that higher resolution images will be compressed to fit the platform, while images with lower pixel resolutions will be maintained in their original state.
In actual fact, the best way to ensure that your image is of a high quality, is to take photos with a high-quality camera and with a width of at least 1,080 pixels with an aspect ratio of between 1.91:1 and 4:5.
The same goes for Instagram video quality settings, whereby you should ensure that you take good quality videos as Instagram photos don’t have options for you to upgrade video quality. The best dimensions for your video are 1080px by 1920px.
Can Advanced Settings be Used to Completely Hide Like and View Counts?
Yes, and the option to do this is found in the Instagram post advanced settings. Just turn on the slider and you’ll be able to hide your likes and views from viewers.
Many Instagram post creators and business accounts find that hiding these statistics actually allows them increased space for creativity, as they do not have to think about gaining views all the time.
When you turn off the like and view count, users will only be able to see if any accounts they’re following have liked the post, but not the total number of people that have liked it.
What is Alt Text in Advanced Settings and How Do You Use It?
An alt text (which stands for alternative text) is basically an additional image description Instagram that you can add to your new Instagram post.
Usually, if you don’t edit alt text, the platform will use its A.I. with object recognition technology on the alt text feature and will write alt text on its own.
However, it is best if you edit alt text yourself on the Instagram alt text feature, as this will provide a more accurate alt text on Instagram posts for your content. Doing this means that you allow visually impaired users to browse your images better.
Understanding what is alt text on Instagram will give you an added edge. In order to know how to see alt text on Instagram posts, you first have to have a screen reader app for alt text on Instagram posts.
Instagram users can also turn on the built-in screen reader for both Android and iOS, not specifically for alt texts but any text that appears on the screen.
10 Tips to Increase your Instagram Post Engagement
Ultimately, knowing how to use Instagram posts to its fullest potential can significantly increase your brand’s reach and visibility.
In this following list, we will see some of the ways you can do this on your end as an Instagram account owner, be it a regular account or a business account.
Find the Best Time to Post
In general, the best time to post on Instagram would be between 10 am to 12 pm on a daily basis. However, this time frame differs from account to account, depending on who your target audience are.
One way to decide on an optimal posting time is to consult the analytics on your account available through the Insights tab for business accounts. There will be a section that presents audience statistics with the most active times displayed.
Use SEO for Instagram
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Instagram involves a series of actions that can make your content more visible when users search for a relevant term.
You can do this in many ways, including optimizing your bio for Instagram, using highly searched hashtags, using SEO keywords in your captions, and of course, editing your alt text.
Post up More Videos
Instagram allows account holders to upload videos as regular posts, and studies have found that users tend to engage with videos more, as compared to still images.
Therefore, make it part of your social media content marketing strategy to vary your content and include videos too.
Go Live for Your Followers
Many popular Instagram influencers go live in order to engage with their fans or followers. Live sessions allow you to get to know your followers better, and allow them to engage with you too.
Some activities to do can include asking questions, having discussions, conducting tutorials, and more.
Use Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are pretty affordable, and they will help your content reach a wider audience. You can determine your own ad campaign, including who your target audience is, and where your ads will appear.
Instagram ads can appear in the middle of a user’s feed, on their stories, or on the Explore page.
Drive Traffic to Your Website
Website traffic is very important for any business, as it is often the basis for conversion. This means that the more website traffic you get, the higher the chances that these visitors will become sales or customers.
Further reading: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website
You can do this in a few ways, and the easiest is to place links to your site on your Instagram captions, stories, or bio.
Add Closed Captions or Subtitles to Your Videos
This will help your videos reach more people who speak a different language. Having captions in the language spoken on video will also be very inclusive and allow hearing-impaired users to interact with it too.
Use Trending Hashtags
Keeping track of which hashtags are trending on Instagram can be useful to you. You can do this by going to the Explore section, or using the autocomplete function on the search bar.
However, you should be careful not to practice hashtag stuffing, and only use those that are relevant to your post.
Use More User-Generated Content
The best way to encourage more users to engage with your page is actually to give them a chance to shine. You can do this by featuring images sourced from your followers, such as from a competition or a weekly program.
Include a CTA
A call to action should be included in most of your content if you’re a brand. These can take the form of a request, an encouragement, or a recommended next step. Some examples include ‘Contact Us’, ‘Learn More’, ‘Buy Now’, and so on.
Instagram is a Vibrant Place for Marketing
Knowing how the advanced settings work and what they do increases your control over your content on Instagram. Ultimately, you want to make Instagram a pathway for funneling people to your site and converting these to sales, while also increasing brand awareness.
For a full suite of strategies that you can employ, why not talk to us? Our expert social media consultants have been helping brands big and small build their reach on Instagram, and we can help you too!
