Looking to add Instagram into your digital marketing mix, or get more out of your current on-platform promotion efforts?
The case for the fast-growing platform is pretty compelling - as explained by parent company Facebook:
"More than a billion Instagram accounts worldwide are active each month, and 80% of users follow a business on Instagram. People use Instagram to share and discover things they love, which makes it an ideal platform for businesses to connect with their customers."
If you're looking to up your Instagram game ahead of the coming holiday season, then these updated education courses may be for you. Facebook has this week announced three revised Instagram marketing courses within its Blueprint education platform.
The course details are as follows:
1. Instagram for Business
"Discover what makes Instagram unique, and learn how to create a presence for your business on Instagram. In this course, you’ll learn best practices for getting started as well as creative tips to tell your business’ story or showcase your offerings."
You can access the course here.
2. Bring Your Business Story to Life with Instagram Stories
"Over 400 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day. People use Instagram Stories to discover and engage with content they care about giving businesses the opportunity to harness the power of Instagram Stories to connect with customers where they're already engaged. Instagram Stories give advertisers an immersive, full-screen vertical format to bring their business story to life through photos, videos and other creative tools. Learn tips for creating effective Instagram Stories and get insights on how to tailor content to your customers."
3. Instagram Buying Objectives
"Whether you’re looking to drive traffic to your site, increase video views or drive sales, Instagram ads can help you achieve your business objective. This course will walk you through the different business objectives and Instagram ad types available to help you find the solution that will work best for your business goals."
More info on this course here.
The courses are free, as part of Facebook's Blueprint offering, and are also quite short, only taking around 15 minutes to complete each. Given this, they also won't give you all the details on every element, but they do provide a solid foundation from which to build upon, expanding your understanding of the various Instagram elements and how to make best use of them.
As noted, the holiday season is rapidly approaching, with less than 100 days till Christmas. Given the popularity of Instagram, it may well be worth taking the time to go through these sessions as you consider how to make best use of your Q4 marketing budget.
You can access Facebook's Blueprint courses here - you need to sign up, but you can opt out of their notification emails if you like.