The First Nations creators were back for the second day of the Screen Australia and Instagram program at Meta HQ in Sydney on Wednesday.
The creatives soaked up all the training, knowledge and mentoring on offer, and Mediaweek was given exclusive access.
Meta’s Kirsty Wilson, global partnerships lead, Bianca Benussi, Instagram strategic partner manager, and Adam Rollo, partner solutions manager, global partnerships, shared ideas and insights with the creators on creating engaging posts that drive awareness and growth and build a community.
“It’s really important to think about the funnel as there are different parts of instagram for different goals – Creation of all forms is possible on IG, to keep your followers up to date or reach new audiences” Wilson shares.
“Your goals may evolve over time, and your ideas change (many times) through a single day. Instagram gives you options to fit the moment, and what you’re trying to accomplish — whether it’s sharing short-form fun with new audiences on Reels, capturing moments and vibes for your followers on Feed, Carousel or freestyling it in real-time using Live or becoming a day-in-the-life storyteller/commentator with Stories.”
“One of the most important signals we use in ranking is sends per reach– So of all the people who saw your reel or photo – How many of those people sent it to a friend in a DM? At Instagram we’re trying to be a place where people can be creative but in a way that brings people together. We want not only to be a place where you passively consume content but when you discover things you want to tell your friends about – So don’t force it, but if you can when making content, think about making content that people would want to send to a friend, or someone they care about” Benussi shares.
Wilson also revealed several new product features on Instagram, including Polls on feed posts and reels, Notes that allow for short updates with certain people, and engagement features like Add Yours to stories and reels.
The platform is also working on increasing the number of content pieces that can be shared in a Carousel post.
“Reels is key for growth and over 3.5 billion reels are shared every single day. Reels makes up around 50% of time spent on Instagram. We’ve recently launched some great engagement tools you can use for feed posts, and reels, including the poll functionality, and Add Yours feature to reels.”
“The engagement rate on your content is more important than your follower count – A good sign of how well you are doing – Likes per post, views per reel, reshares for your content” Rollo explains.
Rollo unpacked the benefits of engaging the top 1% of creator’s communities with the use of Lives and Broadcast Channels to test out new content on your community, and if it goes well there, share it to reels or stories.
Another feature to be introduced is cross-posting from Instagram to Threads, which now boasts 175m monthly active users.
Instagram reported they are seeing success across various verticals on Threads, since the apps launch in July 2023. Book Threads, health and wellness, art, photography, and also comedy are just some of the verticals where creators are growing solid communities.
See also: DOBBY shares his journey with First Nations Content Creators
See also: Keeping it Reel and deadly: How Meta is bringing the industry to First Nations creators
See also: ‘If it doesn’t align with me, I don’t think it’s worth it’: Brooke Blurton on the value of authenticity