2015 is proving to be an especially exciting time for social media with the major platforms announcing new features and services on what has been almost a weekly basis for the past few months. The latest news comes from the Facebook-owned Instagram application. Following the success of the popular Hyperlapse app by Instagram, the social platform has released a second app to further enhance content produced by Instagram users, Layout.
What Does Layout Have to Offer?
The app provides users with the ability to post photos using layouts that open up worlds of design possibilities. The design interface is as simple and straightforward as its name and it offers several impressive options for photo collages including mirror images, upside-down images and grids of rows. There is also a photo booth function allowing users to take multiple photos at once to then instantly arrange them into photo collages.
Layout isn’t the first application to offer these features but it allows Instagram users to avoid using these third-party apps with its more streamlined integration into Instagram. It also offers very clean and sleek design and face detection. Layouts can be instantly shared to other social media platforms, including of course Instagram. Photos uploaded to Instagram may then be edited or have filters added before sharing.
Benefits for Businesses
There are a few ways the Layout app can be useful for business purposes.
- The Layout app allows for multiple photos to be featured in one “post” which means it shares a common benefit with the new carousel ads on Instagram.
- It’s a great way to condense content. The ability to post multiple photos at a time is a great relief for companies with plenty of material to share on Instagram each day who (rightfully) do not want to lose followers by flooding their Instagram feeds.
Layout Post Ideas
Layout may be used to upload inspiration and mood boards, event photos, creative imagery of company products (such as with the flip and mirror functions), photos of multiple products from a single collection, photos for contests and trivia and much more. Great content is the key to engaging social media so if anything, Layout offers even more ways for us to change things up and keep fresh and exciting content flowing through the Instagram feed.
This free application is currently available for use with iOS devices but will soon also be available for Android.
