Instagram 101
Refer to Social Media Requirements & Best Practices for general tips.
Instagram works well for departments/clinics that:
- Want to reach a younger audience
- Have more visual, creative content to share
- Want to share more everyday life or behind-the-scenes messages
Instagram Audience
- Instagram demographics
- 1 billion users; 500 million active every day
- 71% of Americans ages 18-24 use this network
- Get familiar with your Insights to understand your audience and posts better.
Content
- Share your posts to IG Stories as well to reach more people. Use stickers like tap here, follow me, etc.
- Instagram Live Q&As, IGTV videos, or Reels are a great and fun way to connect with your audience.
- Hashtags: Use 10-15 per post. Stories can’t have more than 10. Use UVA-specific ones: #UVA, #uvahealth, #charlottesville, #uvachildrens
- Put keywords (example, healthcare or neurology, etc.) in your bio to help new followers find you in search.
- Instagram tends to be more a feel-good platform. Most audiences respond better to happy moments such as patient stories, awards, highlighting team members, etc.
- Play with your grid — the grid view is the first thing followers see when they access your account. Coordinating posts make the grid look nicer (example, a photo, a text block, then a photo again).
- If someone tags you, consider using a repost app to share the content on your feed and give credit to the original owner. User-generated content is great for engagement.
- IG takeovers are popular, where you give someone access to your account to post/share for a day (more user-generated content). You could work with someone to schedule their posts instead of sharing account information.
- Emojis are very popular on IG, but keep them professional.