Instagram For Yoga Business (part 2)

This week I will be talking you through links, tags, mentions, the algorithm, explore and stories! This blog will give you a good understanding of Instagram and the ways you can use it for your business. This part of the blog goes into more depth of Instagrams features, it’s not all just images! One of the biggest growing features is stories. It has been suggested that more people are watching stories than scrolling through the timelines viewing images! So if you’d like to learn more about these features, continue reading.

Links

Something I see a lot of is people putting links in the caption of their post, this is okay if other people are searching on a desktop as they can easily copy and paste the link. If they are using a device (like the majority of Instagram users) they can’t copy the link directly from your caption.

The only way to get a hyperlink on Instagram is from your page bio. The intention of this link is to go directly to your website but you may want people to go elsewhere. You may want them to buy ticket for an event or view a specific page, so you can edit this as often as you like. I recommend using a software such as linktr.ee so that you can add multiple links on one page! If you are putting the link in your bio (where it says ‘website URL’) then be sure to let people know that in the caption by saying ‘link in bio’.

Tags and Mentions

Mentions and Tags may sound like they are the same thing but they are slightly different. A mention is a link to another persons profile in a caption/bio/story. A tag is a link to another persons profile within the picture itself and often used to point out the Instagram accounts of those in the image.

Mentioning others on Instagram is very simple, all you have to do is type @ and start typing the name of the account you would like to tag. This creates a hyperlink that will direct to the (mentioned user) profile. The user you have mentioned will also be notified that you have mentioned them in your post.

When tagging others on Instagram you simply need to select ‘tag people’ when adding an image, you then need to tap on the photo (where you want the tag to be) and then type in the name of their account.

The benefits to tagging and mentioning others

As explained above, tagging others on Instagram is when you ‘tag’ that person in an image. This is useful if there are others in your image and you can tag their profile. You will notice that if you tap once on an image in Instagram, black rectangles come up with account names, these are tags. This will also be visible from the subject of the tags’ profile. Also great to let people know what mat you are using or where you got your yoga clothes from.

You may want to mention others on Instagram if you are promoting an event and there are others involved. Again, they will be notified.

The Algorithm

Your Instagram timeline is not sorted chronologically, it is sorted by an algorithm. This means that Instagram will show you posts that they think you will love even if it’s 5 days old! They are changing this soon so that very old posts do not get bumped to the top of your timeline so you may have to start posting more frequently. Algorithms can and do change fairly often.

Explore

The explore tab on Instagram is where you will see posts from users that you don’t necessarily follow but Instagram thinks that you will like their content. This is useful as a business, as it allows you to connect with new people, potentially gaining you new students.

It will also give you an idea of what other users with similar interests are posting and you can see which hashtags that they use.

Stories

Stories have become increasingly popular and you can mention other users in them or add some music! They are more interactive for users.

Another feature of Instagram stories is the ability to Archive them and publicise them to your profile, these are known as highlights. This means your story will be public for as long as you’d like it to be (unlike the normal stories you see on your news feed which are automatically deleted after 24 hours).