This episdoe is brought to you by...  Instagram is the social media platform that out performs every other platform in terms of pure engagement. Instagram Tips   The Basics – Point and Shoot Fill Out Your “Bio” Section Make sure your bio is complete. Take the time to fill it out correctly. You really want people to know who you are and what you’ll be sharing. Learn How to Take Great Pictures on Your Phone The mobile nature of your smart phone combined with Instagram is the perfect pairing for an awesome presence, but you have to take great pictures to start. Learn about the settings in your smart phone. Most high end smart phones now have some pretty amazing options that can compete with a decent DSLR, but it really is still just a camera on a phone…it will never be as good as a full blown camera. (See filters for more on this.) Get the most out of your DSLR Share your DSLR photos with your mobile device. New cameras have WiFi cards that make this process seamless and transfer your pictures directly to your phone. Get in the habit of taking pictures continually and loading them to a file that can be accessed through your phone for easy posting at a later time. Scenery Rules The five best pictures I have shared on Instagram have been scenery pictures. Sunsets, blue skies, a stream and a spider’s web rocked the likes and comments. While they may have nothing to do with policing, people like to see great scenery shots so give them your best once a week. If you like it then you better put a filter on it. Instagram offers awesome filtering capabilities. Experiment with them. Even though some appear the same, there are subtle similarities that you can have a lot of fun with. Not every picture looks great with the same filters so play with them. The other toys Blur, contrast, sharpness, tilt, warmth…so many choices to play with that can have a dramatic impact on your pictures. Experiment…you’ll be amazed with what you can do to a normal picture to turn it into an art piece.  Intermediate – Start thinking beyond immediacy and ‘build’ a picture using tools for editing photos. Brand your pictures. Every picture should be branded with something that says ‘you’. Add at the very least your Twitter ID on the picture and keep it in the same place every time. Add quotes, sayings, memes. Have a picture of a police officer and a member of the public shaking hands, hugging, high-5’ing? Add Peel’s quote, “The public are the police, the police are the public” to it. Working together Memes tend to get a lot of traction on Instagram, so take advantage of this type of viral-style image by creating your own graphic and text combinations.  Use the Meme Generator website to research current meme trends, as well as make your own to share. Experiment With Video Clips Use the video capabilities. You can tell a lot with those 15 available seconds if you do it right. Every week, do a 15 second safety video. Give a “Behind the Scenes” Look Show your followers an inside look of policing. Things that we take for granted, the public might really like. A locker room, a roll call (parade) shot, the radio, fingerprint tools (livescan / old ink blotter), Hashtags If you like using hashtags, then Instagram is for you.  Instagram allows up to 30 per image so think of all the hashtags you can add to your art. You want to build an audience so think about what your fans talk about and also what other police interests are. Here’s a list: #police #policeofficers  #hero #cops #cop #coplife #policelife  #lawenforcement  #corrections #correctionofficers #911  #heroes  #thinblueline  #officers #respectthem  #brotherhood #blueblood #family #bluefamily  #copfamily  #policefamily  #firstresponders #copwife #policewife Pro Tip: use two hashtags in your image description