What started as a mobile app to share photos has evolved into a diverse social media platform.
With over 1 billion users – about 60% of whom use the app daily – Instagram is the perfect platform to grow your audience and build brand awareness. In fact, 83% of users have said they discovered new products, services and brands via Instagram.
Do you want to build your academic brand and increase your visibility, authority and income across Instagram’s engaged user base? It’s easy to get started and do it right!
Follow these tips to get started on Instagram and grow your academic brand:
- Create an Instagram Business or Creator account. With a Business or Creator account, you have access to additional insights, analytics, ability to advertise and special profile benefits (such as contact info). You need these insights to learn what is working with your audience based on data.
- Optimize your profile. Take the steps to optimize your profile so people can easily find you when they search and learn about your brand by looking at your profile.
- Use a recognizable profile picture
- Have searchable username and name
- Choose the correct category for your brand
- Write an engaging, descriptive bio aimed at your target audience
- Include website and contact information
- Decide which hashtags to use for posts. Hashtags help categorize your content. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post. Choose at least three relevant hashtag so that your target audience can find you.
- Get familiar with the types of posts on Instagram. There are a variety of ways you can share content and engage your audience on Instagram depending on your goals:
- Stories. Stories are photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours unless they are added to your profile highlights. You can post more often. More behind the scenes content. I like to use it to promote new sales and testimonials from customers.
- Reels. Instagram Reels are short form video clips that can be shared on your stories as well. These are a great way to engage your current audience. Connecting your video with trending audio is a surefire way to get your content in front of a larger audience.
From there, you can create a content schedule of what to post on Instagram. There are services to help with this, such as Hootsuite.
Types of content to post on Instagram:
- Behind-the-scenes. Post content that shows followers the behind-the-scenes of your work.
- Motivational. Curate shareable, inspirational quotes that align with your brand values and resonate with your audience. Add your visual branding to quote graphics you post on social media!
- Tutorial. Tutorials and how-to guides your target audience can learn from or content to help them solve specific problems. Tutorials are great targeted marketing examples because you know prospects who land on a tutorial are there to solve a specific problem.
- Video. There are a number of ways you can add video to Instagram, including Instagram stories, posts or reels.
- User-Generated Content (UGC). Sharing posts from your followers (UGC) can be a great way to build a relationship with those followers, engage with other followers, and effortlessly fill your content schedule!
- Case studies and testimonials. This type of content uses real stories to show followers about your product or service. Through real customer stories, you can show that you understand customer pain points. This is a great way to promote your book, course or program.
- Storytelling. This type of content tells your brand’s story. Even though it’s a story, there should be a lesson here. Storytelling content builds awareness and engages your prospective customers. Don’t forget to add a CTA (Call To Action).
By balancing between these types of content, you hit many goals, including expanding your reach, connecting with your customer, and telling them about your business. Remember, you need to have specific objectives and goals for your content strategy. Get clear on that and then post lots of content so you have data to guide your decisions.
Overall, posting on Instagram humanizes your personal academic brand through visuals.
There are plenty of ways to grow your reach and market on Instagram. It’s a dynamic platform that gives you many ways to connect with viewers and humanize your brand. It’s also a great place to increase your income when used strategically!
QUESTIONS? JUMP ON A FREE DISCOVERY CALL TO DISCUSS INCREASING YOUR VISIBILITY, AUTHORITY AND INCOME
A big part of building a brand as an academic is properly starting an LLC. You can do this in minutes HERE. Northwest is who I trust for all my business formation needs.
Want better quality video and audio? I use the following mic and webcam for all my live videos:
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