English
Instagram has partnered with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute to launch a new project — Instagram Local News Fellowship. It was created to test and develop new content promotion strategies on Instagram to attract a young audience.
The project united two generations of journalists - three graduates from the Missouri School of Journalism were invited to promote Instagram pages of several local publications. Emily Dunn, Grace Lett and Magdaline Duncan managed the accounts of regional newspaper Post-Dispatch, Boston weekly publication The Boston Globe and Star Tribune, accordingly.
Although the objective of the project was to direct young users' attention towards these traditional publications, the experiment exceeded all expectations as these young experts demonstrated a brand-new way of presenting news and bringing popularity to these little-known publications.
As a result, in just one week Star Tribune got 3000 new active followers, Post-Dispatch attracted 4000, and the number of visits to The Boston Globe profile increased by 700%.
The unique experiment from Instagram Local News Fellowship goes to show that young experts can be a real asset for major media companies: they know their way around Instagram, speak the language of their audience and know how to select the right strategy.
