Please note - the final session will be postponed. We thank you for your patience whilst we find a new date.

A comprehensive 3-day course designed for micro and small-medium businesses wishing to harness the power of storytelling on Instagram to elevate and further develop their brand, take their content to the next level to connect with their community.

Please note that you must be a Cultivator client to attend these sessions

Session 1 - 16th November 2018 (10:30 - 13:30)

Session 2 - 7th December 2018 (10:30 - 13:30)

Session 3 - 8th March 2019 (10:30 - 13:30)

This course will cover the key elements of visual storytelling on Instagram, explored from the lens of editorial best practice and community engagement. Each workshop is a mix of theory and practical skills-based learning in key visual storytelling techniques, which can be applied to a range of social presences with a variety of measures for their success.

The core principles which underpin the Instagram app form the basis for the course, as well as Hannah's first-hand experience working at Instagram on their community team, and later with a range of big media brands on developing their visual storytelling to transform their business.

About your tutor...

Hannah Ray, née Waldram, is a community consultant and visual storyteller. Hannah's trained as a journalist and has more than eight years of experience in engaging audiences through storytelling. She worked at the Guardian in the newsroom focused on how to tell stories to connect people, before being hired on Instagram’s flagship editorial team where she worked for the three years in its high-growth period, pioneering approaches to storytelling through words and pictures for huge global audiences. Hannah was the first international hire for the company, focused on growing its global community and later became a lead producer on the team. Hannah helped launch Instagram Stories globally, and creatively produced Stories for @instagram, @instagramde, @instagramfr, @instagrames, @instagramrussia @instagramjapan and @instagrambrasil. Hannah now works at Conde Nast as Head of Social and Storytelling across 22 Vogue Instagram accounts. She is the lead strategist for uses of social media across all Conde Nast titles internationally and works to elevate the quality of storytelling across multiple platforms. She lives in West Cornwall and works freelance on short-form visual storytelling and social and community consultancy.

Session one:
Mobile Video Workshop: Practical Session on creating mobile video for short-form social stories, particularly Instagram Stories. This is a practical session covering the basics, with an opportunity to add advanced skills for enhancing your Instagram Stories; including shooting from the hip, building a narrative, pacing and sequencing, editing and producing on the go, storyboarding and post-production.

The workshop will cover on what to look out for when creating and producing social short-form video from events or experience, with a focus on engaging your community while creating beautiful visuals for your audience.

Session two:
Short-form Caption Writing Workshop: Writing to an image is a nuanced skill, similar to reporting, headline-writing or poetry requiring extra practice and training. The best visual storytellers are proficient in the caption or 'legend' writing and understanding what to leave in and edit out of a caption to shape it perfectly. This session will cover the basics of caption writing, plus how to engage readers and share the messages you want them to understand. Will also cover using hashtags, location and other Instagram caption feature to engage your audience.

Session three:
Honing your Visual Voice. A session designed to help attendees drill down into their visual voice and come away with a barebones strategy including goals + objectives, target audience and tone, using Instagram furniture, content types, series and calendar, a visual voice statement and mission. This will be the foundation for developing their brand on the platform. This is also a chance to discuss your ideas with Hannah 1:1 and get her key advice and consultancy to take your ideas further.

Why attend all three sessions? Brands who stand out in a saturated social space are the ones who harness the power to tell stories which resonate. Storytelling has never been more important for smaller businesses, and brands need to understand how to operate on a platform designed for connecting people. Many brands find their goals, beliefs or personal experiences of Instagram cloud their ability to unleash and communicate fully in a way which connects with people. This course will fortify attendees with not only the 'why' but key skills in visual storytelling as well as a powerful strategic plan for telling your own story.

What else is included? Access to Hannah in-between course sessions on email and during sessions for 1:1 questions and advice related to the course and course content. Materials and handouts cited in the course and links for further reading. Please note: Those seeking additional consultancy related to their personal brand or business will need to request availability for a further 1:1 sessions at an additional price.

What's not covered? We won't cover how to create and share paid advertising on the platform, Facebook ads, business insights and account furniture (setting up your business account), IGTV and long-form video content creation in depth.

Audience: The course is aimed to engage a mixed level group of Instagram users: from those with basic to intermediate understanding of Instagram, as well as the most passionate Instagram users, those with an interest in the Instagram Stories feature and the importance of building community.

Attendees should have an Instagram account and have experienced posting content to their feed, editing captions, tagging and commenting—understanding the lexicon of Instagram. Examples are targeted at those working in art, design, fashion, and media.

“Our session with Hannah was sort of revolutionary - so enlightening and liberating, leaving us with a fresh new perspective and understand of how to approach Instagram, how to have fun with it and how to engage with our audience with a new depth which we now feel sure will help our Instagram community to grow and flourish in the right way. ”

— Selina Barker, Project Love

“Hannah was an inspiration to the entire MR PORTER team and got everyone excited about taking our Instagram content to the next level. Following the workshop, we implemented three of her recommendations, which was huge progress for the team. She moderated a very fruitful discussion that led to ideas which have already been put into place.”

— Lauren Luxenberg, Social Media Content Manager | MR PORTER

Refundable Deposit

Please note that the £20.00 charge for this event is a deposit which will be refunded to you after you have attended all three sessions. If you do not attend a session your deposit will not be refunded unless you provide at least 24 hours notice.

Anything Else?

If you have any questions about the course you can contact us on 01209 312501 or at enquiries@cultivatorcornwall.org.uk