Instagram for Bloggers

It seems like everyone has a blog these days.

We get regaled by stories of blog riches and how easy it is to make a passive income blogging, and so set out on our own blogging journey.

We write the witty title, and revel in how we will achieve overnight success. After all, we know that blogging is a gold mine, and we are going to get rich. Except that in the real world, even the richest gold mine is hard work.

You have to consistently chip away at the rock and soil to get at the gold. Then it has to be refined and undergo processing before it becomes remotely useful. One large chunk of rock might, in the end, yield only a small nugget of gold.

It’s the same with blogging. For starters, there is a whole lot of competition out there. On WordPress alone, there are over 18 million blogs.

That means that just publishing your blog is not going to guarantee success. Of course, securing stellar WordPress hosting package helps greatly along the way as it guarantees speed and high uptime, but there is more to success than that.

You need to do a little bit more work than that. In the infographic below, we have listed what elements a great blog post should have.

But writing the post is only the first step – you also need a promotion strategy.

Social media is an extremely effective way of promoting your blogs, with Instagram becoming an ever more popular option. In this post, we will look at promoting your blog via Instagram.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Instagram is just a place where vapid teens share endless selfies – there is that element to it, but there is a lot more than that as well. Because it is such a visual medium, it is a great way to promote your blog.

And, with over 1 billion monthly users, 500 million of which use the app daily, Instagram has huge potential.

First things first, you need to set up your profile. To do this, you will first need to download the app.

Do spend some time on creating your bio. This is not where you put your life history, but rather a quick summary of who you are, what you do, and what you feel passionate about. Many users make the mistake of leaving this blank.

That is a really bad mistake.

I always suggest using emojis as well as they get people attention. And of course don’t forget about the link that you can add there. So make your bio good and stand out – catch people’s attention and then make sure they can easily get to your blog by clicking the link on your profile.

You will be tempted to post anything and everything.

Big mistake.

It is better to keep your posts relevant to your blog and to ensure that you make high quality posts. So, instead of posting six semi blurry pictures taken on the fly a day, take time to set up one great shot.

Creativity and quality count the most here. Use creative filters, post amazing pictures, and spend some time making your posts look like art.

Okay, but how do artistic posts actually help get people over to your blog? They don’t directly, but they intrigue your followers. They convince people that your site is worth following.

You can then capitalize on your following by taking screenshots of your latest blog post on your phone and posting that to your account. Make sure that you find an interesting area of the blog to highlight and ensure that you have a great picture included as well.

Pro tip here would be to use device mock-ups on which you can embed the screenshot of your blog. If you’ve never worked with Photoshop mock-ups and this seems overly complicated you can always hire a freelancer from fiverr.com and have them do this for you with .. you guessed it $5.

Your images should be interesting enough to get people read the post caption. Do write a good caption for your post. Summarize what will people learn when they will read your blog and make sure to add some relevant hashtags as well.

You can seal the deal by telling people they can find the link to the blog in the bio. Of course if you’re over 10,000 followers promoting it in your Stories with a swipe feature is fantastic.

An effective way of getting more followers on social media is to start engaging with them on their pages. Find content that complements your post or other Instagrammers that have a similar approach to yours. Follow them – many will return the favor.

When you see relevant posts, like them and make useful comments. Tailor the comment to the actual photo rather than just using a generic comment like “Great photo.”

Take this strategy outside Instagram as well and start looking for bloggers to follow and whose posts you would like to comment on as well.

How do you set up for a shoot? Where do you write your blogs? Showing people that you are a real person and how you work can help them to connect with you more and make you more relatable in general.

Let them see that you have a human side as well.

Choose a theme that is relevant to your blog, one that sets your photos apart. Choose a specific style or theme that is different to what everyone else is using so you can differentiate your blog’s brand.

Find ideas on Pinterest and look for ways to really create a fresh and interesting approach.

Instagram does allow you to post a video of whatever you like. The catch? It has to be sixty seconds or less (unless you’re using IGTV which is a different and longer video format).

Think of videos as short engaging blog posts. Let people know what you are about and give them teasers about blog content.

The attention span is extremely low these days so you really have to capture people with first seconds otherwise they will continue to scroll.

Think about this as a trailer for your blog post or Instagram account. You can post these every so often just to change things up a bit and to get people more interested in you. As of late 2020 we also have the Instagram reels options which is a perfect creating more fun short videos. These are perfect for trailers and teasers.

If you’re looking for a medium to actually use as a blog or maybe give one chapter of your blog post in a video format then go with IGTV.

Why not try different styles of videos and see which gets the best results? Or provide a fast tutorial that people would be interested in?

Use videos as much as you can. These are more personal and can help you grow your account a lot faster.

Why are your followers going to follow you? Is it because they want you to promote yourself all the time or because they are getting some kind of value? It is always going to be the latter, so make sure it is worth their while to follow you.

Share some great tips, quotes, photos, etc. that have no other purpose than to be useful to your followers. The more useful they find the content, the more likely they are to share it and the more followers you will get as well.

When it comes to becoming an Instagram sensation, you need to post with your followers in mind all the time. What are they interested in? What do they need? What questions do they need to be answered?

Be a helpful Instagrammer, and your follower base will grow quickly and organically.

It’s all fun and games in the beginning. You love the idea of posting, and it is such a novelty. When the novelty wears off, however, it becomes more of a chore to post. If you are like many people, you start slacking off – posting every now and again as the urge strikes.

The first problem with this is that your followers start to lose interest. You could lose followers as a result. The second problem with this is that any new potential followers that stumble onto your account may not feel that it is worth following.

Before you make your first post on Instagram, come up with a posting strategy. Will you post daily? Every other day? Weekly? It is better to post more frequently if you want the best results.

Some bloggers post two or more times a day. And, while that is a good way to achieve success, it is not any good if you are not consistent with it. It is better to post every other day like clockwork than to post three posts in a day and nothing more for the week.

Do yourself a favor and figure out how often you will realistically be able to post. Will you be able to keep up with posting daily? Then sit down and plan out what content you will post. Do this for a week in advance at least.

It may take a little time to sit and plan the content in this way, but it increases the chances that you will make your posts on time when you should. Having the content ready in advance means that when it comes to rushing around to meet other deadlines, you will always have time to keep up your Instagram posts.

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