It’s no secret that I edited my Instagram photos.. Did you really think the background in my bedroom was that white?! Sorry to break it to you, but nope. This post will let you in on the secrets of how I create my blog pictures, edit my Instagram pictures, and all the things inbetween!
Facetune 2: As a student, there’s no way I can afford the original Facetune app. To be honest, I don’t need it considering all the tools I need are on the Facetune 2 app (Psst: it’s FREE!) I use this app to whiten the background of my photos, which helps the main focus of my image (my face if it’s a selfie) stand out more. I also use this app to smooth over my face if I have any texture and brighten my eyeshadow. My picture quality has definitely improved since trying this app, and I’ve been using it for the majority of my Instagram photos for a few months now. I’ll never go back!
Canva: I occasionally use this app to make my Instagram stories a little fancier, but usually I just use this app for creating my ‘featured photo’ (the main image you see when before you click on a blog post.) I do have the app, but find the website on my laptop is much easier to use. You can also use this app to create Pinterest photos (I did that for a while when I tried out Pinterest, but I honestly just find Pinterest to be way more complicated than it’s worth.. Sorry!) Canva is probably my favourite app when it comes to improving/creating cool blog pictures.
VSCO: If you haven’t heard of this app, have you been living under a rock?! This app has some of the coolest filters I’ve ever seen for Instagram pictures. I tried out the week-long free trial of the premium version a few weeks go, and the filters available were absolutely beautiful and so aesthetically pleasing for my Instagram. Once I’ve finished uni in a years time and have a little more disposable income, I will probably purchase the full premium version. However, don’t get me wrong, the standard version has some cute filters too! There’s definitely something for everyone’s taste on this app.
Instagram unfollowers: I can’t remember the specific one I have, but there’s an abundance of these apps available for you to download on the app store. From my experience, they all basically do the exact same thing – show you who has unfollowed you on Instagram! This is super helpful for many bloggers as numbers, unfortunately, do matter. Trying to keep your follower count up is a huge priority, whether people like to admit it or not. This app is great for keeping track of who’s following you and who isn’t, so I’d definitely recommend downloading one of these fab apps.
When To Post: Surprisingly, I haven’t seen too many bloggers talking about this app, but it’s a great one. It essentially tells you the three time of day, each day, that you receive the most engagement on Instagram. I haven’t been too loyal to it recently as I’ve been working shifts at my retail job that means I often can’t upload to Instagram at the desired times, but it is a great tool to utilise if you want to post at the times you know you get the most engagement with your followers. It’s a really great app and it’s worth a try if you’re trying to grow your Instagram and interact with your followers more!
Twitter: I’ve used Twitter for years, as it’s such a fun app that I really enjoy using to meet new people and see what everyone’s up to – my friends, family, famous people and everything inbetween! However, since starting my blog, I’ve been using Twitter in a different way. Twitter offers such great ways to increase engagement on your blog, such as comment threads. Blogger comment threads have increased my blog engagement massively, and I honestly couldn’t imagine not using them now.
What apps could you not live without for blogging/Instagram?! Let me know in the comments, as I’d love to be introduced to more helpful apps!
girl vs world 
When to Post sounds like an app that’s 100% worth getting, I’ll have to look into it! Thanks for sharing xxx
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It’s so useful! Thank you for your comment!:) x
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Awesome app choices! I’ve only heard of a few, but definitely, need to check a few of these. I really need to try an update my twitter and Instagram game. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you lovely! Instagram & Twitter are probably my most used apps to promote my blog – they’re great x
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I love Canva and Twitter too! Great post.
Mary
https://carleycreativeconcetps.com
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They’re great, aren’t they?!
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I’ve heard of nearly all of these except ‘when to post’ which sounds great I think I might get it. Thankyou for writing it x
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It’s such a good idea for an app! You should deffo try it x
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My current favourite is word swag, the free version it makes such beautiful blog images.
The when to post sounds brilliant!
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I’ve never heard of this! I need to try it x
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I’ve never used an unfollower app. I can see that it would be good for seeing who’s playing the follow-unfollow game, but I think overall it would be most likely to make me feel bad about myself.
I wish Instagram allowed posting from non-mobile devices. I use my laptop for all my other online activity, so it’s kind of a pain to switch over to my phone for Insta.
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Ahh yeah that’s true – I guess it’s good for some people and less beneficial for others! I’m trying to build my Instagram into a business eventually so it’s important for me to know who’s followed just to unfollow, as I don’t want to follow people like that! Also, it’s very interesting to see which of your
‘friends’ have slyly unfollowed you.. haha. Yes me too! I always think this. I’d love to be able to post from my laptop.
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Yeah, I can definitely see it as being more useful when it’s business-related.
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You can post on IG using a third party app. When I was using IG regularly, I posted from my laptop.
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Oh good to know.
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Ooh I didn’t know this!
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Use a chrome extension. It will let you post pictures directly from your laptop but not IG stories. Hope that helps!
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Thanks!
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I love the Insights app! Good post, keep writing x
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Me too gal! Thank you 🙂 x
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I didn’t know that When to Post was an app that existed but it sounds useful. Also, there are apps that let you make collages for IG which I recommend getting. And YouCam is very useful if you don’t feel like putting on makeup for a photo.
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I use Canva, unfollower app for Instagram and one for twitter. They are great! Haven’t heard of the VSCO before. I’ll have to have a look
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Canva is so helpful for blog posts and Instagram story isn’t it?!
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Yeah definitely! Wondering if it’s worth paying for the business version
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I use all of these apps apart from FaceTune! Awesome post hun 🙂
Shannon x
http://www.shanylou.co.uk
instagram.com/shanyloublog
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Thank you gal!
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Canva is an amazing place to be, if one has time. I have created some lovely and worthwhile covers there for several books and the quality of the text and images always comes out shining.
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I love Canva! Ooh I’ll have a look – thank you!
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🙂
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Great ideas!
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Thank you! 🙂
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I adore Canva. It is so user friendly and the graphics you can create on there have the potential to be incredibly professional looking. I would add that anyone looking for a good photo editing option (not so much selfies, but altering saturation, etc) – check out Pixlr!
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It’s so helpful for blog images and Instagram stories isn’t it?! Oooh, I’ll definitely check that one out! x
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I didn’t even know there was a when to post app! Gonna download that! VSCO sounds fun and I’ll definitely give it a try. Thanks for the great recommendations.
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VSCO has such amazing filters! Thank you for the comment 🙂
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These are such great ideas!
I never knew there was an app that tells you the best times to post! What a great idea 😊
Love Lozza xo
http://girlygabble.com
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It’s so helpful!! x
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I’d never heard of Insights but am gonna check it out now!
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You really should! it’s so helpful 🙂
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Some good recommendations. I really need to get an Instagram unfollowers app but I’m so paranoid of getting banned or losing half my followers, I’ve heard some horror stories!
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Thank you very much! i know i’m paranoid too!
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Solid advice and good choices! I use a number of those: Canva, VSCO, Twitter etc. Good tools are necessary for running a quality blog/social media. For me Canva has been the top “tool” for some time already – I love using it and creating graphics for Pinterest, Twitter, the blog and so on.
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I love canva so much too! it’s so helpful for pictures.
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Great suggestions! I love Canva but I really don’t like the app version, much prefer desktop! I’ve never tried VSCO. Great that the free version of facetune is working so well for you. I use a scheduling app to see how posts will look on my feed before I post them and it helps a lot when I can’t decide between photos! x
Sophie
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I hate the app version! It’s too hard to use for me as everything’s so small and intricate. I need to use a schedule app more! I have planoly downloaded but barely use it x
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