Recap: Understanding how Instagram works and how to make it work for you!

If  you give people what THEY want, they’ll ultimately give you what YOU want.”
– Jenn Herman, Instagram Expert, Social Media Strategist and author of Jenn’s Trends blog.

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The July webinar opened with a pitch for the next AMA Wichita Chapter webinar, featuring Amanda Roberson, @TheDigitalGal, on the topic of “Swift Kick In the Ads: Ignite your Facebook Ad Strategy.” As well as a reminder that the AMA yearly membership rates have dropped to $149/year and include tool kits, research, ebooks and a monthly training opportunity. Join today!

Next up was Jenn Herman, the world’s most forefront blogger on Instagram marketing. She buzzed through several topics all focusing on how to harness the platform’s power through strategic content creation and distribution.

Boasting over 500 million users and a monthly traffic of over 1 billion, Instagram offers marketers a unique and creative channel to promote their content and generate conversions, including through a lower bounce rate than comparable channels, one of the strongest track records for brands and a significantly higher engagement rate.

Jenn honed in specifically on how to layer strategy through the algorithm and hashtags. She opened with a quick overview of the platform’s many feeds and how each algorithm works — NOT the same as Facebook.

“Instagram is about each individual user … Facebook is a popularity contest.”

She outlined the explore feed, the hashtag searches, stories feature and main content feed. Although each differs slightly and has unique nuances, the main takeaway is that user preferences dominate how the algorithms determine what surfaces for which user.

In the webinar recording, Jenn does a deep dive on each feed and highlights how to tweak content and determine which platform placement brings the most bang for your (unpaid) buck.

She then wrapped up with her “super-secret hashtag recipe that she shares with everyone,” arming marketers with a strong, strategic and organic approach for leveraging the platform.

A HUGE thank you to Jenn for spending her time unraveling the myths and mysteries of Instagram.

—Chelsea Burns, McCurdy Auction