How to Grow Your Instagram Following + CreativeLive Classes

Today we're gonna take a little detour from the food scene and talk about something techie.  I hope that's ok with you all because I've never really done a post like this before, however, if you're the tiniest bit into social media, entrepreneurship, or just like to do DIY things at home, you will love learning about the resource I'm going to share with you today!

CreativeLive is a an AMAZING resource I stumbled across on the web over the summertime that offers tons of video webinars on entrepreneurial topics that focus on photography, marketing for small business, branding, social media use, crafts, cake decorating, money management, and so much more.  If you RSVP to watch the webinars during the live streams, the classes are free and even come with downloadable material that you can reference later.  If you miss a class due to time constraints, you can add the class to your "wish list" and be notified when it gets rebroadcasted, or you can purchase the class and download it to your PC to reference anytime you like.

This past week, CreativeLive did Photo Week 2014 and broacasted webinars relating to all things photography for 6 days straight. Although I'm not a professional photographer and all the pictures from my blog are still taken with a point-and-shoot (saving $$ for a DSLR!), Photo Week feature some great classes on lighting, photography gear, search engine optimization, time management for small business, and growing your Instagram following.  The Instagram class was by far my favorite at this point, because I still feel like an Insta-newbie and only have a measly 89 followers.  Whether you are an Insta-newbie or and Insta-pro, I hope you can find a few takeaways from what I learned from the class, taught by Pei Ketron (an expert Instagramer w/ over 800,000 followers!):

1. Post relevant, quality images

Images can be improved with the following {free} apps:

VSCOCAM: I've been using vscocam for a while now and absolutely love the functionality of the app.  The filters are more realistic, you can adjust the degree that your photo is filtered, and they are a ton of editing options that include highlighting, shadows, exposure, tint, and contrast. You can upload to Instagram from the app too, which is super convenient.

Adobe Lightroom for Mobile: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is the software I use to edit all of my photos, and Lightroom for mobile makes it even more functional.  This app syncs to Lightroom on my desktop, so I can edit photos anywhere, anytime.  Plus it makes sharing Lightroom edited photos to social media sites a breeze.

TouchRetouch - the free version of this app is a great way to remove unwanted elements from your photos.  Think blemishes, dust spots, a random finger, or a smear of food.

Pxlr Epxress: another great, free comprehensive photo editor you can use on your desktop or phone.  I don't have experience with this one yet, but it was highly recommended in the webinar!

2. Hastag the right way - using hashtags is great way to help other users discover your content from the minute you post it until, well, forever I guess.  However, using too many of them on Instagram can be a turnoff because people go to Insta to be inspired by photos, not see a screen full of hashtags.  Pick 2-3 relevant ones, and if you feel the need to add more, save them for the "comments" box because this will usually collapse once you've gotten several comments and then you won't be able to see the tags anymore (although they will still be associated with your photo, making it more search-optimized).  If you are having trouble choosing good hashtags, look at what other popular Instagrammers are using for direction and follow their lead!

3. Use geotags ALL the time - the geotag is where you plug in your location, which makes your photo more likely to be seen when people search for photos of that specific local.  You still should fill out the geotag with something even if you don't want to disclose your location.  Think of something creative like "on cloud 9" or "lovers lane" or "over the rainbow."

4. Post frequency can affect your popularity {in good and bad ways} - you have to post consistently on Insta in  order to engage effectively with the community. If you want to gain followers, don't post in spurts and then go a whole week without putting up content.  A couple posts per week is good minimum, and once a day is a healthy standard.  If you Insta a lot, be sure it's not too frequent so people don't just see you filling up there feed.  Studies show that on average, people check their Insta accounts every 3-4 hours, so try to have at least 4 hours between each post.

5. Post content people can't see anywhere else: This is one I found myself guilty of: posting a pic to Insta and the opting to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flikr. Doing this could result in being a major annoyance to some users because they start to see the same content on all their social media accounts, and you may lose followers because of this.  Give people a reason to follow you on Instagram by posting exclusive content they can't see anywhere else.  For bloggers, this may be an exclusive photo not seen on your blog or a "mini" recipe that's not published anywhere else.  Short "how-to" clips can garner lots of likes and ultimately, followers.

6. Smartphone photography equipment wishlist: did you know there is such thing as tripods for your phone?? And selfie sticks?? No joke - these accessories for your phone will have you on your way to stellar mobile photos in no time! {I hope Santa is reading this}

- Pocket-size tripod - isn't this cute??

- Selfie Stick  - because, who doesn't want to take better selfies???

- Smart phone lens kit - blowing my mind. Camera lenses for your phone!

Well that about does it for all that I learned! That webinar was a blast and I hope you check out CreativeLive very soon.  If you liked this post, {insert shameless plug here} how about following me on Instagram?  You're the best!

**Affiliate links disclosure**

The links to photography products in this post are affiliate links to my Amazon store.  I could receive a small percentage of any items purchased, which in turn helps with my expenses for producing Sweet Cayenne.  I was not compensated