Oh Instagram… how I love to hate you. Can you relate? There’s no doubt the Gram is an incredible marketing tool, but I’ve also been caught up in the wheel of comparison and boundaries with it from time to time.
Do you ever feel like you’re on that same wheel? Scrolling your Instagram yoga feed wondering how other yoga teachers get so many followers? Or seeing loads of comments flying back and forth and feeling curious how you can foster a connection like that with your people?
If this is you, you are not alone, because trying to find your Instagram Yoga flow can be a tedious task of trial and error.
If you’re ready to flow with Instagram and explore a deeper connection with your followers AKA potential students, here are 8 proven tips to help increase your Insta-engagement.
1. Become inspired!
Follow Instagram yoga accounts that inspire you. Why? It’s an opportunity for you to learn and understand HOW they engage with their students and Insta Community?
Use these accounts to learn:
- What posts get more engagement?
- What hashtags are being used?
- How they use Instagram features to connect with their students e.g. Reels or an IG Live?
2. Share your yoga classes
There’s something quite intriguing about seeing a yoga class on Instagram without all the bells and whistles. Seeing it authentically, with real people in real poses that are right for their body type. You need to hold the digital space, allowing potential students to mentally prepare for their yoga journey.
Here’s how:
- Ask a studio employee to take a picture of you teaching a class
- Do a time lapse of you teaching your students
- Create a story of you on your way to teaching a class and showing the studio
A friendly tip, get your students approval before posting online!
3. Recommendations
Sharing social proof (especially in video format) allows you to create a piece of highly shareable content. Ask your students for voice notes, videos or texts.
Potential students are searching for answers and they can find them from the mouths of your existing students.
4. Calls to Action (CTA’s)
A call to action is a part of your post or caption that extends an invitation to your followers as to what they should do next. This invites engagement, here’s how:
- If you have a website (and you should) you can include your link in your bio and direct your prospective students to book for your classes, read your blogs or sign up for your newsletters there.
- Instagram Stories have fun stickers that you can use as CTA’s e.g. stickers like “Tap here to read” or “New post” or “Link in my Bio”. This is great if you are directing people to book for a workshop or classes.
- If you have a business profile add buttons like “Book an appointment”
Friendly tip, you can post links in the description fields of your posts, but they are not clickable on Instagram. The only place you can put a clickable link is in your Instagram bio.
5. Create More Video Content
Time spent watching videos on Instagram is up more than over 80% year over year. When you do video, you’re almost guaranteed to increase engagement on your Instagram yoga profile. Look at using Instagram Reels to go into the lighter side of yoga, Instagram Stories to go behind the scenes and IG TV to talk about anything you want! From tutorials to meditations, there is a huge scope for creativity. Remember, your students love authenticity, you don’t need to be fancy, just be yourself!
6. Create “savable” content
Let’s face it, life happens, so saving posts is a great way to catch up later on. The more you save, the more Instagram will love you! If you want to grow your account, focus your efforts on getting your ideal students to save your posts. This way you are working with the algorithm and improving your engagement!
7. Add a dash of Fun
No matter who you are talking to (I dare to be challenged on this), people enjoy a good chuckle. While Instagram posts take time and effort to plan, it’s okay to get a little silly and have some fun too.
8. Pay Closer Attention to Your Hashtags
Hashtags are a two way street. They help you:
- Find your ideal students
- Get your ideals students to find you (come, follow and engage)
To increase your Instagram engagement, understanding which hashtags are driving more people to your posts is really important. This is where an Insta business page is great because you can use ‘Insights’ to see which tags work best.
If you don’t know where to start, head over to other profiles that inspire you and see what hashtags they are using and apply them to your business and posts.
A note on using hashtags:
- Instagram feed and IG TV can use up to 30 tags
- Instagram Stories can use up to 3
Check out Yoga with Adrienne on Instagram to see how she uses her page to deepen her connection with her potential students.
These are the strategies you need to increase engagement, my friend: and they work. When you work towards connection, you provide tons of value your ideal students are excited to keep learning from you.
For more engagement tools, check out my FREE guide The Rules of Engagement.
