YOUR QUICK-WIN GUIDE TOINSTAGRAM

WITH CONTENT PLANNER

By the end of 2017 Instagram had 500 million daily active accounts

worldwide.

Of the 500 million users,  300 Million are Instagram story users

Instagram is owned by Facebook

60 billion photos have been shared to date

25 million businesses are on Instagram

68% of Instagram users are females.

59% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram and

33% of internet users between the ages of 30 and 49 use Instagram.

Instagram videos get twice the engagement of photos posted on any

other social media platform.

The most popular hashtags on Instagram are #Love, #Instagood, #Me,

#Cute, and #Follow.

 EDUCATION    

 COMMUNITY        

 INSPIRATION          

 SUPPORT              

 PROMOTION                

www.celebrantscollective.eu

INSTAGRAM STATS

YOUR QUICK WIN GUIDE TO INSTAGRAM

Having read all of these statistics about Instagram, you should now fully appreciate

why Instagram is a social media channel that you should be using to market your

business, and if you don't already, maybe it's time to get on the case!

This quick-win guide will tell you everything that you need to know about Instagram,

and will be useful to you whether you have an account or not.

 Instagram stats courtesy of Omnicore Digital Marketing Agency

THE LOWDOWN ON INSTAGRAM

Since its inception is 2010, Instagram has become one of the fastest-growing social

media platforms. It was developed as a way for people to share photos and stories

easily via their smartphone. Fast forward a few years and Instagram has become a

huge platform for businesses and brands alike, not just regular social users.

Just like with Facebook and Twitter, having an Instagram account means you have a

profile and a news feed. In recent years, Instagram introduced a business account to

differentiate from personal accounts. With business accounts you have more options

and ways for people to get in contact with you. We recommend having or switching

to a business account, if you haven't already.

And now that Instagram is part of Facebook, it's easier than ever to set up an account.

You can set one up using your Facebook login or your email address.

This is where you describe your business (the cleverer the description, the better, as

you’ve only got 150 characters to describe you and your services). Here you can also

give basic contact info for your business such as your website url, phone number or

email address.

YOUR PROFILE BIOGRAPHY

This is where all the photos/videos that you post

are displayed.

This is where you see all the

posts/videos of the people that you follow on Instagram. Don't forget that it's a two-

way process, and you should comment and like other people's posts too.

YOUR PROFILE PAGE

YOUR NEWS FEED

WHAT'S IN A POST?

An Instagram post consists of a) your shared photo or video b) your accompanying

text (limited to 2,200 characters) c) hashtags (limited to 30).

Think of photos and videos as the star of your Instagram posts and the caption text,

as what gives the stars some context. With that in mind, it’s believed that between

138-150 characters is an ideal chunk of text to engage people with.

1-2 posts

a day

Square photo

Instagram photos are square. If you’re using a photo taken directly from an iphone,

you can set the photo to square within your iphone camera settings. If you use a

library photo, Instagram will fit the photo to a square, however Instagram has recently

changed it so that you can zoom in and out of a photo of crop it to size, so you can

use a rectangle photo and crop it to size. 

Hashtags

-check your

spellings!

Caption text

This is a desktop view of an Celebrants Collective Instagram post. On a phone the text

and hashtags sit underneath the photo/video.

If you make a graphic to use on Instagram, we recommend creating it at 800x800

pixels which will ensure that any text used on the graphic are Instagram-friendly and

legible. And just like with Facebook, you can follow accounts, be followed, comment,

like, tag others and private message. As well a posting photos, you can also post

videos of up to one minute duration.

If you find that your phone is fiddly, you can also view your

Instagram feed and profile on your desktop at

www.instagram.com/your_instagram_handle. You can like and

comment on posts, edit your profile and change your profile photo

BUT you can’t post from your desktop. This is still only a feature

 available through your phone.

DID YOU

KNOW?

INSTAGRAM USES

Like with most social media, Instagram can be used in two ways;

Think of Instagram as a way of telling stories about what you do and

engaging and communicating with interested parties and your ideal

clients, NOT as a tool for selling and promoting what you do.

TOP TIP

The use of hashtags in Instagram is the same as for Twitter. Hashtags are a way of

marking/identifying a post, so that if someone searches for posts/tweets using a

specific hashtag, their search would bring up posts/tweets that are using the

searched hashtag. So if you were interested in wedding stationery and you put

#weddingstationery into the Instagram search bar, it would bring up posts which are

using that hashtag.

WHAT THE #HASHTAG?

SMART HASHTAGS

The key to using hashtags is to use a mixture of different hashtags, which serve

different purposes. Say for example if you were to post a photo of your computer

screen, showing a half written wedding script, with a caption which says, ‘‘My eyes

are tired and my fingers are numb, but when you love what you do, you just keep at

it.’ You could then use hashtags which focus on;

To draw new people to your account from the wider Instagram circle via your

great imagery, engaging text and well-used hashtags.

To complement your wider social media use and online presence. To encourage

people who you are already known to via other sources, to visit your Instagram

account to learn more about you and what you do.

