How to use instagram for your blog without letting it consume your life
Instagram is a minefield these days, with new rules and “hacks” for how to use Instagram efficiently theorised on the daily. However, it is easy to let it consume your life. Like most social media apps these days, they’re not designed to work for you. They’re designed to keep you on them. Much like gambling, people post with high hopes that somehow they’ll win big with a viral reel and hundreds of thousands of followers.
The first step to using Instagram efficiently is to understand that it should be just one of your tools to help get your creative voice out there. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (if you’re only using Instagram, how about you check out my Instagram vs Blogging post?). Unfortunately, marketing your creative work is just something we have to do in this day and age and as they say, you have to play to win.
What you will find here
This is not a guide for those wishing to make 100k followers. If you want to do that, the easiest way is to pay a virtual assistant to go and join a bunch of engagement pods for you and spend their life consumed with commenting, following/unfollowing, and sliding into people’s DMs. This guide is for the solo writer/blogger/artist girlies who just want to have a functioning instagram where readers can reach out to them and keep up to date on their preferred platform. These creatives don’t want it to take up hours of each day, but if brands, customers, or readers reach out to them via Instagram it doesn’t look like a memorial page.
How to use instagram efficiently
Have a plan of what to post on instagram
Planning is key. There are so many people telling you to create engaging hooks, use popular music, or some other “hack”. Nope. Not doing that. Not only is it way too much work, but I have an inkling that all those trends are going to be cringier than chevron print. Do you really want to be that person, pretending to be shocked before they reveal a view hoping you’ll go viral?
Instead, stay true to yourself without having to reinvent the wheel. The key here is to work backwards. Most people struggle with what to post on Instagram. Go and find 12 of your favourite photos that you can write a short caption using keywords (blog, Japan travel, travel etc). Just like that, you now have a consistent stream of posts because you can use one of those photos each month. For instance as a travel blogger I will pick my favourite spring photo to use for April and remind readers that I have a huge range of spring-related posts. And guess what? You can post these every year.
The key is to find things you can crosspost so that it saves you time. I post on my blog at least 3 times each week, so that gives me 3 things to post about each week on instagram. I usually use one of the images from my blog post or my Pinterest pin for that post to repost on Instagram. I post once a week on Saturday, which means that in one week writing blogs I have almost a month’s worth of posts for Instagram.
If I want to post more, I always can! I also post shorts and long-form videos on Youtube so it is easy to pick a 5-7 snip of my video to use for Instagram, which I post at a whim.
Schedule your posts in advance
You can only schedule posts a month in advance on Instagram, so make sure you have a system to store all your posts (I just use a folder but there are plenty of apps like Notion or Later out there). At the beginning of each month, I schedule my posts in the Facebook Business Content Calendar which usually takes me a couple of hours as I already have the images for what I will post in my folder!
Allocate a time slot to focus on Instagram
I have an alarm that goes off at 4pm each day to remind me to post on my stories and reply to comments. All my posts are scheduled, so I don’t need to worry about that. That means once I set up my posts, I’m only spending 15 minutes or so on Instagram each day. I’m not worrying what to post on instagram each day, I can focus on my art.
Pin your most important posts
You can pin 3 posts to the top of your feed. The best way to use this is to have text over a photo encouraging those who head to your profile to click on them and learn more about your blog. For instance, if you offer a free guide – why not make a pinned post for that? If you post about a specific subject, make sure people can easily see that is what you’re blogging about so they have a reason to visit.
Relax, it is just Instagram and it doesn’t matter
At the end of the day, Instagram is just a social media app that is slowly falling out of favour. Instead of worrying what to post on instagram everyday, focus on creating a system. Remember, it is possible to go from a working class/middle class human to a mega influencer through one magnificent viral reel but you have as much chance of that happening as winning the lottery. There are far more fruitful and fulfilling ways to use your time as a blogger or writer or artist.
VERDICT
is instagram good for bloggers?
Instagram is great for bloggers or artists who want their audience to have somewhere to connect. It is becoming harder and harder to reach a new audience on Instagram, so I wouldn’t recommend spending too much of your time on it. It is worthwhile positing on Instagram as a blogger, but the key is knowing how to use Instagram efficiently so it isn’t all you do. That time is better spent on your own website, Pinterest, and building a newsletter.
Thanks for reading!
I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re on Instagram, you can find me over here: @apicturesquelife or youtube: @apicturesquelife and I’d be happy to connect!
xoxo,
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