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. CKDW post pictures of our kids being silly in class, dancing in rehearsal, hanging out at the studio, trying on new costumes, or even fun stuff at dance competitions. Our students love checking our Instagram account often, or following us to see which dancer has been featured that day or what we are up to at the moment! We typically use Facebook as a way to get out vital information to our CKDW Facebook followers and Instagram as more of the “fun” side….ie, let’s see the teachers making silly faces with their kids in class.
2. Instagram is the younger dancers’ 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 information to that target age group. We take information, such as reminders of deadlines or contest details and info, put the text on top of a picture or in a frame (using a picture/text app) and then upload it to Instagram! Our parents 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 and to not forget their tights!
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!
