Your 5-Day Plan to Learning Instagram

The next post in our “5-Day Plan” series focuses on Instagram. If you haven’t checked out the other posts in our series, you can find them here:

Your 5-Day Plan to Learning Twitter

Your 5-Day Plan to Learning LinkedIn

Your 5-Day Plan to Learning Pinterest

Now, depending upon your age, you might be wondering why we should pay attention to Instagram. Some statistics say upward of 90% of Instagram users are under age 35.

Sharlyn Lauby, social media, Instagram, images, visual, photo, video

That’s exactly the reason. First, your business should have a focus on young professionals. I’m not saying ignore everyone over 35 years old. But, these individuals are going to be your customers and employees someday (if they aren’t already).

Second, we need to be exposed to new things. It’s possible you will love Instagram and find it valuable. Lastly, Instagram is all about images. And, according to research from the 3M Corporation and Zabisco, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. So visuals are appealing.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is an online, mobile photo and video sharing service. It is owned by Facebook and has 300 million users, making it bigger than Twitter.

How do I create an Instagram account?

Signing up is easy and free. Once you sign up, you are able to see your Facebook friends who have Instagram accounts and you can follow them if you choose.

Your 5-Day Plan

Day 1- Download the Instagram app. Instagram is better to use on a mobile device than your computer browser. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

Day 2 – Like an image. All you have to do is click on the “heart” button under the image. Can’t find an image to like? Check out HRCultureClub. She posts pictures from companies, inspirational quotes, and just fun stuff. I enjoy following her account.

Day 3 – Follow a business brand. You will find plenty of personal accounts to follow – friends, celebrities, etc. (I like Real Simple Magazine. You can find them here.) But this is a business exercise, so find a few business accounts. Some of my faves include O.C. Tanner Company, Mashable, and Red Branch Media. Oh! And don’t forget to follow Instagram.

Day 4 – Post a photo. At this point, you’ve been lurking and seeing what others post. It’s time to post something yourself. You’ll notice that Instagram uses hashtags, so include a relevant hashtag. Stuck on what you should take a photo of? Here are a few ideas:

Day 4 – Make an event “Instagrammable”. Think about your next meeting, training session or employee event. Ask employees if you can take a photo and post it. If you don’t want to take pictures of people, maybe you can post something that happened like a flip chart or something that was in the room.

Day 5 – Create an activity. Consider using Instagram during onboarding or for an employee contest. Have employees take pictures of your corporate culture or great customer service and post them using a unique hashtag. It can create engagement and a little bit of fun.

BONUS! REPOST something. One of the quirky things about Instagram is that you are unable to repost something from someone else’s account. But you’ll find that as you start following accounts, you’ll want to remember something. For me, I’ll see an inspirational quote and want to share it. There’s an app called Repost that works with Instagram (available for both iOS and Android). It allows you to repost images and give credit to the original author. Check it out when you get a moment.

Instagram might not be a platform you’ll use every day, but it’s one you can have a lot of fun with. I like Instagram for creative inspiration. Because people enjoy visuals and visual learning, there are opportunities to bring images into the work environment. For more information about using Instagram in business, check out the Instagram for Business blog.

What do you think? Is there an opportunity to use Instagram at work?

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

2
Exit mobile version