Have you ever thought about starting a blog? In today’s society, “content” constantly surrounds us. You can go online, navigate a couple of clicks, and bam — you are online, communicating with the masses.
For many people who decide to start a blog, Instagram is the go-to social media channel of choice as a visual platform that allows a writer to connect with an audience in a fresh and new way.
For the novice blogger, there are some obvious attractions to using Instagram. After speaking to several local bloggers using this platform, a recurring theme was they started blogs on Instagram because they were looking for a creative outlet.
There are several reasons that people like using Instagram over other social media platforms. No matter what your interests are, there is a high probability you will be able to find an audience.
You can find a community of like-minded individuals for almost any topic imaginable. Whether you are interested in local restaurants in the Rio Grande Valley or you are interested in 18th century Gothic poetry, chances are you can find a community that shares your passions and interests.
Mariela Peña’s @agoodskinday about skincare was a natural progression after dealing with her own skincare challenges. “It started as a hobby, it was a way for me to talk about skincare, beauty and products … it’s basically just me talking about other products,” she said. This has led, in less than one year, to over 11,000 followers from all around the world.
One of nice things about Instagram is that in addition to being industry centric, you can also be geographically centric.
“Instagram kind of works to get me business and collaborations in my area,” said Seems Fuentes, a food-music-fashion blogger in the Rio Grande Valley. By focusing in on a specific location, Fuentes via @thergvseems has been able to establish herself as the go-to-person for knowing what’s what in the Rio Grande Valley.
Here are seven tips for starting a blog on Instagram:
- Be genuine: You want your audience to like, trust, and respect you.
- Be relatable: You want to be viewed as a friend, not as a business trying to sell something.
- Be knowledgeable: If you are going to start a blog, you need to have some knowledge of your industry.
- Follow others who have similar interests: By following others in similar industries, you are fostering a sense of community.
- Be positive: As with all social media platforms, you want to keep your posts positive.
- Use hashtags: Hashtags are important to get others to share posts and for you to follow others.
- Etiquette is important: Photos should always be credited to the original source.
Instagram’s users tend to skew younger. It is the platform of choice for Generation Z and millennials who have grown up with technology and are comfortable navigating the visual medium that it uses.
As people love using Instagram to the exclusion of other social media platforms, there are some negatives to using the platform.
As with other social media platforms, the more successful you become, the more haters and “trolls” you will encounter. Eventually, you will run into someone who disagrees with what you are saying.
According to both Peña and Fuentes, you can’t let the haters get to you. Stay positive with your message and don’t get down into the mud fighting with people. Having loyal followers is a very empowering feeling to the online blogger whose mission is to provide quality information. Loyal followers may also engage trolls on your behalf, allowing you to stay out of the fray.
Something to note — your Instagram followers may expect you to be like your Instagram persona all the time. Instagram, like television, allows people to cultivate a public persona, and when your followers meet you in real life, there may occasionally be disappointment you are not exactly as you are on Instagram. It’s almost akin to finding out that your favorite actor is completely different in real life than the character they play on a show or a movie.
If you are looking for a way to promote your blog through visual storytelling, then Instagram is the choice for you.
Happy blogging!
