Do you want to share your experiences with your friends, but don’t want to deal with all the status updates and the news stories? It’s true, many social media platforms are overly cluttered

with superfluous information and statuses. If you want a streamlined way to share you story, Instagram may be for you. I have compiled a little tutorial on getting started. Good luck, and happy ‘gramming!

The first question is: What does Instagram do? Instagram is a mobile only social media application that allows you to upload pictures and follow other people and view their pictures. The basics of it are you can take any picture that is on your phone, add a description, and upload it. There’s even the ability to take a picture through the app, meaning that you can use the camera while in Instagram and automatically upload it.

Much like with Twitter, Instagram uses “#” to essentially add tags to a post. This allows you to connect your post with topics and people can then find other posts related to the same thing.

Now I want to give a bit of insight on how to use the app. When looking at the interface, there are five tabs at the bottom of the application. (from left to right)

How to Use Instagram

1. The home tab. This shows you all the posts from anyone that you follow.

2. The explore button. This shows what’s trending on the Instagram network. While you may be interested in what’s going on around the world, I’d say this tab will be the least used for you.

3. The Camera button. This is where you add/take pictures. When you select this tab, you will be brought to a camera. If you want to take a picture, just hit the blue button in the center. It will then bring you to an edit page. Here you can rotate it, add frames, change the focus, add brightness, add filters, etc. The best way to understand this is to take a picture and play with all of the features. There’s no right way or wrong way.

If you have a picture on your phone already that you’d like to upload, on the screen where you can take a picture, hit the button on the bottom left, which has nine little squares inside a circle. This gives you the option to upload from your own pictures. Just select that picture and do the same thing I just detailed above.

4. The “Heart” tab. This shows any “news” that’s happened with your profile. It shows you anyone who has commented on your page and anyone who has started following you.

5. Your Profile. This will give you a broad view of all of your updates. It shows you all of the posts you’ve made, and allows you to edit the info on your profile.

What to Post?

As for what to post, it’s really up to you. Enjoying a relaxing vacation? Make your friends jealous by posting pictures. Attending an awesome concert? Instagram it. About to eat the best meal of your life? Take a pic and post it. Instagram, like most social media platforms, is a ball of clay, and it’s up to you how you mold it. Whether you’re a business promoting itself or just a person with an interesting life, use Instagram.