Learn more about Instagram

As a Chartered Marketer, Mentor and Licensed Trainer in the areas of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service, I am always aiming to glean new knowledge, grow my knowledge and transfer knowledge to my clients and trainees so I thought it was about time that I created a quick and handy guide of online resources to help you keep learning more about Instagram.

As well as the Crash Course in Sales Focused Instagram Marketing for Business and InstaMeetBootcamp that I have personally created and been delivering in Northern Ireland since August 2017, I follow a number of thought leaders to make sure that I am on top of all the new tools and techniques released on the ever-changing Instagram platform.

Once you have invested the time to partake in one of my courses I sincerely regret to say that not only is your work not yet done but neither is your learning. Please don’t waste my time or yours – please do make positive changes either during or following attendance at one of the Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing workshops. You should have left a 3 hour training session with a list of recommended changes and ideas as long as your arm but the digital world doesn’t stand still so do keep adding to your to do list but better still do make those changes. It is my belief that the first to utilise new tools and techniques within the instagram platform benefit from algorithm priority so it makes sense to keep not just yourself but also your instagram for business page an early adopter.

There are countless free and paid for learning resources available online but our listicle focuses on the ones that we trust as being accurate and up to date.

1. Follow Instagram on Instagram – common sense isn’t always common practice. Instagram’s very own channel on the Instagram platform is the first to announce product and service innovations – they do this through their Instagram Tiles as well as their Instagram stories – many of which are structured as ‘how to’ content.

2. Follow the Instagram for Business page on Instagram – this page is focused on organisations that have successfully achieved results using the Instagram platform. Benchmarking at its best – sure to inspire thought, ideas and hopefully action on your Instagram for Business page.

3. Instagram Help Centre – type in your query or issue and you should find help, guidance and step by step instructions and advice on all sorts of things. One of the big ones we find lacking on Instagram pages is the use of shopping tags. Our crash course in sales focused marketing for business mentions this and we recommend you adopt this tactic – find the ‘How to tag products on my posts on Instagram’ by clicking here.

4. Instagram Guides and online tutorials by Instagram. Straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak. Find everything from how to create a business account on Instagram (many of the trainees on our Instagram courses are surprised to find that they have been operating their business from a personal account and therefore missing out on all the insightful analytics on content performance etc) to Instagram advertising and content advice and tips.

Find 81 Facebook Blueprint E-Learning courses in the following categories (remember Instagram is owned by Facebook):

5. Scheduling platform Hootsuite have free online learning resources too – under their Hootsuite Academy brand but they also have complete guide resources – for Instagram check out their ‘How to Use Instagram for Business’ blog.

6. Social Media Examiner – they use Instagram Stories to talk about the latest changes on social media platforms but they also have handy guides: Check out their Ultimate Instagram Marketing Guide.

7. Hubspot also have an ultimate Instagram Marketing guide.

8. As a Chartered Marketer I aways recommend delegates start with the basic principles of marketing: segmentation, targeting and positioning – the who, the what, the where, the how, the why and the when. If your ideal (most profitable) target customer are using Instagram then it makes sense for you to start fishing where the fish swim but there are lots of other digital and traditional marketing strategies and tactics to consider alongside Instagram for effective marketing. This infographic on the digital marketing landscape and this wheel on essential digital marketing tools demonstrate just how many digital tools there now are in this day and age and we have more resources on our blog in areas that you should read up on alongside Instagram on complementary content such as Hashtags – read to the end to find another list of learning resources in the area of Hashtag Marketing.

9. You can also find a Beginners Guide to Instagram created by Mashable.

10. Content marketing can be as simple, easy and quick or as difficult and time-consuming as you want it to be. There are lots of free tools out there to help you produce engaging content for your Instagram for Business page. Be inspired by Dave Chaffey from Smart Insights who has produced the Content Marketing Matrix. The Content Distribution Matrix is also worth a look – why spend time, energy and money creating content if you don’t use all at your disposal to make sure your content is seen by the right people at the right time?

If you prefer a face to face learning environment then do consider our Instagram training – you can find a course in Belfast on 10 September 2018 and in Mallusk Enterprise Park on 11 September 2018. All our open access courses get listed on the Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing events page.

And if you found this listicle useful, please do take a little of your time to leave a positive review on our Google My Business, Facebook and/or LinkedIn.

If you swear by any Instagram learning resources that we haven’t included in our handy guide, do let us know – you can contact us via our website contact page or via any of our social channels including, of course, Instagram!

Blog created by Chartered Marketer and Licensed Trainer – founder of Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing Christine Watson on Friday 10 August 2018. We will likely revisit this blog and add further learning resources in the months and years ahead to keep this evergreen content up to date for you all.