Instagram Stories is here to stay. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, you need a way to get the perfect photo or video size to make your media just right…or it looks bad.
In today’s protip, we’re showing you an easy to use app that helps you clean up your media, crop to fit inside Instagram Stories, and add some special effects to your toolbox.
Get InShot in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store
Why Instagram Stories?
What’s the big deal with Instagram stories? They disappear, you can’t link to them…what’s the point?
The reason is, younger generations were guinea pigs for social media. And when it came time for parenting and “adulting,” there was a vast history of embarrassing social media posts available to friends, family, potential dates, and even job interviewers.
People started spending too much time trying to get every post “just right” with the perfect smile, hair, and lighting. As a result, social media became too exhausting.
Then along came Snapchat as a platform that was completely volatile. And people were comfortable posting their “story” throughout the day without the worry of a post living forever. With that, social media became fun again.
And Instagram Stories “borrowed” that volatile idea and made it popular.
You can see how Justin and Dave use Instagram stories at their own profiles (Justin a little more)…
https://www.instagram.com/justinnava
https://www.instagram.com/davecurlee
The Key Benefits of Using Instagram Stories
For a church, Stories becomes a fun and low-pressure place to share your church culture through social media.
- Just like everyone else, you can post to Stories without needing 15 takes over 30 minutes to get it just right.
- You can see who is viewing your stories throughout the day.
- You can post numerous times a day without spamming your wall or cluttering the feed.
- If you do have a Story post that you like, you can easily make it a permanent post.
- You can add photos and videos you’ve previously taken to your Stories…which brings us to our tool of the day.
Introducing InShot for iPhone and Android
InShot is a mobile app that lets you edit your photos and videos to prepare them for Stories.
Stories uses a 9:16 aspect ratio, so it’s like a widescreen TV flipped on its side. If you have any widescreen or square pictures, uploading them to stories will aut0-zoom and break your composition.
InShot lets you crop, zoom, letterbox, and add special effects you can’t find inside of the native Instagram editor.
And InShot doesn’t just work for Instagram Stories, it will also give you editing options for all the popular social media platforms.
Why We Love InShot
- Edit your media easily on your phone (so you don’t have to send it your computer for editing).
- Premade layouts for all the social media aspect ratios.
- Special effects you can’t find inside of Instagram.
- Trim videos and add filters, stickers, music, and more.
Conclusion
Stories isn’t going anywhere. They went from Snapchat to Instagram, and now it’s even bleeding into Facebook.
It can seem a little daunting at first, but once you start using Stories, you’ll see it’s a whole new avenue to share your church life. And it’s a lot easier than planning your posts around an algorithm.
Use InShot to fix any media you want to use for Stories like filters, trimming, special effects, and correcting the aspect ratio.
InShot is free and definitely one app you want to keep in your toolbox.
Get InShot in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store
Have you used Instagram stories for your church? What are your favorite apps for getting your social media editing done? Let us know in the comments below!
