What is engagement on Instagram

Joshua Ness

Social media is just that, social. If you want to get anywhere it is important to know that you need to build your social skills and engage in a meaningful way. What does that look like though?

Respond, respond, respond.
Part of that engagement will come in the form of response. If you get a comment you should always reply, ALWAYS. It may take the form of a compliment. Thank You is a great response, but sometimes it’s good to leave them with a bit more then that. “Glad you liked my post, thanks for taking the time to comment” may leave a more lasting impact then a cookie cutter reply

 There will be times when it may come in something less then a compliment. In which case, best foot forward, and kill them with kindness. If someone is rude with you, that doesn’t look bad on yourself, but if you are rude back that is on you. Even something as simple as an empathetic “I’m sorry you weren’t a fan of my post, but thanks you for taking the time to give me honest feedback”may turn a user with a chip on their shoulders to brand fan.

Like it, Like it AL LOT.
Not everyone is going to be so fortunate to have people just come to them, you have to go out and find your target market and engage! Search geotags, hashtags and influencers pages and like posts and comments. Find where posts that people from your ideal demographic would already be engaging and like it. It’s free to like a post, no one gets hurt in the process.

Comment on other peoples posts.
Liking posts and comments are fine but you need to get into the conversation. Prove you know your stuff, provide your two cents on the topic. Posts your audience is already viewing is a great place to sway them to visit, create meaningful connections with them and prove that your page is worth investing the time to check out.  Think of it this way, if someone approaches you and give you a compliment, doesn’t it feel good? You want to do the same thing when reaching out with comments on social media.

Think of something to add, I’d love to hear from you!  Tell me what you think or tag me in your Instagram post and I can check it out!

facebook
Find a meaningful connection with your audience on Instagram https://bit.ly/2EBPInk

Twitter
Instagram Audience, ENGAGE!!! https://bit.ly/2EBPInk

The #NameGame

Photo By Pete Linforth

Instagram is great for getting content noticed or not noticed based on how you brand yourself, and while the content you post is very important to get likes and retain followers, one of the most important tools you can use to boost your reach is hashtags! Here are some tips on finding out which hashtags to use!

#KeepingUpWithTheJones

What’s going on in the Jones’ backyard? What are your neighbours doing? Thats right I’m telling you to peak over that metaphorical like Wilson from tool time (Tim Allen tv series from the 90’s and I just dated myself didn’t I?). Yes, checking out to see what other people are doing is the best first step to discover what avenue of hashtags to use on your own page.

What is your page about? Who can do it better? Now, what are their hashtags? No shame in looking, it’s not illegal, it’s doing research.

#GoogleIt

Google is also a very powerful tool! You can google popular hashtags and get an never ending search result page with links to show which hash tags are top performing. Not all the information in those links are free but on some sites a good majority of the statistics will be free. Check back often because trends change and new hashtags could be more popular.

#WhenInDoubtGetFunky

Create some original ones! There might be a #hashtagyouneverheardof but there is always a chance someone else is going to have the same idea and stubble upon your lonely five posts with that hashtag and discover you. Might even start a trend of your own. Its great to build your own specifically if there is a project specific you’d like to track to allow others to chime in and be involved.

Try it out, and see if this has helped improve your hashtag #TheNameGame or post with #TheNameGame with any additional advice (and I’ll like your post!).

Twitter
Learn 2 Hashtag w/#theNameGame https://bit.ly/2QXGD9V

Facebook
Learn 2 Hashtag w/#theNameGame https://bit.ly/2QXGD9V

Instagram 101: First Steps to Insta Fame!

(COM0011 Blog 2)

Elijah O’Donnell

Instagram is used by a large number of people, everyday users through to the Instagram famous influencers. Regardless what your long term goal for your account the initial first steps must be taken and everyone who instagrams ( successfully ) should start with the basic knowledge of these 4 steps.

Posting, the more the better

The most important thing with Instagram is content. If you have nothing to look at why would people visit your page, if you have no new content, why would they come back? Content is the currency of the Instagram market, but what to post. If you are just using it as a personal account posting your daily life, inspirations, memes, the sky is really the limit. If you are going to go the route of attempting Instagram fame try to pick a nieche and one that you can create content for. If you are a photographer who has never seen the inside of a gym, a fitness page might be an unrealistic goal, but maybe try a photography page.

