5 Instagram Features You Should Be Using for Educational Content

May 3

Instagram has evolved dramatically in the last decade of its existence. What used to be a photo-editing app is now a robust and powerful place to share information, inspiration, and education for its 1 billion active users. You’d be missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with your learner audience by ignoring Instagram and its easy-to-use features.

Today, I’m going to walk you through 5 simple Instagram features to use for educational content. (yes, even for corporations)

Carousels

Carousels are a slider format of a regular post.

The best way to use Carousels is by revealing important info one piece at a time.

For example:

"Top 5 reasons to ___"
"3 Ways you can ___"
“How to ___”

Short, impactful, and actionable.

You can also do this for standard posts that aren’t in the slideable carousel format. Think charts, infographics, etc.:

Traditional training equivalent: Long and boring eLearning modules with info overload and no call-to-action.

Stories

Stories are interactive slides that show for 24 hours for real-time info and engagement.

Polls, Q&As, and other interactions allow for immediate insight and feedback.

Stories can be saved to “highlights” for later viewing. Highlights are accessible at the top of a profile, serving as a library organized by category (they must be a story first).

Traditional training equivalent: Sending a survey that no one wants to answer because they don't think they'll actually be heard.

Reels

Reels are engaging short-form videos. They’re quick and (usually entertaining) snippets of video & info that your audience can binge watch.

Examples:

behind the scenes footage
before & afters
company history in condensed format
fun entertaining content.

Traditional training equivalent: Those 20 minute educational videos where your learners tune out after 90 seconds.

Live Videos

Live video is a live streaming video with a host and guest speaker(s). Perfect for a talk-show style format that's a little more casual and informal.

Traditional training equivalent: Boring 'talking head' webinars that your people feel forced to attend.

Guides

Guides are a simple way to compile multiple posts within the same topic area. This underutilized feature is a great place to organize posts and videos on your profile that belong together. Think 'how-to' or '101' for the best usage of guides.

Traditional training equivalent: Handing out a 97-page training manual or employee handbook.