Demystifying Instagram With BIID Online Workshops

I spent a hugely interesting afternoon this week with Bella Foxwell, an influential Instagram strategist, learning about all things Instagram. The course was via Zoom (helpful when we’re all so busy) and was fast paced and entertaining. Bella walked us through the Instagram landscape for 2023, giving us hints and tips along the way. 
Many of us consider Instagram to be a portfolio of our work - beautiful photos that have been heavily curated. Instead, Instagram is a place where viewers can be inspired and a place to learn something new. The primary focus should always be great content; she particularly emphasised the importance of “shareable” and “saveable” content.

“Shareable content” is something that helps your viewer and affirms their values, whereas “saveable content” can be tips/tricks, tutorials, before and after or behind the scenes information. Your Instagram posts also don’t have to be perfect, the Instagram algorithm delivers the most relevant content to the right people. Your Instagram strategy should be to strive for engagement, not to get as many followers or “likes” as possible. 

Bella also discussed how video is being pushed by Instagram, so reels, stories and live feeds are three ways to bring video to your page. She also gave the audience some ideas for video, such as revealing a project by opening a door into a space, showing how a process works in fast forward mode or even showing how a designer works, such as putting a mood board together. 
This is a series of workshops that Bella offers to the BIID membership, so I highly recommend you sign up for one as I’m certain every designer will find it useful. Now to get to that Instagram page….!!

The BIID offers many exciting opportunities to develop professional practice with CPD hours.

Recording your CPD regularly throughout the year alleviates the stress of compiling your annual report in one sitting. To help our members in achieving this, we have set out the following handy hints 

• Upon registering for a CPD activity, add it to your diary. TOP TIP: Make a note on whether the activity is structured or unstructured and the length (in minutes and hours) of the activity. Colour coding your diary will help you find important information quickly.
• Set reminders to add your completed CPD training to your tracker, this could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Or, add it to your tracker as soon as you complete!  
• Check your tracker to see how many hours you have remaining to complete for the year. If you’ve outstanding hours, book more CPDs in to make sure you reach the minimum by the cycle submission date. Remember: CPD can be sourced from external organisations and can be of any length.  
• Consider joining up with other interior designers and booking CPDs together, or dedicate time to CPD training for your team  
• The annual CPD Requirement for BIID Registered Interior Designers is 10 hours of structured and 10 hours of unstructured learning, and the CPD Cycle date is 1st April to 31st March. Members have until the last Friday of April to submit their CPD Reports.  

For more information on the requirement, and exemptions, please visit our Continuing Professional Development and the BIID webpage 

To see upcoming instagram workshops, and more, please visit the events list here.

The BIID thanks guest writer Anne Hatton.