Business Networking on Instagram – Beginner Online Course
Live Classes – Small Group Size (8 people max.) – For Professionals & Business Owners in Canada and the US
Your Instructor: Juhli Selby, based in Victoria, BC, Canada
All courses are delivered online using Zoom video conferencing.
Next course starts on Wednesday, May 5th, 2021
4-week course – May 5th, 12th, 19th, & 26th, 2021 – Wednesday afternoons 2pm-4pm Pacific time via Zoom Video Conference
This course will be offered again in Fall of 2021.
Course Description:
With over a billion active users, Instagram is one of the top social channels for consumers & businesses in the US & Canada. It’s the visual social network where people explore their interests, and are more receptive to engaging with businesses – 90% of users on Instagram follow a business. All the big brands, celebrities, and approximately 40-45% of online users in the US & Canada are there. It’s a great tool for networking, since many people allow their accounts to be public. This gives you the opportunity to find and connect with people who could be a fit for your business.
Learn how to get your first 100 followers by setting your profile up for success, determining what & how often to share, and how to find and connect with relevant people. We’ll cover rookie mistakes to avoid, effective use of hashtags & location tagging, feed posts vs. Stories, & more. Learn how to take a strategic approach that will support your business goals, and learn how to connect with opportunity. If you have been wanting to get on Instagram, but have no idea where to start, this course is for you!
This is not a course about how to get ‘Instagram famous’, become an influencer, or how to get thousands of followers. This is a practical course designed to teach business owners how to use Instagram effectively as a networking tool. While you will learn tips for time management on Instagram in this course, there are no auto-magical shortcuts. It takes time and effort to build & serve your audience, and to nurture relationships that can lead to sales. If your audience is active on Instagram, it’s a great tool to have in your marketing mix for proactive outreach online.
This course was designed for:
Professionals & small business owners based in Canada & the US. This course is geared to service/knowledge professionals; our past clients have included coaches, consultants, health professionals, authors, artists, realtors, interior designers, and marketing professionals. We also welcome those who want to support others with their social media including social media community managers and virtual assistants.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course you’ll be able to…
➤ Use Instagram to support your business goals – and be able to communicate this to your admin person or social media assistant if you want to delegate
➤ Develop a respectable Instagram profile that will help you grow your following & help you connect with opportunity
➤ Navigate the Instagram platform with confidence
➤ Share photos & video to help attract the audience you want to serve
➤ Find & build relationships with the right people – without being spammy
➤ Get exposure for your business, products & services
➤ Monitor, maintain and grow your network on Instagram
➤ Have some control over who you engage with on Instagram
➤ Manage the time you spend on Instagram
➤ Evaluate the success of your Instagram marketing efforts
Course Cost – $499 CAD – 4-week course:
- 4 x 2-hour sessions – live every week for 4 weeks
- Call recordings of all sessions – access to the recordings for 3 months – more time available on request
- Copy of the presentation slides for each session (pdf documents)
- Additional resources will be provided by email after each session
- 4 x Informal Question & Answer sessions – live every Friday for 4 weeks – questions will be answered on a first come, first served basis
- Private Facebook Group to ask questions anytime – Questions answered within 24 hours
- Course time commitment 16 hours total over one month – 8 hours in class (2 hours/week), 8 hours to complete action steps (2 hours/week for homework) outside of the course.
- Discount on private training sessions if purchased with a course – up to 2 sessions may be purchased at a discounted rate. Private training sessions must be used within 3 months of taking the course, or a refund will be provided.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee – If you don’t find the course valuable I will give you a full refund. I will ask for your feedback, so I can make course improvements.
Not sure if this beginner Instagram course is right for you? Or would you like to sign up? Click the button below to book a 15 min call with Juhli to discuss.
Business Networking on Instagram – Course Outline:
Session #1 – We’ll cover:
✔ What is Instagram, who uses it (demographics) & why (business purpose)?
✔ Use Instagram to support your business & professional goals
✔ How Instagram is different than Facebook ~ including strategy considerations
✔ What to share & how often to share?!?
✔ Differences between a personal & business Instagram account – & how
to switch to a business account
✔ How to set up your Instagram profile for success & why this is important
✔ Tour of Instagram – How to explore the platform
✔ How to upload, edit & share photos from your phone (feed posts)
✔ How to find your Facebook friends and phone contacts on Instagram
✔ How to follow or unfollow, mute, report, restrict or block people
✔ Instagram ‘Saved collections’ for relationship building
Session #2 – We’ll cover:
✔ How to grow your following over time – including how to find your ideal audience
✔ How to connect & engage with someone new
✔ Best practices for sending private messages
✔ Monitoring your account & weekly account maintenance – including how to clean up your following (get rid of bad followers)
✔ How to identify & avoid spam, and the ‘bot’ problem on Instagram
✔ Instagram Community Guidelines – avoid getting your account disabled or shut down
✔ Instagram settings ~ for privacy & security, and time management
Session #3 – We’ll cover:
✔ How the Instagram algorithm works & how to use it to your advantage
✔ How to optimize your posts – including how to write captions
✔ Best practices for using hashtags & location tags on your feed posts to
get exposure
✔ Which post types get the best reach & engagement?
✔ Understanding your Insights (statistics) i.e. What’s working & what’s not (for Business accounts only)
✔ How to share or schedule feed posts from your computer using Facebook’s ‘Creator Studio’ tool (Business accounts only)
Session #4 – We’ll cover:
✔ Instagram Stories strategy – how to use Stories to increase your visibility & engagement
✔ What to post & how often to post
✔ Tour of Instagram Stories
✔ How edit or ‘decorate’ your Stories & how to post
✔ How to turn your Stories into ‘Highlights’ at the top of your profile (pin to the top)
✔How to share feed posts to Stories ~ Your own feed posts or the Stories/feed posts of others
Technical requirements to take this course:
✔ Calls will be held using Zoom video conference calling – you’ll need a computer with a microphone & a web camera (most modern laptops have this built in) – You will need to install the free Zoom app on your computer (similar to Skype) – you can download it here: https://zoom.us/download
✔ Good internet access – standard high speed wi-fi
✔ You must have an Instagram account set up, and have the Instagram app installed on your smartphone before the course begins. Here are directions to set up a new account: https://help.instagram.com/155940534568753
✔ You may need to adjust the Instagram app settings on your phone to allow the app to access your photo gallery or library (so you can share photos). You can test this in your Instagram app by clicking on the + sign in the bottom middle of the app (the function to share a photo). If you see your photo gallery or library pop up, you are good. Alternately the app may prompt you to allow this permission – it will require access to your camera and storage at minimum.
✔ A second computer monitor would be nice to have but is not required – if you have one computer screen, there will be times you’ll need to switch back & forth between your Zoom screen & your internet browser.
Not sure if this beginner Instagram course is right for you? Or would you like to sign up? Click the button below to book a 15 min call with Juhli to discuss.
Please click here to see all courses offered by Juhli Selby Social Media.