If you are a blogger who wants to promote their work and make it accessible to as many people as possible, then it should be of no surprise to you how important social media has become for marketing.
In fact, numerous fashion and lifestyle bloggers in this day and age have created their careers and catapulted to success by smartly making use of their social media accounts.
Now, out of all the platforms where you can showcase your talent for content creation, the one that seems to attract the biggest amount of user interaction and interest is Instagram.
With over a billion monthly active users who harbor various interests that range from fashion to music and much more, Instagram has emerged as the hottest place to be when it comes to online content creation and blogs.
Moreover, even publishers nowadays take Instagram into consideration when it comes to conducting platform analysis. Whether it is publishers or brand managers looking for new talent to sponsor and advertise their product through your work, everybody is taking a serious look at an aspiring blogger’s Instagram following and content.
So, in order to increase your blog readership, you must become privy to the world of Instagram blogging and promotion. It will serve as a huge part of your platform building strategy.
However, just pasting a link of your blog in your bio and putting up posts advertising your blog isn’t enough to cut through the noise anymore. There are over a million users who are competing for the time and attention of people every day.
This begs the question of how does one get noticed amongst an ocean of blogs on the Internet? Well, you need not fret as we have compiled a list of tips and strategies that will not only help you gain more followers but will also help you attract more readers.
1. Make Use of Your Instagram Stories
To begin with, one of the most effective and fastest ways to acquaint your Instagram followers with your blog is by sharing them on your Instagram Stories. The reason why this proves to be so effective is because that’s where your followers are. Your followers are curious about your lifestyle and Instagram stories are the best way to showcase your day to day activities.
More than 70% of Instagram users check out Instagram Stories of who they are following on a daily basis. Moreover, there are numerous story features like “Polls,” using which you can get direct feedback on what kind of content your audience prefers, and “Ask me anything,” using which you can answer any questions your followers want to ask you.
Doing so will not only help your followers get to know you better, which is a positive aspect for any sort of brand building, but it will also help you keep them entertained. This will only result in people wanting to support you and that is when you advertise your blog.
Once, you’ve got the people’s attention and started to create a nominal buzz surrounding your Instagram stories, start creating a click-worthy post that acts as a teaser for your blog.
The art of creating an appealing blog post is to spread out vital information over numerous stories as opposed to compiling all the details into one post, as stories only appear for a short period of time and people might not be able to process all the information at once.
So, advertise your content very neatly and only put the information that seems relevant.
Next, make sure that you tag your Instagram handle widely on your stories a couple of times as it will help your followers reach your account easily. Also, make sure that your call to action is brief and easy to understand.
Describe the content of your blog in a very brief and entertaining manner and then ask your followers to read it by mentioning that the “link to my blog is in my bio” in your stories.
Furthermore, if possible, try to attach relevant hashtags to your story. Every once in a while these hashtags help your stories get featured on the hashtag aggregation. This will help people who are not following you, view your stories and in expanding your reach.
2. Create an Enticing Post About Your Blog
Every blog tells a story regardless of what it’s about. The contents of your blog might talk about music, fashion, global issues, or something as simple as a food recipe, but what reels your audience in is an underlying story that your readers can empathize with and relate to.
We understand that the purpose of your blog is to inform your readers about your content, but what helps keep their interest is your personal take on it.
What will really help your Instagram followers connect with your content is your personality. The way you describe your experiences will make your readers curious about your work.
So, once you have the perfect story in mind for your blog, use it to create an Instagram post that is not only attention-worthy but also personal. However, do not tell the whole story on your Instagram post; otherwise, your followers will not click on the link that directs them to your blog.
Arouse the curiosity of your followers by leaving the story incomplete in your Instagram post and then asking them to finish reading it on your blog. This will make your followers click on the link to your website.
Of course, the image or video in your post must grab the attention of your audience, after all, it is the first thing that they will notice. The video or picture of your post should seamlessly coincide with your story and theme. If anything, it should act as the cover art of your story.
It will help you attract an audience, but keep in mind that the caption is what will really help you keep that audience. Most often than not, it’s the caption to which users relate to and that is what will drive them to your blog.
