Jaipur, 22 September 2019 – Are you a creator but your activeness on Instagram is not up to the mark? Instagram is not everyone’s cup of tea. When the social media giant gained popularity back in 2015, it was about sharing the most perfect moments of your life. But, now people use IG to document their journey and take the followers along that journey.
“Earlier, I would upload pictures of a perfect date with my partner, but now I upload pictures of myself, chilling on the couch while eating pizza and watching a random show on Netflix,” said Tithi Sharma, a part of news partnerships at Facebook, based in Delhi.
On the third day of the 6th Talk Journalism, Tithi talked to young users on how to engage better on Instagram and use it for their or their brand’s growth. Instagram is “the platform” to promote yourself. Half of the population of the world are here on IG, that is, approximately 500 million people! And 80 percent of these are global users. Now, the users on IG are young, below 25. Thus, if you want to leave a mark, you got to play by their rules.
The giant owned by Facebook, has grown to more than one billion monthly users per month. There is an environment of Millennial pink once you hit IG. While 8 percent of the accounts on IG are fake, there is an effort by officials to get rid of them as soon as possible. Also, videos are essentially engaging. 50 percent of the interaction on Instagram are via videos on Instagram stories and posts.
The second thing that users need to keep in their mind is that their profile should be personality-driven. The pictures users post need not be the most aesthetic or photoshopped, instead be real and simple, that appeals to people. “Show your face, let followers see the face behind the content,” Sharma urged to young creators.
She could not emphasize more on how important it is for profiles to have a niche. An USP, per se. “When you make your account very generic and talk about multiple things, it becomes confusing. And the audience doesn’t know what should they follow the page for.”
Furthermore, the audience learned about how most users have an assumption that their grid should be well organized and decorated. However, Sharma clarified it to be a myth. “People find your content on Explore. They hardly ever go to your page to check how beautiful your grid is.”
Hashtags are the way to go, but just three or four. Sharma said that the secret for hashtags to actually trend your content is also to focus on your niche, and to be as specific as possible. “For example, if you’re posting a picture of London, then use the hashtag of 10 Downing Street, instead of just London. The more specific you are, the more people you connect to.”
Sharma ended her session in an interactive note. She made the audience open their Instagram and use hacks to make their stories more interesting and attractive. For instance, changing color palette,
rainbow texts, screen-fill hack, etc. Finally, she told people to explore all the features that Instagram provides, the stories, IG live, IGTV, etc.
It was a fun, interactive yet informative session from the young correspondent at Facebook. She talked to the audience later, answered their questions personally, discussed how our bio should clearly talk about our purpose and that followers don’t determine the verification of IG profiles.
Text: Sumbul Jahangeer, Pratyusha Roy Chowdhury and Snigdha Sony | Copy Edit: Rupali Soni | Photo: Snigdha Sony | Photo Desk: Sagar Samuel | Editorial Coordination: Rupali Soni & Niharika Raina
