Top Tips for Starting A Successful Teacher Instagram

Top Tips for Starting A Successful Teacher Instagram

I am relatively new to the whole teacher social media community. For years, I’ve used my personal accounts and followed so many amazing teachers on Instagram and Pinterest. On Pinterest especially, I’ve created so many boards and gained so much inspiration. Personally, I think Instagram is slowly becoming the new Pinterest...well at least for teachers! I have loved every second of being part of the teacher Instagram community! It is full of so many creative, fun and simple ideas. I started my account less than 4 months ago and I’ve loved every second of it.

Are you looking to get involved? Here are my top tips that I wish someone had told me 4 months ago!

1.My first tip would be figure out what your main aim of your account is. Is it to connect with like-minded people? Are you wanting to build a blog? Do you want to market your resources?  Alternatively, is it to share and gain tips? Are you focusing on a particular Key Stage, subject or idea? 

My goal was actually a few of these.  I always love gaining new ideas especially, ones that have been tried and tested by other teachers! I also really wanted to meet like-minded teachers. The teaching community are amazing! Helpful, kind and supportive. What more could you want? After a few months, my Instagram started to increase in popularity and many people began to ask me about my resources. I then started a TpT store, so my Instagram has slowly started to become a way for me to promote my work. However, this was never my original goal! Never in a million years, did I think people would be interested in my buying resources! 

Nevertheless, I’m a teacher first. I share my daily practice, my resources, lesson ideas, behaviour management ideas, pupil’s work, classroom displays, teacher related purchases and other amazing teaching accounts and ideas. And that really is my favourite part. That is where my heart lies. I think if you really believe in what you’re sharing, then that will help your Instagram grow! Your passion will shine through and inspire other teachers! Thus, generating more engagement on your profile.

2. My second tip would be to create a separate account. A lot of my friends don’t work in education and whilst they like seeing the occasional display that I’ve created, on the whole they don’t want to see continuous pictures of my daily endeavours. Similarly, I’m sure my teacher followers wouldn’t want to see continuous selfies before a night out!

3. I would also advise to make friends and connect with other teachers. Support other teachers and they will support you back! I absolutely love how one day I could be talking to someone from Scotland, the next talking to a teacher from the USA and sometimes even exotic places like Chilli! My best advice would be to comment on everything that you love! Share great ideas on your story or feed, respond to people’s questions and tag other teachers in things they might like. The teaching community is generally a friendly and supportive one! I’ve truly met some amazing teachers through Instagram! However, don’t be surprised if you’re fangirling another teacher with 70k+ followers, and they don’t respond! It’s not always easy to respond to everyone’s comments.

Some of my favourite accounts that I’ve connect with:

@displaylady- her displays are next level and she’s just FANTASTIC.

@teachingmissb14- I trained with this lovely lady, and she’s a great account to follow if you’re in a SEND setting.

@spectrumpatronum-Another awesome teacher in a SEND setting

@littlemissfiesta-  Literally everything she posts is just beautiful. She can make a starbucks cup look out of this world.

@homeschoolingautism- This lady is an inspiration! Every single story she puts up is just incredible.

@thelondonteacher- her content is great and she’s super friendly!

4. Using hashtags has been a great way to promote engagement. If I want to find a particular idea, I ALWAYS search hashtags first. My favourite hashtags are:

#teachersfollowteachers

#teachersofinstagram

#teacherspayteachers

#classroomdecor

#bulletinboard

#classroominspirations

#teachersofinsta

#ukteachers

#teachingtips

My personal one that I use on my pictures is #misscsclassroom92.

Have a look on other people’s post. See what hashtags they use! A QUICK TIP: I always have my general hashtags saved on a notes folder in my phone. It can FOREVER to individually type each one.

5. Post and interact consistently. Post regular pictures of what you’ve been doing or even post other people’s great ideas (as long as you give them credit of course). Also, don’t be afraid to post lots of stories too! My favourite thing to post on my stories is things like #motivationalmonday #tipstuesday #wisdomwednesday #throwbackthursday and #followfriday. If you post these on your story, add a question box, it’s a quick way to interact with your followers. I’ve made images to match these. I use a fantastic app called Canva! It’s so simple and you can make things look so pretty!

6. Another easy way to generate engagement and meet like-minded people is participating in follow loops. Follow loops are fun and easy way to meet lots of teachers. Generally, you post a selected loop picture and caption, follow, comment and like on everyone else’s loop picture. This is such an easy way to discover new profiles! I’ve found so many amazing profiles through this! However, if you are going to take part, please don’t be that person that follows everyone and then unfollows everyone the next day! This is super annoying and not at all supportive! There’s a great blog about loop etiquette by @griffin_edu.

Some great teacher loops are:

@spectrumpatronum, and educa_milla run a great SPED loop using the hashtag #spedteacherfollowloop

@allaboutearlyyears @earlyyearsnqt @earlyyearslauren and @early_years_ideas_ run a great Early Years follow loop using the hashtag #earlyyearsfollowloop

Myself@misscsclassroom92 and @displaylady host a general teacher follow loop as well using the hashtag #sundayteacherfunday

7. My final tip would be just be yourself, be real and be authentic. Your followers will follow you and engage with you if they believe in your content. Try to only post things that you honestly like, believe in and use. Once you build your followers, you may be asked to do promotional posts. It is easy to get into a vicious circle of promoting JUST BECAUSE. I fell into that trap at the beginning of just accepting every offer, because I was so flattered that people would want me to promote their products. It took a while for me to learn how to politely decline. I felt rude saying no. But some things just aren’t right for you/ your class and that’s fine and it is okay to say no! 

Share the things that make YOU proud to be a teacher and part of the education community.  Support others, be kind and spread positivity. 

You do you.

See you on the gram!