this week is all about using instagram for your creative business…

As a visual platform Instagram is one of the most important social media platforms for creative businesses.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP AN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT FOR YOUR CREATIVE BUSINESS

1. Use a business account

Using a business rather than personal account means you can view your analytics, connect your page with your Facebook account and run paid advertisements

2. Fill in your bio & keep it up-to-date

Make sure you fill in your bio with relevant information and include a link to your website, remember also to regularly check and update this to ensure it stays relevant.

3. Research brands that inspire you

Have a look at what other brands you admire are doing on Instagram and see what ideas or strategies you could adapt for your business. Look at the content they post, hashtags, language they use etc. You can also analyse how well their instagram strategy is working by looking at their followers and engagement on their posts. Use the Instagram save feature to save content you love for inspiration.

4. Establish your identity and look

Looking back to Week 15 Creating A Brand With Identity, think of your brand values, colours, fonts and image style to create an Instagram feed that fits your brand identity. Remember this is especially important for Instagram over other social media platforms because it is a visual platform. Our Week 19 Photograph Workshop will help you to create professional quality images to represent your brand. 

5. Plan your content

Take some time to plan your content in advance.. Decide what to post and be strategic about it.

6. Be consistent

Posting consistently to keep your followers engaged is probably the most important strategy for using Instagram successfully for your creative business. Consider setting a specific time each day for working on your social media, for either posting content and responding to comments and messages or for analysing previous posts.

Some Other Things To Consider When Using Instagram For Your Creative Business

• Hashtags - Hashtags mean people who don’t follow you can discover your content so they are worth using strategically. Test out new hashtags frequently and make a record of which work well. If using a lot of hashtags consider posting them in the comment section so your post is easy to read.

• Video - Videos can be more fun and entertaining for your followers, there are various ways you can post them on your instagram feed (for videos up to 1minute), stories and IGTV for longer videos.

• Stories - Stories appear at the top of followers’ feeds so stand out. You can post multiple stories a day without cluttering up your followers feeds. They also only last for 24 hours so you can be more experimental and playful. Consider posing questions or interactive content such as polls, quizzes etc to encourage engagement.

• Highlights - The Highlights feature allows you to showcase what your business is all about and to get more mileage from your stories, you can select collections of Stories to display on your profile page. 

• Line Breaks - If writing a long instagram caption use line breaks or symbols between lines to make your caption easier to read. 

• Engage With Your Followers & Other Small Businesses - actively engage with your followers and other small businesses within your community by liking and commenting and sharing their posts and shouting out other small businesses and responding to their stories.

• Always Respond To Comments - It may sound obvious, but don’t make the mistake of posting then forget to check back and respond to comments

• Use Direct Messages - don’t be pushy or invasive, but direct messages can be a nice touch and a useful tool for building relationships with your customers for example to thank customers who have supported your business, or to deal with complaints - showing you are taking them seriously.

• Calls To Action - you don’t want your Instagram to be too salesy, but if running a business instagram it’s important to include calls to action so your followers know how to go about buying your product or service.

• Analyse The Best Times To Post - Look at your Insights to work out which times are best to post to gain more engagement and traffic. This varies from business to business, depending on the type and nature of your business, so it's important to look at your own insights to work out what will work best for your business.

• Use Questions To Encourage Engagement  - posting content that encourages followers to engage can be a powerful way to build your following on Instagram.

• Use Paid Ads - Instagram ads allow you to target specific audiences, helping you to build your following and reach people who will be interested in your business.

• Use Unique Content - Try not to reuse the same content on different social media platforms e.g. Twitter, Facebook etc

• Use Good Quality Photos - Use our Photography Workshop to produce high quality professional images

• Use Good Quality Copy - Think about your brand guidelines from Week 15 Creating A Brand With Identity to write captions that fit your brand identity and remember to check your spelling and grammar before posting.

• Monitor Your Insights and Analytics - To see what is working and what isn’t, when is best to post and what kind of content encourages most engagement etc

• Make Sure Your Instagram Account Is On Your Website - So website visitors can also find and follow you on Instagram.

This exercise will help you get organised and start thinking about how you can use Instagram successfully for your creative business.

week 20 book

Our book recommendation this week is The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters. Dr Steve Peters is a leading consultant psychiatrist. In this, his first book, he shares his mind-management programme that has been used to help elite athletes and senior managers alike to conquer their fears and operate with greater control, focus and confidence.

In his Design Your Life podcast series, Vince Frost discusses how design principles can be applied to everyday life with a group of leading creative guests. Listen in as designers, journalists, CEOs and founders reveal the key turning points in their lives and talk about the role design has played in shaping the success of their brands and careers.