 |
Last Updated on September 26, 2021 by Rajeev Bagra
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I was also compensated to create this post, though all opinions are my own.
A. Digital World as combination of hardware, software, and content
C. Demo of Tailwind Create for Instagram
D. How Tailwind and Instagram relate to audience and end users
A. Digital World as combination of hardware, software, and content
Hardware: While on the World Wide Web using a website or app, hardware is most often taken care of by web hosting service providers (like GoDaddy, Liquid Web, and WP Engine/cloud computing firms like AWS, Azure, and IBM), internet service providers (like Verizon and Jio). The device that we use including PC, laptop, or smartphone is also hardware.
Software: Can be custom made for one’s own firm, open source (Linux, WordPress, PHP), or proprietary (Windows, SiteCore, MatLab). Social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Instagram also come under the proprietary software category. So are accompanying web tools like Tailwind about which we will be taking a look at later in this article.
Content: It is the content that finally helps accomplish the final objective, which can be a blog post explaining how to save money for retirement making use of hosting services by AWS (hardware) on a WordPress site (software) read by me on my Android smartphone (hardware). Similarly, a movie (audiovisual content) uploaded on YouTube (software) while hosted (hardware) by Google. Even while making an online payment, in addition to supporting software and hardware, you need text content while filling the form that asks users to fill fields before pressing the final Submit button. So fields and buttons such as Submit are text contents and vital to accomplish the final objective, which for this example transferring money successfully.
Content can be categorized under four categories: Text, Audio, Images, and Videos (audiovisual).
Most of the time, there is an overlap. For instance, blog post on a WordPress site with text of 500 words accompanied by images and videos. An audio file can also be embedded with the post.
When it comes to social media:
Linkedin/Facebook/Twitter: Predominantly text based content with overlap of images and videos.
Podcasting is based around audio dictations, interviews.
YouTube popular for video or audio visual content.
Pinterest/Instagram: Image sharing tools with also video uploads.
There is the presence of text in all of the above. You need to have a suitable heading and description for your YouTube video, a podcast hosted on your own site or podcasting platform such as Podbean, as well Pinterest and Instagram posts and stories. The same also has a significant effect on the rankings by search engines as search engines like Google and Yahoo rely on headings/hashtags (text-based) in order to understand the published stuff and rank. Hashtags also help determine search results on Pinterest and Instagram.
B. Design and schedule SEO-friendly, high-quality images on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook with Tailwind Create
Tailwind is a social media scheduling tool that helps optimize your social media endeavors on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Along with Tailwind Communities (for Pinterest) and Smart.bio (for Instagram), Tailwind Create is a newly added feature that was first introduced for Pinterest late last year and now Instagram and Facebook.
With Tailwind Create, just with an URL of your blog post/web page, you instantly generate hundreds of high-quality images for Instagram (posts and stories), Pinterest (Pins), and Facebook (posts) all at the same time (Facebook scheduling coming soon).
Each image will be a high-quality design adhering to the default logo, brand color, tagline (SUPERCHARGE YOUR GLOW on the left with purple as brand color and ELISE DAILY, ART COLLECTION & PRINTS on the right above with a mix of yellow orange). Select few designs that you find more compelling (which will be challenging given all will appear eye-catching) and tweak color, tagline, or anything for extra refining. Say instead of ART COLLECTION & PRINTS, you want ART COLLECTION DOWNLOAD for one design with shades of green.
To keep you on safe side, you are restricted with five for an idea for the reason of risk of being labeled as spam.
To begin with, you should be having a Pinterest/Instagram/Facebook account. This is something you need to do from the website/app of the respective social media. Though I assume you must be having your own Pinterest/Instagram/Facebook account, still, we all start from somewhere.
Sign up for Pinterest. It is suggested to opt for Pinterest for Business, which is also free but comes with more features including better analytics. It is not mandatory that you have to furnish a proof of business. So,even if you are running a small blog or sharing referral/affiliate links through social media, you should sign up for Pinterest for Business. You can always switch from personal Pinterest account to Pinterest for Business and vice versa.
Sign up for Instagram. Just like Pinterest, we recommend to opt for Instagram for Business (professional account) which too free and gives access to business tools including better analytics and CTA (Call To Action) buttons.
Sign up for Facebook. Similar to Pinterest and Instagram, we suggest creating a business page.
C. Demo of Tailwind Create for Instagram Feed Post
Signup for Tailwind. There is a forever free plan.
Tailwind being a web-based app, you can access functionalities of this tool best on a web browser while on desktop/laptop and preferably on Chrome browser. Firefox and Safari also supported but not IE, Opera, or Edge. Also available are Android and iOS apps that are effective when on move.
For this demo, I am using Chrome browser while on a Windows laptop.
Connect your Instagram account with Tailwind. Since my account is already connected, I am referring to this tutorial that shows how you can add or connect not just one but multiple Instagram accounts (of yourself and clients) with one Tailwind account. So no need to log in with different account credentials.
Connect your Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook accounts with Tailwind.
Once logged in, you can switch from Tailwind for Pinterest to Tailwind for Instagram by one click (Manage Accounts) from the main dashboard.
