Are you tired of reading the same old Instagram tips everywhere?

I know I am.

“Post consistently”.

“Use hashtags”.

“Create quality content”.

Please. Tell me something I don’t already know.

Because honestly, when I look at the successful Instagram profiles of different Instagram influencers, I feel like they’re hiding something.

They MUST be applying some secret techniques to make their content truly eye-catching.

They MUST be using some secret strategies to growth-hack their Instagrams.

They MUST be doing something beyond the basic Instagram tips you keep reading about again, and again.

But the thing is though, they’re probably just not sharing any of their secrets.

This ends today.

I’ve been rummaging through the Internet, day and night, to find secret Instagram tips that influencers don’t talk about.

I’ve found some pretty cool Instagram tips – for Stories and for growth – that will make your content different AND help you growth-hack your Insta real fast. So if you want to see what these Instagram tips and tricks are all about, read on! I guarantee you’ll learn something new!

1. Get a solid background on Stories

Take a picture of anything random – or select a picture from your Photo Library.

Then, click on the drawing pencil icon and hover over any color you want. Then, tap your finger and hold it. The whole background will change to being one solid, monochrome color, which is perfect if you need to write a quick message, make it stand out, and yet align with the color scheme of your previous Stories.

2. Extra colors from the color selection

Did you know that you can have more colors than those 27 basic ones offered in Instagram Stories?

Apparently you can have the whole rainbow of colors if you want!

To get them, you need to click on that drawing pen again and then, click on any color offered to you and hold your finger. In a second, you’ll see a big palette of gradient colors that you can choose from. Keep your finger glued to the screen, while moving it right/left until you find the color you like.

It’s a cool ‘wheel’ trick that you can use for your background behind texts as well.

3. 3D effect on fonts

While technically there’s no 3D effect on Stories, you can fake it so well, it looks as good as real.

First, click on our favourite drawing pen icon. Write down the word (or the sentence) you want, in one of the offered fonts. Make sure to select black color. Place the text where it needs to be placed.

Now, what you need to do is to write again the same exact word (or sentence), but pick a different color – for example, blue. Then, place it on top of the first word, but slightly to the side, so that you can see the background font. It’s basically two fonts layered on top of each other.

The result:

3D made easy!

4. Zoom in like a Pro

I used to think that, in order to zoom on Instagram, you always needed to use two fingers to touch the screen and zoom it out, but no.

When you start recording, press the record button and slide your finger up the screen.

Had no idea it was so easy!

5. Turn the screen

Ever wondered how the influencers turn the screen super fast, when they’re recording Stories or are being Live? All you need to do is quick-tap the screen twice while you’re recording, and your phone will be using the face camera the very next second!

6. Use different fonts on Stories

While Stories offer only 5 fonts officially – Classic, Modern, Neon, Typewriter, and Strong – there’s a little trick you can use to go around it and add more fonts to your content.

First, make sure your Safari (or Chrome) browser is open on your phone.

Then, open the Instagram app, go to Stories, and select (but not upload) the photo you want to share with the world.

Then, if you have an iPhone, double tap on your Home button: you’ll see two tabs open at the same time. Go to your browser and open this website: CoolSymbol.com. There, select the “Fancy Text” option and type in whatever you want to say on your Story. That text will be automatically transformed in multiple fonts – all you need to do is scroll down, choose what you like, and click “copy”.

The text will be copied to your clipboard in the selected font.

After that, double click on your Home button again and go back to your Instagram app – the Stories draft is still there!

Go in it, select the text icon (“Aa”), tap and hold on the screen where the blinking cursor is, and click “Paste”:

Et voila!

Now you have a Story with a text font that no one else has! Pretty cool, isn’t it?

7. Use animated fonts on Stories

Now that you know how to use different fonts for your Instagram Stories, did you also know that you can make them animated?

Yep, that’s right.

To do that, download HypeType – a little app to add moving texts to your photos.

Here’s how to use it. It’s pretty straightforward, really:

1. Download the app and open it (duh)
2. Select the picture from your Photo Library
3. You’ll see an animated piece of text that says “Double tap to Edit”
4. Double tap
5. A window will open for you to type your own text
6. You know what to do
7. Once that’s done, click the blue “done” icon in the top right corner
8. You’ll see your initial image with the animated text
9. Click on the “T” icon. There, you’ll be able to change fonts and play around with animation
10. As you’re finally ready, click “save” (same blue icon) and select to download the image to your phone
11. Open Instagram, click on Stories, and upload your animated content

Easy. Peasy.

8. Use your picture’s color palette for fun letter background

Every cool Instagrammer knows how important it is to have a visually consistent theme. A cool Instagram tip for Stories is creating unique backgrounds for your fonts that are based on the color palette of the photo you’re posting.

To do that, you need to use the same technique with the drawing pen, described previously.

First, select the picture you want to post and think of a word you want to write. It can be something short and simple.

Then, click the text icon (“Aa”) on the top right corner and type the very first letter of the word. Make sure the font is Strong, Classic, or Typewriter. Next step is to add background to the letter by clicking on the icon on the top left corner. After this is done, click on the drawing pen icon, and you’ll see a little tool pop-up. By moving the tool around the photo, the background of the letter will change, depending on where you “land”.

Once you’ve selected the background color for the first letter, move on to the next, until you type the word, letter by letter.

It might sound like it’s time-consuming at first, but it’s faster than you think. Plus, it looks cool AND it visually matches the photo, creating a holistic look and feel for your content!

9. Create the ombre/rainbow text effect

Warning: this one might require some finger gymnastics. Once you’ve practiced well enough, though, creating a bright rainbow – or a subtly ombre – text effect will be a piece of cake!

