How to use Instagram in the Photo Mosaic Wall Software - V4 update

Hi everyone!

In this article, you can learn how to use the Instagram feature in your event.

First of all - how does it work?

The Instagram option gives you the option to authorize an Instagram account for your activation. You can upload the photos you want to appear on your Photo Mosaic Wall final photo to the activation's authorized account.

To achieve that, the photo that you desire to have on your final Mosaic wall should carry the relevant hashtag for your activation.

You can, for example, authorize one Instagram account on two different activations while you have 100 photos that will carry the hashtag activation1 and 100 other photos that will carry the hashtag activation2. The relevant photos will appear on your final Mosaic wall per the selected hashtag in your activation.

Instagram Settings:

As of May 5th 2020, Instagram applied changes with its API. Following this change, the Instagram account to be used with your activation will need to be a business account and not a personal one, and you will need to have a Facebook page assigned to it. Following this change, V3 users who wish to use the Instagram feature will be required to upgrade to V4.

If you already have an Instagram account and you want to use it, you can turn it into a business account easily using the following steps:

1. Log into your Instagram account and view your profile page.
2. Click on the  icon at the upper right corner.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Go to Account.
5. Select Switch to Professional Account.
6. Select to change to a Business account and press Next.
   • Click here for instructions by Instagram
7. Connect your Instagram account to a Facebook business page. In the Instagram app:
   • Edit Profile > Public Business Information > Page.
   • Either connect your Instagram profile to an existing page or create a new page.
   • Click here for instructions by Instagram

After making sure your account is a business account you can go back to the Photo Mosaic Wall software and Enable Hashtag monitoring.

Software Settings:

1. In the Instagram tab, check the "Enable Instagram Hashtag Monitoring" box. This means that the software will draw photos from the Instagram hashtag for every set of time you’ve set it to check (in the Activation tab > Monitor Folders Every).

2. In Instargrem Account, type in your account’s username.

3. Click "Authorize this Account". Your browser will open a new tab automatically in which you will be required to log in to your account. Make sure to connect to the relevant account per your activation. 

3. Once confirmed, you will see the following message:

There are two options to use this feature - with or without a hashtag:

• If you will not select a hashtag, all of the photos uploaded to your account will be included in the activation.
• If you will choose to use a hashtag, only the photos that are tagged with the selected hashtag in your account will be included in the activation.
  • When inserting the hashtag, use English lower-case letters only without the “#” symbol before.
  • If you decide to change the selected hashtag, you will need to Stop the activation > Change the hashtag > Save > and then re-authorize the account.

Now, you can start uploading photos to this Instagram user and use that hashtag – the Photo Mosaic software will draw the photos into the raw folder and show them on the wall 😊

***A suggestion of a way to utilize this feature at an event: Have a roaming operator take photos with a phone/tablet and upload them to the account with the hashtag you created for this event.