If you loved our “Instagram for Writers: 5 Simple Tips” blog post from our founder, Racquel Henry, then you would’ve loved the three-hour Instagram for Writers workshop we held on July 30, 2023! Not only did Racquel break down illuminating statistics about the platform, but participants were also treated to live demonstrations!
Sorry you missed it? Great news! The replay—along with all the bonus worksheets—are available for purchase! If you need more convincing that this class is worth the investment, below are just three of the many tips Racquel gave us during the class!
1. Use all of the tools Instagram makes available for you.
No matter how long you’ve been on Instagram, we can guarantee there are still some features you haven’t discovered or aren’t using to their fullest potential.
As an example, open up IG and tap like you’re going to create a new Story. Tap the stickers icon in the upper right corner and take a good look at the menu that pops up—polls, GIFs, hashtags, et cetera. Can you say you’ve tried everything on offer at least once? Are you comfortable using them? Are you familiar with how they impact your views and engagement? Because Instagram loves when users play with their features!
And even more tools and analytics become available to you when you switch your personal account to a creator or business account!
2. Don’t be shy when it comes to CTAs.
You’ve probably heard before that if you want something, you have to be brave enough to ask for it.
The same is true for social media. If you want engagement—likes, shares, comments, follows, saves, taps on the link in your bio—you need to have calls to action! All these taps from your audience tell Instagram that you’re putting out what people want to see, which tells the algorithm that people like your content. What Instagram wants is for people to stay on the app longer, so if you’re keeping people engaging and scrolling, the algorithm will detect that you’re doing something right. And we all know how important it is to stay on the algorithm’s good side!
3. Start learning the basics of search engine optimization.
Racquel’s research has proven to her that Instagram wants what TikTok has managed to achieve—to be thought of as a search engine by its users.
What does that mean for you? That it’s time to learn a few search engine optimization tricks. SEO is too big of a topic to cover in this blog post, but here are a few tips:
- Make keywords your new best friend
- Lengthen your captions, so Instagram understands what you’re posting (and who they should show it to)
- Use the “alt text” feature, for the same reason as above
