7 Tips for Creating a Successful Teacher Instagram by Yanina Jimenez

Teacher Instagram

My name is Yanina Jimenez and I am an Elementary school teacher. I created my Instagram page to share what I did in my classroom. I shared many things at the beginning, my IG was not about one specific aspect of teaching and was not growing. I noticed that when I started narrowing the things I shared, my page started to grow. I started sharing brain tips for teachers, which are practical tips that I collect from my research in graduate school. That attracted a lot of direct messages, questions, nice comments and more teachers started to follow my page. This has also brought thousands of teachers around the globe to my Brain Tips for Teachers Academy to take my course and download my Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Brain-friendly Teacher through Classroom Design & Instruction. Instagram has helped me a lot to find many like-minded teachers who I now consider my teacher friends and to help me grow as a teacherpreneur. From this experience I have learned a lot of things that I will share with you now!

Your Teacher Instagram Bio

Your Teacher Instagram Bio needs to state who you are, how you can help your teacher followers, and a link to a resource that gives value to your theme. Be specific and invite your followers to take action to get to know you better! In my case, I state first that I am a teacher and a PhD student. Right after that, I offer my Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Brain-friendly Teacher and the link to that at the end.

Note from Nikki: Consider creating a business account right away so the algorithm adjusts to your profile as a business. If you change to a business account later, the algorithm might hide your feed leading to less people seeing your posts or stories. Also, when you edit your profile in the section that says “name” use a title that people will search for. My name says: ESL Teacher|Recruiter|Coach. That way, when people search for those titles, my account will appear at the top of the search.

Make sure your teacher Instagram bio is searchable.

Teacher Instagram for Students vs. Teachers

I personally think that if you are creating an account for your students, it needs to be private. If you are creating one for teachers, make it public and don’t post pictures of your students. For your Instagram handle, avoid putting the grade you teach in case you change grades and have words in it that are easy to remember and spell! Also, make sure no one has a similar handle. Make it unique!

Creating Consistent Content

Creating consistent content is key. Create content that will help teachers like you, that is if you want to have a specific niche. Your niche is the specific content you want to share with your followers. When you narrow your niche, you will be able to better serve your audience. Find a specific area so when teachers want to learn more from it, they will think about you! If you need inspiration to keep posting consistently, come up with some categories within your niche and alternate the posts from those categories. One category can be “instructional strategies,” another can be “quotes,” others can be “classroom décor,” “things you specifically like to buy for your classroom,” “tips,” etc. Pay attention to the ones that receive the most feedback and post more about that. Listen to your followers’ needs and serve them well!

create consistent content on your teacher instagram — Create consistent content on your Instagram account.

Captions for Your Teacher Instagram

Since Instagram posts only show the first two lines, write a good caption at the beginning so you attract teachers to read the rest. At the end of your post, invite teachers to answer your question or to add to what you shared so you can provide a space for conversation and a sense of collaboration on your page. When teachers comment on your post, please respond and mention that teacher’s name. Make them feel seen, heard and welcomed in your space.

Hashtags for Your Teacher IG

Choose a few general hashtags like #teachersofinstagram, #instateachers, #firstgradeteacher, etc. and the rest specific to what you are teaching, offering, targeting such as #vipkidteacher, #spedteacher #iteachalgebra, #iteachscience, etc.

Note from Nikki: Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags. A friend of mine told me to use 4 hashtags or less because if you use more than that your post won’t be viewable to your current followers. I tested it out a few times and noticed that posts with a few hashtags performed better than the ones with too many. However a lot plays into making your post viewable, so test things out for yourself! Another way to make your posts viewable to your audience is to post at the times when your audience is most active. You won’t be able to see that data unless you make a business or creator account.

How Giveaways Help your teacher instagram

Giveaways are a great way to find other amazing teachers and for other teachers to find you. Instagram giveaways are more powerful if you collaborate with teachers in your niche so you attract more teachers who are interested in your content as well. Giveaways also bring you a lot of followers, but if you don’t post consistent and valuable content, those followers will quickly unfollow. So, don’t count on followers to increase your following. Focus on content, on making connections, on commenting thoughtful words in other teachers’ posts.

Creating Instagram Stories

Instagram stories need to follow your style and have a combination of content, random things you like sharing, and calls to action – to see a product or service you are offering. If you don’t have the swipe up feature, you can add a sticker that says “link in bio!”

Be Social on Instagram

Don’t wait for teachers to find you. Use the hashtags that describe you as a teacher to find, interact, comment, and follow other teachers. Be social on social media and you will have a successful teacher Instagram presence! Look for hashtags like the ones shown in this picture and find new teacher friends!