On the 14th June BBC Academy hosted four leading digital media stars at the BBC Birmingham Mailbox studios as part of the excellent Digital Cities week. Social media superstar Habiba Da Silva who has over 700,000 followers on Instagram gave a lucky few of us a masterclass on how to have an amazing Instagram page. Below is the super-talented Habiba's first class advice on succeeding on social media.
Habiba Da Silva's Top 10 Instagram Tips
Plan your Instagram!
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| Lifelong Percussion |
Tip 1 : Start With A Great Bio.
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| Habiba's Personal Instagram |
Tip 2: Have a separate Instagram for business.
This is instead of filling your personal account with product photos which might bore fans. You need to tailor your content to each account.
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| Habiba's Buisness Page |
Habiba's business account retails scarves and features photo shoots of products, models and customers wearing her label. Habiba has plans to move into ladieswear garments and her own make-up line.
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| Habiba Da Silva |
You must stick with content that your fans want to see and that ties in with why they follow you. It is a mistake for businesses to feature their personal life in business accounts as this can drive fans away. It does not make sense for to post random photos of things such as meals out on business pages. "Show your personality first before your business and don't then jump in front of your business."
Tip 3: Plan How Your Page Will Look
Habiba gave 2 famous Instagrammers as reference points. Paul Stringer likes to post his photos in groups of 3 to give this matching grid effect.
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| The Paul Stringer |
Sebinaah has a colour theme running through her posts. That takes serious planning! Think of your Instagram account as a portfolio of your work.
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| Sebinaah |
Tip 4: Cross-promote Other Social Media Channels
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| Lifelong Percusson |
Tip 5: Don't Clutter Your Instagram
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| Lifelong Percussion |
If you have lots of photos of one occasion you should use slides to show them in one post rather than fill your page with 6 or 7 individual posts. Similarly use Instagram Stories to show things that you don't want to clutter your page with e.g. behind the scenes footage. You can also use the Layout app to combine photos into one slide.
Review your overall page look frequently and archive any posts that are not as strong as others to keep your page tight.
Tip 6: Post 1 or 2 Photos Every Other Day
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| Lifelong Percussion |
Do not go more than 3 days without posting as people can lose interest if you don't keep visually active.
Tip 7: Use a Quality Camera
Habiba stressed the importance of quality images and production so invest in a good camera with a tripod and use softboxes to provide excellent lighting.
Tip 8: Collaborate With Others
Habiba collaborates with other beauty bloggers to share access to each other's following and to increase fans and viewers. She also recommends collaborating with photographers, videographers and music artists as "a new form of networking".
Follow people on Instagram that interest you and who you would also like to follow you.
Tip 9: Take Care With Hashtags
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| Lifelong Percussion |
Don't stuff hashtags directly under your photos as it can ruin the look of the post. Use the return button to leave a gap of 5 empty rows then add hashtags or make a comment beneath your post with the hashtags there.
Hashtags are important as Instagram uses them to index your posts and in deciding who to show your posts too. Habiba creates her own hashtags for customers wearing her product range.
Tip 10: Do It For Your Fans
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| Lifelong Percussion |
Finally
There are more blog posts to come soon on Digicities week including unmissable tips from artist Amrit Singh and BBC documentary maker Stacey Dooley.
You can follow Habiba on these links:
Words by Paul Clarke
