On Tuesday 24^th April we welcomed businesses from across Devon and Cornwall to our latest event, which focused on how to increase bookings and enquiries through imagery and photography.
Here are some of the key learning points from the session:

General Points:

1. Increasing reach and dwell time (the amount of time someone spends on your posts) are the key to increasing engagement and effectiveness.
2. Make sure you post a good range of content.
3. Make sure you learn from what works – take a few minutes each month to look back on the posts that have gained the most likes, comments and shares; do more of what has been effective and less of what hasn’t.

Facebook:

1. Facebook’s active users continues to grow (currently above 2 billion) and whilst this may plateau in the coming years it is unlikely to diminish.
2. 68% of Facebook users login on a daily basis spending 20 minutes each visit.
3. Add more than one photo – gallery posts gain 180% more interaction than those with just one image.
4. Get your timing right – posts in early evening are great on Facebook, as are those on Sunday evenings / afternoons.
5. Forbes found that a post made at 7pm will gain more engagement than one made at 8pm.
6. Ideally, don’t share to Facebook from other networks; if you do share from Instagram onto Facebook then place your hashtags in the comments section of your Instagram post once you have shared it across.
7. Check-in to your location when you post and also add emotion to it e.g. MiHi is feeling…
8. Remember you can schedule on Facebook, so any scheduling should be done through the platform itself.
9. Try creating collages to inspire more engagement – some apps available include ‘Pic Collage Photo Editor’ and Pic Stitch Collage Editor’.

Instagram:

1. Instagram monthly active users are increasing at an exponential rate – whilst it is still difficult to monetarise the platform for certain sectors, it is still an effective tool that businesses should be making use of.
2. Users over the age of 25 spend 24 minutes on Instagram each day; those under the age of 25 spend even more (32 minutes).
3. Over the past month 50% of business accounts have added to their story and if you’re not then you are missing out on additional reach and visibility.
4. Instagram isn’t run on a chronological basis so timing isn’t as vital as it is with Facebook. However, we’ve found that posts made in the morning (8 – 9:30am) and the evening (8 – 10pm) gain higher levels of interaction.
5. Try adding gallery posts – it gets people going sideways rather than up and down, increasing their dwell time.
6. Include 10 – 15 hashtags per post.  Out of ideas? Take a look at what other accounts are using, particularly if they are competitors as you’ll then be appearing in the same places.
7. Rotate your hashtags and don’t always use the same ones – if you use the same ones it is like always fishing in the same place – move the rod!
8. Planoly can be used to schedule onto Instagram and to aid you with layout.
9. Make sure you interact – if you don’t then you’ll see your reach significantly impacted.

Instagram stories:

1. Are an opportunity to increase reach and visibility on the Instagram App (they are the round circles you see at the top of your home screen when you first go on).
2. Make sure that you don’t bulk upload your photos when you go on – spread your story out over the day to increase the amount you appear at the start of the story list.
3. Include a location and hashtag on each of your posts to further increase reach.
4. Trial different locations to see which gains the most views.

To download the full slides from the event please click below:

MiHi Digital Photography Presentation