Welcome to the Instagram Academy. In this new lesson you will find out how to use location on Instagram, also known as the geotag. What is it? A feature Instagram offers that lets you attach a geographic reference to the content you share. It is used a great deal by travel bloggers, for instance, to show their Instagram followers exactly where the places in their shots are, tying them to a map.
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How to add location on Instagram
The first thing to do before using location on Instagram is to make sure GPS is on on your phone. It sounds obvious, but people very often ask in forums why Instagram location isn’t working, only to find their GPS is off.
Pick the content you want to share and make whatever edits you think it needs. When your photo is ready to publish, tap “Add location” below the space for the caption.
That opens the “Select a location” screen, where you can search for the place you want. Instagram also reads the EXIF data of the photo you are sharing and, if you gave GPS access to the app you shot it with, it can work out the coordinates of the place. That way Instagram can offer you a list of locations near where the shot was taken, even if you share it when you are already hundreds of kilometres away.
Free image from Pixabay
How to add location after publishing
Published a photo but forgot the geotag? No problem. Instagram lets you add a location to a photo long after you shared it. That way you can update all your content and share with your Instagram followers the exact spot where you took your shots.
How?
- Go to your profile and tap the photo you want to geotag;
- tap the three dots at the top right and choose “Edit”;
- under your Instagram handle, choose “Add location”;
- search for your place or, if it is there, pick it from the list the app suggests.
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How to create a geotag on Instagram
And what if the place you want isn’t recognised by Instagram? Unfortunately Instagram does not let you create a new location. But don’t worry: there is a small trick around it.
To create a new place you have to use another social network closely tied to Instagram: Facebook.
- Open the Facebook mobile app, Android or iOS, it makes no difference;
- make sure GPS is on;
- go to the “News Feed” section and then to “Check in”;
- tap “What’s on your mind” and type the name of the place in the box at the top.
- if the place doesn’t exist, Facebook will ask whether you want to create it, showing “Add a new place”;
- select the category and fill in the information Facebook asks for about the place you are creating.
- tap “Create”.
Once the new place exists on Facebook, it should appear on Instagram too. To check, share a photo and look for it among the available locations: it will show up in your results and you can add your very own place as a geotag.
Free image from Pixabay
Conclusion
In this lesson of our Instagram Academy you learned how to add geotags on Instagram to tell your followers where you are when you take a shot. Not only that: you also learned how to add geotags to everything you have published so far, and even how to create a new place if Instagram doesn’t have it.
There is nothing left to hold back your urge to tell your story: geotags let your Instagram followers retrace your steps and feel what you felt.
We will see you in the next lessons, where we will go deeper into other Instagram subjects you are sure to find interesting. Stay tuned and keep following your favourite Instagram Academy.
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