And, that is why the way you tell your story in your caption is usually the most crucial aspect of your post. This is the part that you should focus on. Start brainstorming about how you should start your caption and how you can make it relatable.
It could be a question, a funny story, or a shocking hook. All of them are effective. Moreover, your caption should be relatable to your target audience. For this, you need to share some interesting experiences from your life and your thoughts and views.
As mentioned earlier, hashtags help you in expanding your reach. They make your posts reach the right people.
Take, for instance, you are a fashion blogger and you reviewed a new shoe or outfit for your blog, now if you create an Instagram post about this topic and include the hashtags that are relevant to this topic (example: #streetfashion or #hypebeast), you will receive way more likes, attention, and followers than you would with a simple post.
Hashtags serve as discovery tags that enable people with similar interests as yours to find you. Moreover, the right hashtags will allow your content to be associated with your niche almost instantaneously. They will make your content very easy to be discovered by the demographic that you’re trying to target.
Without it, your Instagram blog post will be lost in an endless sea of content. However, not all hashtags will have a positive effect on your posts. The wrong hashtags can prove to be detrimental for your post and even your brand.
So, do your research and find the hashtags that will prove to be ancillary for your posts as Instagram only allows a total of 30 hashtags that you can add to your post.
4. Connect with Other Bloggers
When you are starting out with promoting your blog on Instagram, it can be very easy to fall prey to a one-track mindset. Usually, bloggers who are new to this platform end up focusing exclusively on what they can bring to the table and completely disregard the idea of what and how others can help them out in their journey.
One of the most important aspects of your Instagram blogging venture is to focus on building a vast and strong community with other like-minded people in your particular field of work.
In fact, networking with other bloggers and content creators can help you with introducing your work to a newer and wider audience. You never know who might find your latest blog post beneficial. This is a great way of expanding your reach.
You can use the following tips in order to network effectively:
- Take the first step and introduce yourself to bloggers with whom you might have something in common or whose work you enjoy. Look for opportunities where you can partner up with these people. Try to feature them in your work by reposting or sharing their work and tagging them. The goal is to find ways to collaborate with them.
- Take interest and interact with these accounts, try and build a relationship. Support their work genuinely. Treat them the way you would like to be treated. Stay consistent with your interactions by liking and commenting on their posts.
- Constantly be on the lookout for influencers, brands, companies, and accounts that have the same interests as you. The more people you reach out to, the more likely you are to get a response.
- Try to conduct interviews with influential bloggers. If possible, ask an influential blogger for a quote or two that you can implement in your new blog post. It is highly likely that once you publish the interview, they’ll share it with their followers. Doing so will make your content more unique amongst your peers.
- You can also invite other bloggers to contribute to your blog. The more people contribute to your blog, the more your blog gets shared. Not only will you be building up a strong network, but you will also be expanding your reach as all the contributors will be sharing the work they have done for you.
Now, if you are facing problems with finding bloggers whom you would like to work with, then don’t worry. Just follow these hacks to find appropriate bloggers to collaborate with on Instagram.
- All you need to do is start researching relevant industry hashtags as mentioned earlier. Search for the hashtags that you find appealing and look for bloggers who have similar interests.
- Check out all the popular brand pages on Instagram. All you need to do is scroll through the comment sections of the brand’s posts and you might come across someone whom you would like to work with.
- If you have more time on your hands, you can check out the brand’s followers and who they are following. If any of those accounts are of any interest to you, you can send them a message.
- Sometimes you don’t even have to look that far. I’m sure at this point you have attracted a small number of bloggers to your account. All you have to do is take a look at whoever is following you.
5. Stay Consistent
The key to marketing your blog successfully on Instagram is to stay consistent with your activities. You must post at least once a day or once every week in order to promote your blog effectively. Whenever a creator starts slacking off, it has a negative effect on their reach and interactions.
To begin with, your followers may forget about your content and move on to another blogger. Instagram users thrive on consistency. Your followers and potential audience is expecting content from you on a daily basis, so it is extremely important to post content regularly.
