Instagram for DJs

Instagram can provide a real opportunity for DJs. Around the world, Instagram has over 400 million active users!

My approach to Instagram is a little like Twitter in that you can definitely post a lot of content on it. It also provides an opportunity to show your creative / artistic side a little more.

Not only can you post photos on Instagram – you can also post videos. They used to restrict videos to just 15 seconds but now they’ve increased this to 60 seconds, which gives musicians much more time to share their ideas.

Instagram has also introduced a Snapchat style ‘story’ feature at the top of the app. We’ll talk about Snapchat a bit later, but I’d encourage you to use the basics of Snapchat on Instagram now too.

How DJs can use Instagram

Here’s some ideas on how you can use Instagram as a DJ….

Studio photos & videos
Photos with other DJs / writers / producers
Photos you take whilst traveling
Gig or event artwork
Inspiring photos that you relate to
Older photos of yourself, with the #tbt (throw-back-Thursday)
Gig / tour photos & videos
Screenshots of comments from Twitter / Facebook / chats

EXAMPLES:

Gig / tour photos:

Event artwork:

Screenshots from chats:

Photos with other DJs:

Inspirational / artistic posts:

Instagram is a network where I’d totally recommend adding the #hashtag and tagging other users in your initial posts. People will search for specific hashtags or tags to find photos they’re interested in. These examples also apply to Twitter:

Cities people live. E.g. “Had a wicked time last night hanging with [@DJNAME1]. Yes #Leeds”
Venues people go to. E.g. “En route to @mintwarehouse tonight. #mintwarehouse”
Club nights people to. E.g. “I’ll be playing at @filth later this month with @DJNAME1 @DJNAME2 & more. #filth #leeds #mintclub”
Other DJs people like. E.g “Watching @DJNAME kill it right now live. #DJNAME”

How to get started with Instagram

As a starting point, aim to post 2 Instagrams per week. This is the minimum amount of activity you need to be doing to grow your following.

Make sure each post tags people in and contains hashtags.

Start following DJs you like and comment on their photos & videos.

Go to “Settings > Follow People > Facebook Friends > Follow all” to follow people you’re friends with on Facebook quickly. Friends will follow you back, so this will be a good starting point for you.

How to share Links on Instagram

You might not know this, but links in Instagram don’t work. This can make it frustrating to share new music with fans. If you insert a link to your SoundCloud (for example) in an Instagram photo, it won’t show.

Fortunately, there’s a way of getting around this – simply add the link to your bio. This is your ‘profile’ page, where your profile image, description etc are included.

To update your bio link, follow these steps:

Click on your profile photo in the bottom right hand corner of the app.
Click on the cog in the top right hand corner of the screen.
Click ‘edit profile’
Click on the ‘website’ box (third one down)
Update the link to whatever you want to promote.
Let people know you’ve updated your ‘link in bio’ our your latest Instagram post.

Just because you can’t tell a story with words on Instagram doesn’t mean you should discount it from the marketing mix. Instagram is just as important for DJs as it is for anybody else.