Using Digital Technology in Extension Education

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Ecommerce and advertising

Instagram provides a desktop and tablet version of its application for browsing, but posting is done via the mobile application. If you’re managing more than one Instagram account, there’s an option to toggle between accounts for ease of posting. In addition, because the platform is owned by Facebook, you can opt to share your Instagram posts to your Facebook timeline or story. Similar to Facebook, people can “like” your posts, comment, and share your posts to their storyline. A gain, it’s important to note that platform features change frequently. To stay current, subscribe to the Instagram blog. Photo and Video Features Instagram enables users to post and share photos and video in several ways, either from a smartphone’s photo library or in the application itself. There are two dozen photo/video filters within the application; third- party applications provide additional filter options. In addition, there are basic photo editing features, including adjust, brightness, contract, structure, warmth, saturation, color, fade, highlights, shadows, vignette, tilt, shift, and sharpen. Video posts are limited to 60 seconds. Video editing features include trim and cover. To enable users to post longer videos (and as a response to the growing popularity of Google’s YouTube platform and the explosion of use in videos in social media) Instagram launched a vertical video application - IGTV - in 2018. IGTV is also available as a stand-alone application. IGTV enables most users to post videos of up to 10-minutes in length. “Verified” and popular accounts are permitted to post videos of up to 60 -minutes in length. In 2016, Instagram added the “Stories” feature (similar to the popular Snapchat application). There is a “Live” video feature (similar to Facebook’s Livestream feature). A recently introduced Reels feature enables users to create short videos. These features hold great potential for work in Cooperative Extension.

Text Features (Captioning and Posts)

A simple text editor enables users to include text to caption their photos and create posts. Unlike some social media platforms with limited character counts, Instagram provides for text posts that include up to 2,200 characters. Because of the generous character allocation, many users employ the potential for expanded post length to “microblog,” adding value to their posts. Instagram also encour ages the use of hashtags, which can be searched across the platform and also followed. Popular hashtags automatically populate a post when searched. There is a limit of fifty hashtags per post. Instagram does not provide for dynamic links in text that accompanies a photo or video post. Because of that limitation, some users optimize their Instagram profile by adding third-party applications such as Linktree, which enable links to multiple sites to be routed off a single link. Instagram recently added a “Create” function, which enables users to create content without photos or video, through the use of stickers, drawings, and text. The platform also provides some interactive features - including simple polls - to increase engagement on posts.