Review: Vic Styles Instagram Like a Pro Online Course
I've got a ton of fave Instagram accounts but not all of them are just about beautiful faces and locations. I've followed @thevicstyles for a while now, for many reasons. She is definitely, frequently, #hairgoals, has an amazing wardrobe and is upfront with giving advice and opinions. She also knows how to hustle, so I decided to sign up for her Instagram Like A Pro course. Here's a sneak peek into what you'll learn.
Artwork: vicstyles.com
First up, if you’re keen to get started straight away, skip ahead to the 7.45 minute mark, as those initial minutes are where Vic is checking that all attendants for the webinar are ‘in the room’.
Basic photography
Vic gives you her insight without pretending to be a pro. Topics she covers are lighting, the importance of background, the use of colours and how moodboards can be helpful in choosing them, and the photographic rule of thirds – a rule that every photographer is aware of/uses. She also stresses that your phone is fine – as long as it’s a modern one of course – and that you don’t need to go spend thousands on a DSLR camera. In fact, if you’re a fashion blogger, Vic says you might actually be better off hiring a photographer to shoot your looks.
Apps
Vic talks us through the apps she most relies on: Snapseed, Facetune and VSCO – my fave! Even though VSCO is my go-to, I still learned some new things from Vic. (I can’t believe I didn’t already know you could copy and paste your edit effects. Duh.) This section is short and sweet but oh-so-useful, and I’ve downloaded Snapseed myself to have a bit of a play. Vic also talks about how some of these apps can help you achieve Bokeh – that blurry background affect that bloggers/vloggers love to use.
Strategy
If you’ve paid for a course, it’s likely that it’s because you want to achieve some level of success in what you do, or want to do. Vic says you need to approach Instagram like an actual business. She breaks her approach down to monitoring, amplifying, responding and leading. She encourages you to look at what people are liking and commenting on. Basically, if they don’t pay attention to your food pix but love your makeup, you’d want to amplify the makeup posts, and not rely on the food pix to gain new followers. Vic then talks through the much-criticised Instagram algorithm, the most challenging thing that all of us face in reaching our audience. Add to that the time differences and it can get pretty disheartening. Definitely pay attention to this section.
Analytics
I’m not going to give too much away here but it’s definitely a wake-up call for any of us who just want people to find us and pay us money. It’s really not that simple. Here she breaks the course down into what influencers need, and what brands need. Suffice to say, analytics is where it’s at – or to make it simpler: numbers don’t lie! This is the section that requires you to do more, and make more effort.
Artwork: vicstyles.com
The rest
Vic also goes on to discuss branding (a term she finds annoying, for good reason I believe), when to post, how to grow followers, plus the virtues of creating an editorial calendar – which I totally get as I would never have been able to put a magazine out every month as an editor without it! There’s more, but I’m not here to rehash what she says and I would urge you to check it out for yourself. When I purchased the webinar was $150 (£118 GBP), but if you stay tuned to Vic’s Instagram Stories you might find that the course is on offer if it’s a little out of your budget, and it has been a couple of times this week! A few weeks before I paid for this I paid £350 for a short course with the London College of Communication, only for them to cancel it a couple of days before it was due to happen. They took forever to give me my money back and were actually arsey about giving me a refund. The worst part is, they’re still promoting the course, ‘just in case people need the information’ – huh?
I’ve already watched the video a couple of times and I’m so glad I spent my money with Vic instead.
Is it worth it? The key thing that I liked about the webinar was Vic herself; her style puts you at ease and she has a no-nonsense approach in giving out really valuable information. Would I buy one of her courses again? Absolutely!