Should you use Instagram for your yoga business? Will it help your yoga practice? Are you looking for tips and tricks on how to use it?
For those of you following me on Instagram you might have seen that I have started being quite active on there especially with the “journey to handstand” March challenge (see picture below). I have to admit that I was one of these people dismissing Instagram as just another social media tool to understand, way too technical and really only for the under 30s! Well I was certainly wrong as it seems like everyone is on Instagram nowadays, especially the “stars” of the yoga world and lots of well known yoga brands are very active!
So why should you be using Instagram? Maybe some yogis will say now that yoga is very much an internal practice and that you can’t reflect in images what is happening on the inside which is absolutely true! However, if you want to make a living as yoga teacher or promote your yoga brand you might decide that it’s useful to adapt to your audience (that is what marketing is all about!) and find the best way to connect with them!
Benefits of Instagram for Yoga
- Share images and 15 second videos with the world
This is what Instagram is all about. No fuss, you just share your favourite images or short videos with a very wide audience. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have many followers yet – as long as your account is set to ‘public’ people can see what you are posting (as long as you hashtag your pics but we’ll come to that later). If your mission is to inspire people to take up yoga then this is a really good way of doing it.
- Great resource and inspiration
I use it all the time if I just want to look up a specific pose. It is much better than using google images as you usually get a short explanation as well!
- It’s a great way to record your progress
There are other ways to do this but if you’re using Instagram a lot, you might find that you are getting better at certain poses and can compare the before and after. I have actually found it very useful to look at the images and videos to check my alignment and figure out where I’m going wrong.
- Connect with other like-minded people and brands
I love looking at other people’s yoga poses and following their journeys. I get so much inspiration, ideas and motivation from Instagram!
If you want to promote your brand it’s a fantastic platform especially if you have something great that you can show visually. It’s also a great way to connect with other brands that might interest you personally or to maybe start a business relationship.
Disadvantages of Instagram for Yoga
- The Ego
Ok, yes we are trying to quieten the ego in yoga and Instagram probably doesn’t help so much with that. You will see people doing incredible things and your ego might say to you “I want to do that too!” even though your body is not ready for it. You can also get a bit carried away with how many comments or likes you are getting for your posts but if you are aware of that and don’t take it seriously then you can still keep your ego in line!
- It’s all about looks
It is and it isn’t I would say. Yes people like to look at beautiful people doing beautiful things perfectly but people also like real people! It depends on what message you want to get across of course and what you want to achieve.
- The nastiness
I have seen some nasty comments on Instagram before and with everything else… if you are putting yourself out there then this has to be expected at some stage. Keep in mind that this is a very very small percentage of people, however, the majority of people will be inspired by what you do and what you have to offer to the world.
Tips for using Instagram for Yoga
- Hashtag and tag people and brands
This is probably the most important point if you want your posts to be seen and noticed. You will find out quite quickly what hashtags are most used for your niche and then just add any that describe your picture or video. You want people to find your pictures so just think of the keywords they might be using to search for them.
- Be inspiring but don’t be too perfect
If you are amazing at jumping into handstand or doing other incredible arm balances then that’s great and inspiring for others to see. Unless you are super super amazing, however, it might also be a bit boring! Who wants to see someone being perfect all the time? Maybe show what you are struggling with sometimes, show your progress and get people interested in your journey and your story!
- If you set up a yoga challenge make it accessible
For those of you who have not come across any yoga challenges before, it’s usually set up by someone who wants to promote their yoga brand or business and they will challenge people to post a picture or video of themselves attempting the post. They ask to be tagged in the picture and usually there is a sponsor involved who they ask to be followed. They get a lot of promotion out of it, there is usually some kind of prize but mainly it’s about having a bit of fun!
I can say the above from my own experience as I’m currently doing Kino Macgregor and Kerri Verna‘s handstand challenge and the support they are getting is amazing! Kino can do all these amazing poses that 99% of us will probably never be able to do and she is fantastic to watch but I do believe that the beginner options that Kerri is showing, give the challenge just a much wider appeal and makes people want to participate!
- Be proactive
If you have decided to be on Instagram then be proactive as well. Comment on other people’s pictures and connect with people and brands that you find interesting. The more people you follow the more will follow you back as well! So make sure you follow me on Instagram 🙂 and share your yoga photos and videos!
I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject if you are a yoga enthusiast or yoga teacher! Do you use Instagram? Do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
