Lesson 3

First Post and Promotion

Lesson 3. First Post and Promotion

In the last lesson you have learned to configure your it takes to read the title. That is why it should be brief
business Instagram account, upload a photo and write and thought through!
a correct description. You have also learned what a call
▶ Tag your friends and add a geolocation in your
to action is and how to add it to your page. Today, you
post to make it even more attractive.
are going to learn how to create and publish your first
posts on Instagram. We will pay special attention to ▶ You can share it on Facebook, Twitter ot Tumblr
all types of publications, their opportunities and pro- if you like, there is an option in the settings
motion methods. ▶ Sometimes it is interesting to read other
people’s comments for your posts but not every-
body likes it. If you do not want others to com-
PUBLISHING YOUR FIRST POST! ment on your posts, simply disable comments.
So, you are on your profile’s home page. Find a but- In this case, we are going to allow comments
ton ‘+’ in the middle of navigation buttons in the bot- and press the ‘Share’ button.
tom. Click it, and it will open media in the gallery on
your smartphone. All of it is available for publication, That’s it! You have published your first post and it is
both video and photo. You can switch between these uploaded to the news feed. Your followers will see it
two formats or simply choose ‘Gallery’. It will show soon.
both formats — everything you have in your smart-
phone. If you want to make a new photo or video while
you are on Instagram, click the corresponding button: CAROUSEL
‘Photo’ or ‘Video’. You can add several photos to a post. Click on the
‘Select Multiple’ button and choose the photos from
Let us post a photo as an example. Choose the one that your gallery in the order you want them to be. Each
fits, adjust it and allocate as you like. You can change photo can have its own filter. Click on the ‘Share’ but-
its scale by zooming in or out. ton and publish your post like we did before, but with
several photos this time! A few dots will appear under
Next, set the photo parameters manually or apply fil- the post, one of which will be blue. This is how the
ters. It is possible to adjust sharpness, contrast and number of photos is indicated and the photo you are
color. You can rotate the photo if you like. Instagram looking at at the moment. You can swipe such posts
has a good photo editing tool allowing to turn the most to see all photos. We recommend to post them more
trivial photos into pieces of art! Fiddle with the graphic often — people on Instagram like it very much, because
settings and try different options. several photos make a better impression of your
events, trips, etc. For businesses, it allows to present
If you cannot decide wich filter suits the photo the best, several new products in a single post or show the same
save the result as a draft by clicking ‘Cancel’ and clos- product from different angles.
ing the editor. A window ‘Save as a Draft’ will appear.
Then open the editor again and try different settings
on the initial photo. This will allow you to compare the BOOMERANG
versions and choose the one you like more. Instagram You can also encounter an infinity sign (a sideways 8)
editor is a game in itself! It is addictive. when uploading a photo. This is a Boomerang app. You
can create short cycled videos from series of photos by
After you have edited the photo, you can start writ- installing it. It creates a feeling of a three-dimensional
ing the text. Click ‘Next’ and come up with the title for back and forth movement. This looks novel and helps
your post. It must be peculiar and correctly describe to liven up the feed.
the photo. Keep in mind that the photo caption must
be a call to action of sorts to make people notice you.
If the title is bleak and neutral it will harm your con- VIDEO
tent, because nobody will read that post. You have only Remember, that you can upload videos to Instagram
2–3 seconds to catch them — that is exactly how long in addition to photos. They cannot exceed 60 seconds,

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Lesson 3. First Post and Promotion
though. Video is an excellent way to introduce your
team, clients and brand to the public. Think of it as an
opportunity to post your own promo video, like on TV.
FIRST POST PROMOTION
You need to immediately start promoting your first
post so it will not get lost in the whirl of activity on
Instagram and pass unnoticed. There are thee main
account promotion strategies: They help to maximize
the effect from you current followers and get new ones.
Here come hashtags, social proof and social sharing.
HASHTAGS
Let us start with hashtags. Hashtag on Instagram is
a special thematic tag accumulating all the content
tagged with it in a single thematic feed. In other words,
hashtag is a keyword you use for, say, Google search.
It helps you to create your own categories. Do not be
shy to maximize the number of hashtags in your posts,
it increases the reach of your post.
To add a hashtag, simply add a hash sign ‘#’ without
a space before the word. It may be the name of your
company, brand or product. Your hashtag automati-
cally becomes a new category on Instagram, which you
can continue to update with new posts and content.
Hashtag rules are simple:
▶ it should not contain spaces — use underscores
instead;
▶ use numerals;
▶ use emoticons;
▶ use upper- and lowercase letters;
▶ use up to 30 hashtags for a single post;
SOCIAL PROOF
The second strategy to increase the effect on your fol- and choice factors. We will to show how to work
lowers is a so called social proof. This is an amount of with the content and disseminate it, talk about
emoticons and comments others leave on your post. intellectual property and types of good content.
Social proof is intrumental in Instagram profile devel-
opment, because the success of your content directly
depends on the people’s reaction to it (as with any
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other platform). Users visiting your page must see that
your product is a success, collects likes and positive
comments.
Audience approval will make others trust you and fol-
low your account. So the more likes and comments
your posts accumulate, the better. For that, you can
download a special same-name app: Social Proof. It
will help you get enough likes is exchange for yours.
And do not forget to call to action when posting your
photos. Call to check out and like your posts.
SOCIAL SHARING
The third and the most important strategy is social
sharing. It is very simple. Let your friends refer to your
account or share your posts by reposting them on their
Instagram accounts. It is easy to do and help huge
amounts of people to see your posts. And it inevitably
increases the number of likes your posts get.
ALSO USE OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS
Another good way to promote your Instagram page
is to link all your social networks together: add a link
to your Instagram on Facebook and Twitter and vice
versa. Even if you have few followers on each platform,
you can quickly achieve great results by joining them!
You must remember to keep your posts original and
unique when posting on your business Instagram
account. They should be recognizable so the follow-
ers can identify the company behind them in an instant.
A good way to quickly enlarge your audience is to reg-
ularly post interesting content. So you should design
a posting schedule to eliminate skips.
We have discussed a posting scheme, account pos-
sibilities and promotion methods. You have learned
how to work with hashtags to ensure their effective
use. The next lesson will be about content, its types
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