What can I do to build my social media presence? How do I increase my Instagram followers? What type of content should I produce for my followers?
Quite a few people ask me questions like these on a regular basis. After all, no matter what you are involved in, a good social media presence can help unlock so many different avenues for you. And Instagram is a platform that is becoming increasingly important.
To improve your profile on Instagram, creating a public page and having access to the analytics tool can go a long way. The tool is a great place to take stock of where your audience comes from and what kind of content works the best. From what I have seen, it’s best to mix and match your content with all tools at your disposal. It also helps improve your profile visibility on followers’ feed.
In this post, I am going to focus on Instagram Live as it is one of the best ways to engage with your audience and give your profile a voice of its own. When a user opens Instagram, live accounts are prominently highlighted in the Stories section on the top and a user can easily join in.
Here are some tips for hosting an Instagram Live session:
1. Know what you want.
Is your Live session meant for showing a particular place or event to your followers? Or do you just want to show a fun quirky side to your personality? Before you hit the ‘Go Live’ button, decide the purpose of your Live session. If you are planning to share something with your followers, make sure you jot down the points you want to cover.
2. Watch your back.
The very point of having a Live session is to be candid and get your point across without the hassle of having a professional video shoot. However, it’s still important to make sure you are presentable when you go live. Also, make sure you are shooting in a well-lit environment and are audible without annoying sound disturbances.
3. Internet speed check.
Chances are, you have probably seen an Insta Live session with poor connectivity. Grainy video, patchy audio and delayed feed will make your followers exit and move on to other Insta stories and posts. If you do everything else right, you wouldn’t want to let mobile network ruin your Insta Live session, right? Airtel 4G is great for doing Insta Live. Internet speed is very fast so my followers never see grainy videos. Also, I can easily go live even when I am on the move as well as from a different places across the city. So if you are hoping to master Insta Live, make sure your network is well-equipped for it.
4. Engage. Engage. Engage.
Remember that your followers have the option to exit your live session with just a tap. So think of ways you can engage your viewers every step of the way. For example, a Q&A can be much more interesting than a monologue. Some followers might ask you questions that you can answer in real time. If you spot regular users on your Live session, you can give them a shout out.
5. Save your video.
Towards the end of your video, you’ll have the option to save your video to your library. Doing so allows you to access it later and study what you could have done better. You can also follow up your session with a story that gives a glimpse of your session.
Hopefully, you guys now have a good idea of how you can go about hosting an Insta Live session. Do share some other tips in the comments section.
