Tips to Start and Grow a Pole Dancing Instagram Account
Did you know that you can improve your pole dancing skills from the comfort of your smartphone? Starting an Instagram account dedicated to posting your pole journey can improve your skills, expose you to new dance styles and tricks and connect you with other polers.
Instagram has a thriving pole dancing community and pole Instagram accounts are no longer only for the highly professional, highly skilled, and highly aesthetic. This article will cover all the benefits of having a pole dancing Instagram account and how to best utilise it.
Why start a pole Instagram?
Encourage recording your progress – Taking and watching videos of yourself in pole class is a phenomenal tool to help you identify areas you could work on. It’s also deeply rewarding. I highly recommend re-visiting old videos to celebrate how far you have come in your pole journey. Many of us start out with an aversion to watching videos of ourselves dancing, but I promise that discomfort goes away quickly with exposure.
Extending your pole community – Instagram has a thriving pole community. With a dedicated pole account, you can connect with others all over the world who also love to pole dance.
You can keep it private! – Don’t want the whole world to be able to see your pole dancing videos? Instagram has a ‘private’ feature which when selected means only users that you approve can access your account and the posts on it. Accounts on private can post and follow others in the same way as a public account, so you don’t miss out on any of the best bits of having a pole Instagram.
Why start a pole Instagram?
Encourage recording your progress – Taking and watching videos of yourself in pole class is a phenomenal tool to help you identify areas you could work on. It’s also deeply rewarding. I highly recommend re-visiting old videos to celebrate how far you have come in your pole journey. Many of us start out with an aversion to watching videos of ourselves dancing, but I promise that discomfort goes away quickly with exposure.
Extending your pole community – Instagram has a thriving pole community. With a dedicated pole account, you can connect with others all over the world who also love to pole dance.
You can keep it private! – Don’t want the whole world to be able to see your pole dancing videos? Instagram has a ‘private’ feature which when selected means only users that you approve can access your account and the posts on it. Accounts on private can post and follow others in the same way as a public account, so you don’t miss out on any of the best bits of having a pole Instagram.
Who to follow?
You’ve made your account, now you need to follow people whose content will motivate and inspire you!
Start close to home – Begin by following your instructors; most will have an account. Follow the studio(s) where you dance and others who dance there too. Connecting with the people around you who also love pole dancing will enrich your experience.
Body positive pole brands – There are so many pole brand accounts on Instagram to choose from. Look for accounts that feature a diverse range of body types and skill levels. Studies have shown that consuming body positive content on social media improves self-esteem and curbs our tendency to compare ourselves to others. Both will make you a better poler.
Keep your feed balanced – We all love watching the pole superstars like Michelle Shimmy, Bendy Kate and Adam Lin, but beware of filling your feed with only elite dancers as this can be demotivating. Make sure to follow a good number of non-professionals and people who are at your own level.
How to use Instagram as a resource
Find new pole tricks and moves – Instagram is a fantastic resource to keep up with the newest pole moves, shapes, variations, and hottest polers. When going through your feed save any videos you might want to watch back later to try out.
Beware of poor tutorials – Not everyone who posts pole dancing tutorials on the internet has the necessary education to teach pole safely. However well-intentioned or experienced, I would recommend against following tutorials made by anyone who is not a professional pole instructor. This is doubly true if the trick is new to you or particularly difficult.
Grow your pole Instagram
When you first begin posting on your pole Instagram account, I would encourage you to not think at all about likes or followers. In fact, for most, it will benefit you to never consider those numbers and enjoy Instagram for the resources and community it allows. However, if you do decide that you would like to grow your account a little, give these things a go.
Tag your instructor and studio in posts – Instructors love seeing the pole videos you post online. Some instructors and studios will even repost your video to their story, exposing you to their audience and potential new followers.
Use in-app music – when posting an Instagram reel, use the in-app ‘sounds’ feature to add music, rather than using the raw audio from your video. Instagram’s algorithm favours this content and will show your video to more users on the FYP (For You Page).
Post regularly – Instagram’s algorithm favours accounts that post consistently and frequently. Use this as motivation to take at least one video a week from class and post it
Editing videos – if the lighting in your studio is weird, don’t be afraid to edit the video a little. Plenty of apps exist to edit videos quickly from your smartphone. Adjust the colour or lighting, add an effect, or whatever else until you like the way it looks. You might want to use the same editing settings every time to keep your content visually uniform and your grid aesthetic.
Having and using a pole Instagram account can improve your skills, motivation, and knowledge of pole dancing. This is even true if you keep the account private, and everything that you post entirely to yourself. So, you have no reason not to up your pole game today with a pole Instagram account.
Follow @vertical_flex for more ways to improve your pole dancing.
References
1 Can following body positive or appearance neutral Facebook pages improve young women’s body image and mood? Testing novel social media micro-interventions, Jasmine Fardouly, Amy Slater, Jade Parnell, Phillippa C. Diedrichs, 2023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S174014452200211X?via%3Dihub
Your Author - JAYY BURR
Jayy (they/them) is a creative, thinker and pole dancer from Melbourne, Australia. Jayy is a Vertical Flex ambassador and occasionally writes articles for us. Jayy’s aim as an ambassador is to give a students perspective of Vertical Flex classes and the community surrounding it. Their favourite pole trick is the #pdflatline and their favourite Vertical Flex class is Aerial Conditioning.
Feel free to check in with Jayy to ask about classes, their articles or their own fitness and pole experiences.
@heyjayyb on instagram