 Highly recommended before you start, try to gather enough content to last a month. In having this back stock of images to use you can ensure your first 30 days will have something new with a full month to gather content for your next month (and so on).

Content, why is yours worth viewing

Alrighty, so post, but what? The material you use needs to provide your audience with something. Sure you can post pictures of your cat (if it’s a cat Instagram account) but if its nearly the same pose, poorly lite and uninteresting you better bet your catnip they are going to check out a more photogenic feline. You need to find a way to ensure your content is engaging, interesting or providing the viewer with new information of some sort to improve their lives in some way. Back to Fluffy, posting fluffy experimenting with new cat products, cat foods and scratch posts would provide your viewer reviews on products they may have been considering for their cat.

Jon Tyson

#Tags, #Geofilters and #hashtags (be discovered!)

It doesn’t matter how much content, nor how engaging the content, if nobody can see it, nobody can follow it. Geofilters, tags and hashtags help broaden your audience reach by making you searchable. Geofilters are great if you are trying cultivate a particular market or location. Want fluffy to be the “It” cat in Ottawa, then geotag those photos and videos to Ottawa. Trying to get your viewers back to a particular pet store you own? Geotag that location! 
Hashtags are key search words that are relevant to your photo. They work wonderfully if your trying to target specific groups, idea or market and you can use up to 30 (though it is recommended to aim for 5-20). That means you can use #cats #Ottawa #Productreviewer #Instacat #fluffy and get users searching any of these relevant hashtags. Not sure which ones to use? Find a similar page or two and see what hashtags they are using! You can also google trending hashtags to get an idea of the most viewed ones on instagram.
Tagging is great if you have a friend who is established that can collaborate with you, you can get some of their followers to view your page by tagging them in a photo they are in. It is usually mutually beneficial because your followers can also find your friend through your account!

 
Last, but most important! ENGAGE!

Social media is just that, social! If you don’t socialize and get to know people in you niche community they won’t get to see you. In engaging on posts on similar page, liking similar content and following similar materials you are seen by others following liking and commenting on the same posts. The more your name is seen the more there is a chance someone will click on it an the more people drawn to your page the more chance they will follow you.

Now that you are versed on Instagram you can boldly begin your Instagram careers!

Tried my tips? Did they work? Let me know!

Also, are their any tips I forgot? Tell me what they are in the comments below.

Twitter:
Instagram 101: What you should already know (but don’t) <https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/2018/10/09/instagram-101-first-steps-to-insta-fame&gt;

Facebook:

Instagram 101: First four steps to be famous on Instagram (here’s where you start) <https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/2018/10/09/instagram-101-first-steps-to-insta-fame&gt;

COM0011-Blog 1 -Social Media and Crisis

Benjamin Dada

The world of social media seems to usually be dominated with images of the Kardashians and food videos, but the effectiveness of social media to get a point across and share information can be used for the collective good, and can be seen through recent crisis response.

I live in North Bay, but I frequent the Ottawa-Gatineau region. This past weekend on my long 4.5 hour car ride from North Bay to Gatineau I sat watching a downloaded copy of twister on my iPad, unaware how ironic that was. The next day, I was watching the weather network as tweeted images from Dunrobin were being shown before the screen turned red to the emergency alert, warning that the same storm was heading towards Gatineau.

The speed at which information regarding the storm was posted was faster then the emergency alerts being issued. They provided a visual on what was taking place to give a real grasp of what was coming, far beyond the words of any tv weather personality.

It was a few hours later that Facebook GPS crises response app shot out a notification asking for all those effected to state if they were safe or in need of help. Also, offering the ability to offer help, the app had over 200 responses of help in 30 minutes. It was through this app that many people were able to send out a clear message to family and friends not in the area, that they were alright.

The days following people were able to access social media from mobile devices to check on the status of hydro, safety of friends and family and closures that would effect day to day life.

It seems to be a solid example of how integrated social media is in our lives, but the question I have is could it be better?
Could there have been ways for social media to be more integrated?
Is there any way through innovative thought that it could be used to future help?

What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Facebook:
Twitter versus twister, My thoughts on social media in crisis response : Link

Twitter
Twitter takes on Tornado: Link