Lessons
Class Introduction
03:51 2Why Instagram
05:02 3First Steps: Goal Setting
04:12 4Instagram By The Numbers
04:06 5Business Profiles
08:30 6Profile Setup
13:33 7Content Best Practices
21:37 8How To Leverage Hashtags
19:27Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Hi, my name is Pei Ketron and I am teaching today's class on growing your following on Instagram. Thank you to those of you who are joining from home and thank you guys for coming and hanging out with me today and listening to what I have to share. Today, I'm gonna talk about growing your audience on Instagram. I feel like I get asked all the time how people can get more followers on Instagram. People might wanna grow a following for different reasons. It might be a photographer who wants to get more jobs. It might be an artist who wants to get their work seen by more people. It might be a business who's trying to connect with more clients and customers. And, it might just be somebody who wants to have a platform for themselves to feel more popular or influential. Before we go any further, I wanna tell you a little bit about my own story. I never studied photography. I actually studied psychology and education. My first career was as an elementary school special ed teacher. I did that ...
for 10 years and then evenings, weekends, and summers were spent doing photography. I eventually started making money as a photographer which was pretty great. I didn't really know how to connect with clients who weren't in my immediate circle. What ended up happening was that I was actually sharing imagines on social media starting back in 2002. I'm kind of a very old school adopter of social media. I was using LiveJournal, I don't know if any of you guys were ever on that, but I was a very very avid LiveJournal user back in 2002, three, four even. What that meant was that I was really primed and ready to go when stuff like Flickr came around and then when Instagram came over and kind of took its place as the image sharing platform that we're all on. I've been on Instagram since the beginning, in 2010. I was really able to build an audience from the beginning, partially because I had already been a photographer for almost 10 years at that point. I was one of the early people that was noticed for using Instagram in a really artistic way. Because I was able to connect to those clients through Instagram, that really enabled me to make that leap from being a full-time teacher to being a full-time freelance photographer. The exact circumstances under which I grew my audience are not exactly replicable today because of the way that the landscape of Instagram has changed, the platform itself is a lot different, the people using it and the number of people using it are so different today. It's not exactly possible to replicate what I did but what I can do is share with you some tips and tricks to sort of make it work for you as best it can. These are some of the things that you can do to really try to grow your audience. It's really important to remember that it's not gonna be an overnight thing, it's not easy. It's something you really have to tend to over time. It's not a let me get all the things in pace and just watch it grow kind of situation. It's really one of those things that you have to work hard at over time as time goes on. In this workshop I'm really going to be covering Instagram from the ground up. I'm gonna talk to you about things like setting up a profile or what you need to think about when you first get started. I'm also going to talk to you a little bit about best practices and also how to really develop a social media voice. By the end of the workshop you should have a deeper understanding of Instagram as a platform and kind of as a social phenomenon, because that's really what it is. And then have an idea for how best to use all the things it has to offer to suit your needs as a photographer.
Ratings and Reviews
fbuser e957a995
I thought this class was great. It was more of like a beginner's crash course into Instagram, so I would have liked more specific actionable steps as to how one could grow an audience versus an overview of what Instagram is. Yet, I would still recommend the class to people since it's a good launching pad into instagram.
Margaret Lovell
For the most part, I used Instagram in the most basic way. Because I want to promote my photography, I have to get better about how I use it. I took this class because Pei is also a photographer, and I specifically sought out her opinion on the platform. For those more intermediate and advanced users, they might not get as much value from it. However, I recommend the course to others who want to build their profile and understanding of how Instagram can be beneficial to their business.
chrissy hormann
Definitely not for "growing" your audience. Class is for absolute Instagram beginnners. Worked for me, but the title is misleading. She teaches the basics of setting up your profile, etc. I was expecting to learn some tips and tricks about photography for IG, given that she is a photographer, but it was more about administrative things, captions, connecting with your audience. All good points, just not quite what I was expecting. Glad I got this on a large discount deal. Ok at that price but I'm glad I did not pay full price for this.
Student Work
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