The first thing that you should do after connecting your Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook account with Tailwind is to set Brand Settings that will also help in your Tailwind Create designs.
Click on Tailwind Create, Start Creating.
Under Design Settings, enter URL of the blog post/product or any web page that you want to share as part of the idea.
You get here images published on the blog post/web page (submitted URL) which you can select or ignore as part of your Tailwind Create design.
With Tailwind Create, there is no need to use other photo editing tools. Yes, Canva is great, but for Pinterest/Instagram/Facebook, I no more use Canva. Unlike Canva or similar tools in which you first design each image individually, with Tailwind Create, you get hundreds of instant designs based on combining pictures already published with the URL, selecting images from stock photos, uploading from your device. Instead of optimizing sizes for Pinterest/Instagram/Facebook individually, this is by default taken care of by Tailwind.
Choose from Instagram Feed Posts, Instagram Stories, Pinterest Pins, and Facebook Feed Posts (scheduling for Facebook posts coming soon). For this demo, I am keeping limited to Instagram Feed Posts.
Once you choose the desired images from Site Photos/Stock Photos/Photo Upload, click Create Images.
Now comes the magic of Tailwind Create. You get instant access to hundreds of unique, high-quality designs.
Select up to five images/designs despite tens and hundreds readily available and all attractive. I have selected three for this demo. You are restricted with five for the reason of risk of being labeled as spam.
The chosen three designs (for the idea) are now sent under Drafts. Next, I click one of the three.
A whole host of SEO and branding options starting with Caption, where I put a short excerpt with hashtags.
Once I choose #artwork as one of the hashtags, instantly I receive related hashtags under Suggested Hashtags categorized Niche, Good, Best, and Competitive.
Chosen five hashtags out of which #artwork part of my own description, #digitalart, #digitalartist, and #digitalwork from Suggested Hashtags, and #artinadvertising from my own as I find relevant for the content.
While Auto Post will lead to immediate publishing, Mobile Notification Post means you will be sent a reminder on your mobile phone and SMS Notification Post means you will receive SMS as a reminder before you pressing the final Publish button.
Location Tagging (optional) helps choose a location that you want the audience to see from where you or your post relates. While this feature is also available on Instagram, what makes it unique here is to use Location Tagging with your scheduled posts.
Smart.bio is a free service for Tailwind for Instagram members by which you can get a free web page with a distinct URL to show all your websites/blogs/social media links in addition to chosen Instagram posts, like this one I choose and will appear with my Smart.bio link: https://smart.bio/digitalsplendid.
Your Instagram profile is only allowed one external link or URL. While publishing posts or stories, you are not allowed to include an external link. So, there is limited way you can drive audience from Instagram to your website or e-store. Smart.bio seeks to address this issue a smart way. With your posts, you can include custom CTA that will help audience reach your Smart.bio link page and from there the actual website/e-store or any external link.
Share the post to Pinterest and Facebook page. While you can also directly share from your Instagram account, what makes it special is you can leverage Tailwind Create designs from here as well schedule posts for your Pinterest/Facebook marketing as well.
Now comes Schedule, the date and time when you would like to publish the post. Scheduling is not supported from your Instagram account. Tailwind algorithm through its AI and machine learning will show a number of optimized options with the one in blue (Current) already selected. You can always change this to your own preference by clicking Custom Time and thus plan your upcoming Instagram posts for weeks and months ahead.
Once created, Tailwind Create designs are saved under Drafts. So you can always repost the same (preferably after editing such as changing hashtags or tagline). This can be a great time saver.
D. How Tailwind and Instagram relate to audience and end users
As an official Instagram partner, the purpose of Tailwind is to complement features available with Instagram. Your audience will access your Instagram content on Instagram without knowing if or not powered by Tailwind. So it might be intriguing to know how Tailwind for Instagram features like Suggested Hashtags, CTA relate to the end audience.
It goes without saying that Instagram will not permit extra features like an additional field that will have CTA for Tailwind users.
For Suggested Hashtags feature, the hashtags that are selected appear under what you will otherwise enter manually on official Instagram app under Write a caption…
On Instagram app, there is no Suggested Hashtags, a Tailwind for Instagram feature. No way with a URL of a blog post, you can generate a combination of images from the blog post and other images (from your device, library of free and pro stock photos with Tailwind, or Web). After entering a hashtag on your own on the official Instagram app, you can access the number of public posts with that hashtag. But no way to save hashtags, a facility provided by Tailwind. As part of search engine optimization (SEO), you might want to rank a few chosen keywords or hashtags. You have to enter each time those hashtags as you publish a new post.
While there is a feature to combine multiple images into one on the Instagram app, this cannot decipher text contents that appear on the images. On the contrary, what you enter as a heading will also form part of the final image generated by Tailwind Create along with a default logo, brand name, tagline with a mix of preferred branded colors that you set once under settings but can tweak for each design before scheduling or publishing.
The biggest utility is, of course, schedule posts for the coming weeks and months with Tailwind, something not supported on official Instagram app.