Here’s what you need to do:

• Write your text
• Select all of your text
• Hold your right thumb on any color on the suggested color palette
• Hold your left thumb on the text cursor
• Slide both fingers simultaneously to the left
• Your letters will change colors

10. Change stickers by tapping on them

Ok, this one is pretty easy, but in case you didn’t know: you can actually change the Instagram stickers on Stories by tapping on them. They either change their position OR color.

On Stories, you can ALWAYS tap on everything to slightly alter the looks of the stickers. Don’t forget about this simple Instagram tip to differentiate!

11. Make your hashtags invisible to post as many as you can

Adding hashtags to your Stories is one of the best Instagram growth tips out there. If you do so, you increase your chances of being featured for the hashtags you use, which ultimately boosts your exposure and can get you new followers.

While using as many hashtags in Stories can look a bit spammy, if I told you you can make them invisible, would you continue using them?

Exactly!

Many people refrain from using hashtags in Stories because they look a bit spammy. However, if I told you you can make them invisible, would you use ALL of them?

Thought so.

It’s easy to do it, by following these super simple steps:

1. As always, select the photo you want to share
2. Type in any hashtag
3. Position it on a corner with a solid background
4. Highlight the hashtag as text
5. Tap on the drawing pen icon
6. Drag the pen across the screen, as close to the background of the hashtag as possible, until the hashtag matches that background

That’s it!

No one would even guess you used hashtags at all!

INSTAGRAM TIPS FOR GROWTH

12. Interact 15 min before and after posting

We all know that Instagram algorithm LOVES engagement – especially within the first half an hour of publishing your posts. A lot of engagement straight away means the algorithm recognizes that post is something worth pushing up and up the feed, for more eyes to see.

Influencers know that too, and they sometimes use a little trick to draw some extra attention to their latest post. Many of them, interact with other posts for literally 30 minutes straight, 15 minutes before publishing the new post, and 15 minutes after. And by “interact”, I mean they go into their relevant hashtags, see a post, and leave like 10000 likes for that user who posted it. Literally liking everything they see, and even leaving a comment here and there. Before you deem this activity as spammy, what it results in is sparking interest – who is this person? – and wanting to check out the profile back. Which normally results in liking at least one picture from the feed – and usually it’s the very first one they see.

Do try this! It’s one of the best Instagram tips you can try to increase your engagement and reach.

13. Hide hashtags in […] in the first comment

Hashtags are like lottery tickets – you want to use them all, and all at once.

Admittedly, though, that might look a bit spammy in your Instagram caption, taking attention away from your call to action, or whatever is it that you’re trying to say there.

You probably heard the advice to post your hashtags in the first comment – and you probably have been doing that already. However, your followers still can see that huge list of hashtags as your very first comment – so, while this is definitely looks more aesthetically pleasing, it’s definitely still not perfect.

The solution?

Wrap your hashtags in the […] brackets, like this:

How?

Easy!

When you’re about to paste your pre-researched hashtags (learn how to find your target hashtags here, by the way), post five dots in lines just before the block of your hashtags.

Like this:

As soon as you post that comment, Instagram will hide your hashtags in the […] brackets, making them look neat and proper!

14. Own other accounts to interact with your own content

Many of us have multiple Instagram accounts. Whether you’re a business, that owns more than one brand, or a social media manager, that curates more than one Instagram account, the truth is: we all have access to more profiles. So why not take advantage of that? You can, after all, be logged in in up to 5 Instagram accounts on one device.

As soon as you’ve posted something, switch your Instagram accounts, go back to your profile with the new post, leave a like, and an engaging comment that looks real and authentic. If you’re not capable of ‘real’ in the harsh days of Instagram authenticity, just like and leave a heart-eyed emoji.

If you’re already posting on Instagram at your best-performing times, this little trick would only give you another boost your content need to get some extra love from the algorithm.

15. Add line breaks to your caption

Adding line breaks to captions is what differentiates an insta-newbie from an insta-pro.

It’s not that easy to do this. I’ve seen some brands and seriously famous celebrities struggle with it. Why? Because Instagram app simply isn’t set up for this.

There’s an easy workaround for this, though:

1. Open your Notes app on your phone
2. Type these brackets: […] (without the dots inside)
3. Put lots of extra space in between these brackets
4. Draft your caption
5. When you want to add a space, hit the “Return” button
6. Copy and paste the space between the brackets you created

Et voila!

No need to add full stops anymore!

16. Tag everybody in the same corner

One of the best Instagram tips you hear for growth is tagging. Indeed, tagging is great for exposure, as it increases your visibility AND puts you in front of the eyes of a brand or an influencers you want to impress.

However, just like with hashtags, if you tag too many people, it will look extremely spammy if someone taps on your photo and sees a lot of tags spread around. Don’t get me wrong, but it looks just a bit desperate.

What you can do is to tag usernames in the same corner – you literally can just drag the usernames to move them across the screen. In the result, all tagged brands and influencers will be neatly located in the same tidy corner. It won’t look spammy, and you’ll still get that extra exposure you’re looking for!

17. Edit your name to appear in more Search Results

If you’re a brand nobody knows about (yet), with engagement too low to guarantee your content getting recommended or appearing in the Top Hashtags results, how can your new followers find you?

Through typing the keywords in the Search bar.

To be found this way, you need to spruce up your Instagram bio by adding a target keyword to your name, like like the vegan influencer @aniahimsa does, by having “vegan” feature in her bio. This is, in fact, exactly how I found this particular influencer account – simply by typing “vegan” in the Instagram search:

So, if you’re a sportswear brand, jewellery brand, any other brand – add that keyword to your bio! It’s one of the easiest, and yet also best-working, Instagram tips for growth out there.