One of the newest digital best friends to acquire is the place where you “<3” instead of “like,” filter before you post, and can behold the central hub of selfies! This application is Instagram. From following celebrities, performing friends, and friends using the application in recreation, I have learned a lot about this tool for reaching a fanbase. Whether you’re Lena Dunham posting a picture of your new book or an emerging singer/songwriter tagging your local open mic venue in a post, Instagram allows you to be more relatable to the people checking out your picture/video content.
People are very proud of their Instagram accounts, whether they are personal or work-based. They provide a library, a timeline, and a link to other posters producing cool content. Because people are so proud of them, they are often very excited to hear people ask about what they’re posting! They want to share their lives and become a staple in the digital feeds of others. This is especially true with businesses. I’m a big advocate for local businesses starting Instagram accounts that they use to spread promotions, and the same is true for performers. When you go to any venue to perform, ask the managers there if they have an Instagram account; follow them, post photos of your prep time in the dressing rooms, a picture of the building, or anything you want so you can tag them and make a post! This way you gain a connection, get yourself and the venue noticed, and show your fans what you’re like behind the scenes. Don’t forget to tell the venue about your Instagram account so they might follow you back!
Instagram is all about graphics. Most of the time, people don’t want to read a huge paragraph about your photo.
The next part of using Instagram is in the word posts themselves. One of the biggest things to remember about this is that Instagram is all about graphics. Most of the time, people don’t want to read a huge paragraph about your photo. Make it short, sweet, quirky, and use as many tags as you want! Instagram is also all about tags, since other people will search popular ones for other people with their same interests! Also, DO NOT try to put links into your Instagram post text. Instagram is not equipped to hyperlink into your phone browser so the link will be completely idle. You have to use Instagram with the photo content and text you are allowed to generate. But be sure to link the application to your Twitter and Facebook! Even though this application is entirely mobile-based, you can still see your library on your personal computer. But linking to your Facebook and Twitter will help to broaden your outreach with posts.
Make it short, sweet, quirky, and use as many tags as you want!
There are more and more networking platforms all the time, and it’s important to stick with the trends so that you have the broadest possible audience for your work! Follow us on Facebook for updates on when we post our Artist Web School blogs! We’ll keep giving you performance tips for the digital world that you can share with our hashtag #PunktDigital!
