This is a quick post to share two bits of information about Instagram with you.
I really enjoy Instagram. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of it but now that I have spent a considerable (probably way too much) time on Instagram, I have become quite a fan. I like all of the visual inspiration and as always, the quilting and crafting community couldn’t be nicer or more supportive. So, here you go, two interesting tidbits of Instagram knowledge!
Instagram Spammers –
The first tip has to do with creepy, spam loving weirdos who try to follow you. It’s awful, right? For a long time, I would see these weird guys following my feed. I was pretty darn sure they were not quilters, sewists or crafters. Ugh. Each time I saw a new one, I reported it to IG and blocked the guy. Getting more and more irritated, I posted the picture you see above (a screen shot of one of the weirdos) to my IG feed. Turns out lots of us are dealing with this nonsense. When I posted the screenshot and asked others for their input, I got so many comments from Instagram users who experience the same thing. But one person, @buttoncounter, suggested I change my profile picture. She said if I used a picture of something other than my face, the spamming would stop. Guess what? She is spot on correct! I changed over to a quilt picture rather than my face and I have not had one since.
I should add that I don’t really think these spammy followers are of any danger but they are really annoying. If you see one, just report it by clicking on their name which will take you to their profile page. Click on the three dots to the right of their name. Select “Report”. Instagram will receive your notice that this is a spam follower. That account will not have visibility of your account any longer. Another alternative is to have a private Instagram account which means anyone wanting to follow you has to be given access by you. This isn’t a great option for me as I want to use my Instagram feed for both my blog and fabric shop so I want people to be able to easily access my feed. Changing the picture was key. No more nonsense! Let me know if you have any questions.
Determining Instagram Contest Winners –
The second tip is relevant to those who use their Instagram account for business. I have held a couple of fun giveaways on Instagram and it was a pain to figure out the winner. If you have 300 entrants and number 101 was selected as the winner, I had to count comments until I got to the right person. It was difficult to be entirely accurate while trying to scroll through comments, count and not lose track! I was playing around with the comments, trying to figure out an easier, more accurate method. Finally I found I could copy the comments into Excel. For some reason, I didn’t really think the comments would be something I could copy and paste. I had success doing this on a Windows laptop. I couldn’t do it on the iPad though. It took me a while to figure this out because I don’t normallylook at Instagram on my laptop. It is a mobile device application and looking at it on a laptop is clumsy. But for this specific purpose, it is fantastic. If you decide to give this a try, make sure to load all of the comments for the giveaway post. Then click on the first one, drag all the way down until you highlight all of the comments. Copy them and paste into a blank Excel page. Your comments will load, one per line and then they are numbered for you. You can easily verify you copied all of them by checking the total number of comments on the Instagram contest postand the total number of comments copied into Excel. Picking a winner, and then figuring out who it is, has become a very quick process. Now that I have this down, I suppose I will just have to hold more giveaway contests!
While these are not life-changing tips, hopefully they will help a few people out there! As always, feel free to ask questions or give input via the comments.
Thanks! I just added Instagram this morning so your first top is great! I haven’t added a picture yet but will add a quilt one instead of a “me” picture!
Thanks for the IG tips.
I am changing my picture today! THANK YOU!
Thanks for the tip on the spammers. They drive me nuts. I block them, but hadn’t thought to report them too. Should be easy to change my pic.
Great ideas Bernie.
I will change my instagram photo too
I do not like spammy spammers
Thanks for the IG tips! I have never hosted an IG giveaway due to the reason of counting entries, thanks!
For sure! It was a pesky task but now it is so simple. I tried it with Facebook but those comments don’t load as one line per comment so it didn’t work. But it is great for IG.
Thanks for the tip – i have had so many of those creepy male followers that I have blocked. I changed my photo today!!!
Happy to share the info with you!!
Great tips, especially counting the comments!
Thanks for the tips. I really don’t know how to use IG even though I have an account. FB seems so much simpler to me. I wish I had a teenager around to show me! 😆
Teenagers are the best for helping with technology!
Great tip! I went up to my instagram account and popped in a quilty picture! 🙂 I also decided to change my user name to something that was more obviously quilty. II don’t think I have links to my instagram in a bunch of places (like a blogger would), so it shouldn’t cause problems!
Thanks so much Bernie. I’ve been on IG about a month and the past week I’ve received a whole lot of creepy spammy follows. It was putting me off but now I know what to do!
How bizarre that creepy guys would think that Instagram is a good place to pick up women! From around the country (or the world?) no less. Does this actually work for any of them? Would make a fascinating sociological study! Good idea about changing the picture. I already have a quilt block so students have a harder time finding me. The idea about the comments is fantastic and would even work for blog giveaways since I have no idea how to number those comments. I’ve always just counted, but this will make things much easier!
I haven’t had anything as specific as your creepy msn but I have had a lot of creepy males follow who I block and weirdly a lot of porn queens !
My daughter tells me they are probably spam accounts where they can claim they have a bigger following than they actually have . Still creepy
Weirdly again , they come in runs