How I Used the Platform During the course of my yearlong Sheep 365 project, I found that a combination of interesting photos and informative text received the most attention from my followers. I began to use Instagram as a serial photo-blog about the day-to-day activities and concerns of a sheep producer. Photographs caught my viewers’ attention; the words that went with the photo provided an opportunity to educate. Expanding Your Audience Followers are individuals, businesses, organizations, etc. that follow your Instagram account. Building followers takes time, but there are a variety of tools and techniques within the application that can accelerate this process.
Use hashtags: When I started my Sheep 365 project, there were only a handful of other accounts using #sheep365. By the time I finished my year-long project, the hashtag was in wide use all over the world. Because other users were searching for this hashtag, my
followership increased significantly over this time period. More recently, I’ve posted photographs of lambing during the COVID-19 crisis with an additional hashtag (#lifegoeson), which seems to have gained additional traction. Follow (and tag) other interesting accounts: In addition to adding hashtags, you can tag other people and accounts to expand readership. For example, when I post something about collaborative research, I will tag the other researchers involved. This allows my followers to connect with other interesting scientists and helps my posts reach a different audience.
Automatically cross-post to other social media
platforms: Instagram is owned by Facebook, so cross- posting is very simple. I nearly always automatically add my Instagram posts to Facebook. Cross-posting to Twitter can also be done automatically, but the Twitter post will feature a link to Instagram (rather than the actual image).
When using Instagram to advertise workshops and other Extension activities, I include a reminder to check the link in my profile for more detailed information.
Using Instagram as a Science Communication Tool As my use of Instagram has evolved into more of a scientific communication tool, I find that I use the application in new ways. I use photographs and graphics to advertise workshops and other Extension
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