1. The photo itself #worklife #hardwork #creative

2. The message you’re conveying #lovemyjob

#lovewhatido #jobsatisifaction #celebrantwork

3. The audience you’re conveying that message

to #weddings #engagedandready

#couplesinlove #newlywedstobe #love

4. Other relevant hashtags

By using a variety of hashtags you can give your

post a wide reach, all whilst staying relevant to

your message.

Check out those people who you love on Instagram.

Those who are in your industry/area of

expertise/speciality, those who are considered as

influential, with large numbers of followers and

engagement. Look at what hashtags they use, and use

them for yourself, especially if your target audiences

overlap. There is nothing wrong with using hashtags

that others use, that’s the point of hashtags!

WHICH HASHTAGS?

Over the years there has been some debate on exactly where you post hashtags ie in

the photo caption area or in the comments area below. You can put hashtags after

your caption text, or some write them into the comment section after they have

posted their photo or video. However hot off the press, it does seem like the old-

school system of putting hashtags in the caption area is the way forward and better

for Instagram searches. And it does seem like Instagram is leaning towards this

method.

People started placing hashtags into the comments section so that they weren't

limited to the 30 hashtag limit that there is on Instagram posts (although 30 hashtags

is a lot anyway and a bit spammy looking!). We would recommend 5-10 hashtags. 

HASHTAG PLACEMENT

You may also want to start your own hashtag which becomes a brand hashtag, which

you can encourage your couples and clients to use in their own wedding posts. This is a

great way to get good use out of a hashtag which is directly associated with you. If your

company is called Rocky Horror Weddings, then you could have a branded hashtag

such as #rockyhorrorweddings. Make sure to use it consistently in all your posts.

If you like the idea of keeping the hashtags in

with the photo caption (our preferred method),

maybe use a line of stars or plus signs or some

other symbol to separate your caption text from

your hashtags, thus putting a bit of separation

between the two and keeping the focus on the

photo and caption text.

Also, posting the hashtags at the same time as

your photo caption means you don’t have

to muck around with placing hashtags into the

comments after you’ve posted.

Just as with Facebook, Instagram is a social media driven by these dreaded algorithms -

the calculations and processes used for determining how, when and to whom your posts

and other content are shown. What's more, algorithms are a secret and how they work is

anyone outside of Instagram or Facebook's guess. This means that nobody really knows

for sure the best practices for how Instagram, in this case, works. It is simply a case of

trying to follow what others do and hoping for the best. If you post and comment on other

posts genuinely and regularly, and you start to see that your own posts are being

interacted with too, then you'll know you are doing something right.

If you treat your Instagram account as a wider extension of your online presence and a

way of showcasing yourself in another arena, rather than as a tool for direct sales, you will

likely have more success and less disappointment!

A WORD ABOUT INSTAGRAM

DON'T STRESS OVER HASHTAGS

TIPS FOR USING HASHTAGS IN THE PHOTO CAPTION

Don’t stress too much over hashtags! Hashtags are

just a way for people to find you on Instagram. So if

some of your posts are aimed at the people who are

already following you on Instagram, then don’t

worry about going hashtag heavy. Go hashtag heavy

when you want a post to be discoverable and

discovered by others who are yet to know who you

are and what you do! Think quality of hasthtags not

quantity!

Instagram stories although not new, are one of the more recent developments that

Instagram introduced. Stories are a way to tell a pictorial story with a sequence of

photos or a video. You simply add photos and/or videos, which are strung together to

make a slideshow. AND stories are only visible for 24 hours and then they disappear.

It's thought that Instagram stories will be given more preference and influence to

people's

Why use Instagram stories?

Stories are good for example, if you are at an event and you want to show off

different images in a slideshow presentation, or a sequence of videos to create a

longer video slideshow. You can annotate you videos and images, by writing on them

with pen or drawing pictures or symbols on them. One of the pen options lets you

make neon signs Cool, right?

1NSTAGRAM STORIES

We all like to know how the things we post fair.

How much they're engaged with and seen. Who

liked what we did or said. Instagram gives you this

insight by allowing you to see who has been

looking at your stories. And even better, only you

can see this information.

Simply open your story and swipe up on the

screen. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see a

view counter and the names of the people who

viewed it. Ta-dah!

WHO’S WATCHING YOUR STORIES?

1. Head to your Instagram newsfeed and press the blue + button on the top left hand

side. It sits next to your profile photo.

2. Depending on which way your camera is pointing, you’ll either see yourself or

whatever you’re camera is looking at.

MAKING A STORY

3. There are lots of options on the bottom of the screen - TYPE - LIVE - NORMAL -

BOOMERANG- REWIND - AND HANDS FREE.

4. Tap normal to create a normal photo image or hold the normal button down to

record a video. If you don’t want to record a live photo or video, press the photo box

on the left hand side, next to the flash symbol and select a photo or video from your

library.

5. Edit the photos if you please, with text, drawings or symbols. Tap Done to save your

Story.

6. Tap the <Add Your Story> button to share to your story. Or you can also tap on the

Save icon to save your image or video on to your phone to use later on. If you wanted

to you can click the <Arrow> icon, to send your image to one of your friends as well

as your story. Just tick the bubble by Your Story and select the person you want to

share with.  Images disappear as soon as whoever you’ve sent it to sees it.

