One of the hottest new social media tools is…you guessed it – Instagram! In today’s world, people don’t read like they used to. We want to look at pretty things and read a little. Instagram is perfect for this – sharing photos and humanizing your business is a powerful tool.
Another thing about today’s world – people are busy. You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all busy! How do you find time to update Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube, Tumblr….the list goes on.
Instagram has the capability of syncing with your Facebook and Twitter – so whenever you share a photo on Instagram it automatically shares it on the other two sites. This is a great way to save time, share your brand, and be consistent across all of your social media channels.
Since we all love real life examples, I’ve talked to CK Danceworks [@luvckdw] about their Instagram. Christina Wiginton has shared some of her favorite things about Instagram and why they love it so much.
1. Everyone loooves pictures! I love that Instagram is all about summing up an experience, day, or event into one or a few pictures. We post pictures of our kids in class being silly, in rehearsal, hanging out at the studio, trying in new costumes, or even at competition. They love checking our Instagram account often, or following us, to see who has a new picture on there or what we are up to that day! We use Facebook a lot as a way to get out vital information to our followers and Instagram is more on the “fun” side….ie, let’s see the teacher making silly faces with their kids in class.
2. Instagram is the younger kids/ages Facebook. We have tons of kids anywhere from ages 6 to 12 that are not allowed on or too young for Facebook, but they love to Instagram with their friends. We use it as a way to get that target age group info as well. We take information, such as reminders of deadlines or contest info, and put the text on top of a picture or in a frame (using a picture/text app) and then upload it to Instagram! Our patents can get so busy that sometimes even AFTER an email and Facebook reminder…it’s nice for their 9 year old to remind them that it’s picture day!
3. Instagram allows our kids to connect with us! If a certain dancer has been working on their heel stretch or tilt for a week and wanna show us…they can snap a pic, upload it to Instagram and tag us in the comments at @luvckdw…and Instagram notifies us to check it out! It’s that simple!
4. Lastly, it’s so fun! We do fun things like “Tilt Tuesday” or “Show Off Saturday” where kids take pictures of certain things during the day, upload to Instagram, tag us @luvckdw and then hashtag it with #tilttuesday or #showoffsaturday. By clicking on the hashtag, you can view all the pictures uploaded that day to Instagram grouped by that hashtag!
One thing to consider, we do have our parents sign the normal CKDW consent/registration form through Jackrabbit when they are signing up so they know that we have permission to use their children in photos for advertising and social media!
How do you use Instagram? Share your username here! We’re @JackrabbitTech!