By staying consistent with your posting schedule, you can get more engagement and views and ultimately that will help you gain more followers. One of the things you can do is save photos and post content in advance to stay ahead. If you need any help with that, you can:
- Create a posting schedule or calendar for your social media activities. You can do this on your Google Calendar, Google Docs, or an Excel sheet.
- Try to figure out how many times in a week will you be able to create a quality post. And, will it be possible for you to follow the schedule that you have created for yourself with ease.
- Plan out what content you need to post next. Do this for a week in advance. This will help you in creating and uploading your posts regularly and seamlessly.
Once you have the content ready in advance, you will always have the time to keep up with your posting schedule. You won’t have to rush around in order to meet your deadlines.
6. Pick your Instagram Name with a Lot of Consideration
It doesn’t matter what platform you are on, in order to market on social media successfully, you must start with the basics. To begin with, you must decide on a name for your Instagram account. This is very important for effective branding.
The first thing that you need to be thinking about is whether you use your name or your blog’s name for your Instagram handle.
Ask yourself the following questions before you go about creating an Instagram handle:
- Is your blog a very personal one? Will you be the only individual who will be handling it? Do all your followers even know that you have a blog?
- Will you be using your Instagram exclusively to promote your blog or will you be using it for other career paths?
- Are you trying to advertise your blog or yourself?
Depending on what your purpose is, it would make sense to either use the name of your blog or your name. You might want to consider using two different Instagram accounts depending on the nature of your content and future goals.
In case you are operating other profiles on Instagram, then you must ensure that your followers are able to recognize all your accounts with ease.
7. Make sure your Profile is Appealing
Instagram is set up in such a way that you cannot just simply share the links to your blog in your posts. Therefore, you will have to come up with different ways to accomplish your goals.
Firstly, is your Instagram account private or public? If it happens to be private, then it will be extremely difficult to promote your blog successfully. You will have to make your Instagram profile public if you want to reach a bigger audience.
You can implement the following tips in order to create an attractive profile:
- Choose the right type of profile picture: Every Instagram account with a huge amount of engagement has an interesting profile picture. Since you are trying to promote your blog, your profile picture will act as the logo. When you are deciding on a picture, keep in mind that Instagram crops your photo into a circle. The perfect size that you can select for your profile would be 110 x 110 pixels.
- Ensure that your bio represents you properly: Your Instagram bio plays a very important role if you want to use it for blogging success. It has to be informative and should showcase your personality. You can include a call to action. You should also consider using one or two hashtags in your bio. It will help users understand what your profile is all about.
- Make your link noticeable: Your bio is the only place where you can add a clickable link. You can use this link to direct the users to your latest blog post. You can add a call to action in your bio that will engage the users to click on the link.
- Enable your notifications: When you enable your notifications, you receive prompts from Instagram regarding likes and comments on your posts. This will help you in interacting with your followers more quickly.
8. Interact with your Audience
In order to build a strong and wide community of followers, you have to constantly interact with them. This is the only way your followers will stick around for the long run. Now, the best way to connect with your audience is to be true to yourself. We get it, it sounds cliché, but this is what will help your target audience connect with you and your brand instantly.
Especially if you are a blogger who shares their stories and tips from a personal space, then your audience will connect with you on a deeper level. So, talk to your followers in the comment section and try to build a strong relationship with them.
Keep in mind, everything that you post is for your readers. You can try writing your posts as though you are talking to your followers personally. This will help your audience empathize with and relate to you.
In Conclusion
Promoting and marketing your blog or anything else for that matter on Instagram is not an easy task. You will make mistakes and you might even have to face a lot of criticism when you’re starting out.
But, this is all a part of your learning curve. If you keep at it and take into account all of the above-mentioned tips and strategies, we are positive that you will be able to achieve your goals in no time.
Make use of Instagram Stories, connect with other bloggers on the platform, put interesting images, videos, and captions, use the right hashtags, plan ahead, be consistent, and be creative in order to drive traffic to your blog and content.
We hope that you found our tips and strategies on the various ways to promote your blog on Instagram insightful and valuable.
