How to promote a language school on Instagram? Find out all you need to know about promoting a language teaching business on social media from our interview with Laura Brinkley of Laura’s IELTS Page!
| Hi, I´m Laura and I’ve been teaching for around 10 years now. Although I’ve been teaching English for almost a decade, I only really found my passion for what I do a few years ago when I started building my website and my courses on my online learning platform.  I specialise in IELTS preparation and offer online and face to face classes to students around the world. I´m based in Colombia so at the moment all of my students are from Bogota. I have also taught students online who live in Saudi Arabia, India, and Egypt and found that they are very dedicated students and always do well in the IELTS test. I decided to specialise in IELTS because I can really see an improvement in my students English level, having a goal really changes a person’s attitude towards learning, and it’s possible to see an improvement quickly. My website is www.LaurasIELTSpage.com – this is where I started, I will be offering more free materials in the near future. I have had a Facebook page for a long time now too: www.facebook.com/LaurasIELTSpage And more recently have set up my Instagram account: www.instagram.com/LaurasIELTSpage |
Tell us how social media help you find clients and which social media are you using most
| I’d say that I use my Instagram account the most and I try to upload something every day in order to engage my current followers and attract new English learners to my page.   Facebook is an extremely useful tool as well, people see who you are and can build trust in what you do. I also use my personal Facebook profile to promote my lessons and the English events I organise in and around Bogota.  |
Which have you found most/ least helpful?
| I would say that all social media is extremely useful. These days, it’s important to be active on as many platforms as you can.
So far I haven’t used youtube but this is definitely one of the most important platforms available at the moment, especially if you’re interested in providing free learning videos for everyone to see |
What kind of content do you share there? What kind of content have you found resonates most with your audience?
| I try to make at least 2 or 3 short videos each week and the rest of the posts are about vocabulary and phrase builders which is all my own material.
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What kind of strategies have worked best for you and which have not been successful?
| Consistency is the key, consistency means user engagement and more interest in what you do.  I used to upload posts to my Facebook page which were grammar, vocabulary, and tips for English learners but they weren’t my own material, so in the end,I stopped doing that and started making my own material. |
How do you grow your followership?
| I was told by someone who had 30,000 followers on Instagram that the best way to grow followers was to follow people and then unfollow them a few days later. This does increase numbers but it doesn’t mean that the post engagement will be high. This isn’t an effective way to get people interested in your page, the best way is to grow them organically.  1)   Instagram allows up to 15 hashtags on each post, which helps people find me. 2)   Consistency is the key. I upload material at the same time every day and I always reply to messages and comments that are made on my posts. 3)   Using Instagram stories – My Instagram stories are quizzes about the post that I uploaded that morning, there’s an opportunity for learning when the correct answer is selected.  |
How do you boost your engagement?
| This is similar to the above, my main aim is to boost engagement and not followers. I’ve seen many Instagram accounts with thousands of followers but with little post engagement. To me, it doesn’t make sense having thousands of followers if the right people aren’t actually interested in the posts.
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Do you analyse and measure your results? How?
| The videos show how many people have seen them and my posts record the number of likes I receive. I also measure the success of a post by the number of new followers I get in a day as a result of the post.
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Are social media a primary source of your leads?
| I usually receive facebook messages and Instagram messages from those who are interested in learning English with me. As I use my personal facebook profile too to promote what I do, I get friends of friends looking for a teacher to help them improve their language skills.
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Thanks for your time!
Do you have any questions about your marketing strategy for your language school/ online teaching business? Or how you can promote a language school on Instagram?
Write to anna@postifity.com and we’ll schedule a call to help you! 🙂
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