7. To create a slideshow effect, keep adding photos or video by repeating steps 4 and

5 and this will play them all in the sequence of how you added them. With all photos

disappearing after 24 hours.

8. If you’re not happy with the end result, simply click on the image and tap on the

three dots at the bottom right of the photo or video that you'd like to delete, press

Delete and then confirm. And it’s gone.

9. If you want certain photos from your live story to be shared on your profile so that

they remain permanent and not lost after 24 hours, simply tap the three dots at the

bottom right of the photo or video and tap Share as Post. At this point you can then

add filters, captions and locations to funk up your photos, if you haven’t already. Then

you can share them to your profile page.

BOOMER

WHAT?

Boomerang! This is the feature that allows you to record a short video

which will then play on repeat.  The idea that the same image keeps

coming back - get it? So whilst still in story mode on Instagram, click

Boomerang and have a go at pulling a funny face. The great thing with

Boomerang is you can simply delete what you’ve done, without posting

it, so there’s plenty of opportunity to practice it. If you don’t want to use

Boomerang in your story, you can save it to your phone and use it on

your Instagram profile.

Providing daily content for Instagram or any

social media channel in fact, can be a bit of a

grind, if you don’t plan ahead. Take time out each

week to plan in advance what you’re going to

share on Instagram.

Planning ahead can make social media use more

enjoyable and save you precious time, which can

be spent on other important business elements.

Most people share the same content, albeit in

slightly different ways throughout their various

social media channels, which is great. However,

if you’re stuck for content, you can share content

on Instagram, which is Instagram specific.

Giving your Instagram content daily themes will

help you decide what to post on each day of

every week. Mixing these in with other planned

spontaneous content which comes about,

should give you enough to post on a weekly

basis, and to be better planned and prepared for

it.

Some of the difficulty with social media is

knowing what to post and when to post it. So if

you can crack that and be organised with your

posts, you will free up your precious time to do

other things.

Below are some of the popular Instagram days

of the week hashtags and photo suggestions, to

give ideas for what to post on different days.

With time you can create your own week-day

tags and create your own Instagram schedule.

TOP WAYS TO SCHEDULE CONTENT FOR INSTAGRAM

 INSTAGRAM CONTENT PLANNER

day of the week hashtag suggestion photo suggestion

monday#Mondaymusings 

#Mondaymotivation

 #mondaymusic

- Thought of the day graphic

- photo of something

motivational

 - bride walking down the

aisle

tuesday#BehindtheScenesTuesday

#Tuesdaytip

-A behind the scenes photo of

you at work, or something

you're working on

- a photo related to a useful

tip

Wednesday#WednesdayWisdom

#wellnesswednesday 

- a photo related to a

useful wedding or funeral tip

-a text graphic showing a

useful wedding tip

thursday

friday

#ThrowbackThursday

 #ThankfulThursday

#Thursdaythoughts

- a photo of one of your past

wedding which tells a great

story

- A photo of a beautiful wedding

venue which your grateful to

work at

#Friday Introductions

#Follow Friday

#Feelgood friday

#Fridayreads

#Friday recommendations

- a headshot photo of you or an

action photo to introduce

yourself and what you do

-a photo of a book, magazine or

other resource that your

recommend

For those who post or who want to post over the weekend too, there are some great

hashtags such as #weekendvibes #saturdayvibes #sundayvibes #instaweekend.

This guide really just covers the basics of Instagram, but if you have a spare

minute, have a play around with it, as there are some really cool, advanced but

easy features on it. You can add gifs to images, text, drawings, speech bubbles,

hashtags (which enable others to find your live stories) to your live stories. You

can jazz up your profile photos with filters, add boomerangs and have multiple

photos in one frame (layouts) or multiple photos to create a photo gallery. Have a

play around and delete what you don’t want to use. Checking out the accounts

of influencers and people that you follow can also give you some good ideas of

how to use Instagram. So, if you aren't on Instagram already. get posting and put

yourself out there.

INSTA OVER

APPS TO HELP YOU OUTFor the Instagram novices out there, now is a great time to have an Instagram

account, because up until recently Instagram was the ONLY social media

channel that didn’t allow scheduled fully automated posts, neither through the

Instagram app itself or via a third party app/software.

So the good news is that Instagram is now allowing this (before it was against

their policy) and so some third party scheduling apps have now changed their

systems to make Instagram fully automated through them ie they can publish

your posts for you on your behalf at the time and day that you specify, without

you needing to manually publish. This is fab news for people who want to have

the majority of their social media content scheduled in advance, to let it

publish automatically.

And one last thing, to be able to use the scheduling apps in this way your

Instagram account must be a business one. But don’t worry this takes two

seconds to change. Go to the Instagram settings wheel on your profile page,

and switch to business profile. Done.

The scheduling apps with an asterix are those which currently allow full

Instagram post automation. However, it’s thought that the rest are soon to

follow suit, so keep an eye out.

Later* Buffer

Tailwind*

Iconoquare 

Hootsuite* Loomly 

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