Instagram isn’t a popular social media only for entertaining. It’s the fastest growing and developing social media for several years in a row. Instagram is also a great place for bloggers to create and show their brand’s visual identity, connect with other bloggers, create a community of followers who will love what you do, and get an extra audience.
That’s because Instagram is known as a great traffic generator for blogs and websites despite the fact that you only have space in Bio to add a link to your website and you can’t write much in that section of a profile.
Ways to promote a blog on Instagram is a pretty challenging topic, at least if you aim to do everything right. Don’t forget, Instagram is a visual social network. On it, you won’t attract people to your blog by text but by photographs. Only when and if you manage to get them interested through the photos, you’ll be successful and see the extra traffic to the blog. When it comes to blog promotion, it’s way more complicated than asking an assignment writer “do my homework now“. You can hire someone to develop your blog, but let’s see what you can do without outside help.
Be aware, if you succeed to attract an audience to your blog, they will go away if it isn’t hosted properly. For instance, if you have chosen a MySQL database option for your blog, whose performance you may find beneficial when having a larger amount of posts, you should opt for MySQL hosting.
Regardless of the package and plan you purchase, you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits of quality hosting. All that without making a painful financial commitment. MySQL hosting is, logically, MySQL optimized, and usually comes with free domain registration, substantial SSD storage, and unmetered bandwidth. Actually, all basic packages have these features.
Some Blog Categories Get Followers Easier Than Others
Instagram is a simple social network and it’s not a special problem to collect a large number of followers. The problem is how to get those followers to click on the link in Bio and stay on your blog long enough to see what you’re doing and then come back the next day expecting more fresh content. We aren’t saying it will be easy for you to gather thousands of followers overnight and increase your blog’s popularity in 10 days. It doesn’t go that way.
However, there are certain categories of blogs with which you can more easily gain followers than on others. These are blogs that deal with fashion, cosmetics, travel, food, photography, and lifestyle. For those who have a blog in one of these categories, you don’t need too much wisdom about ideas for publishing, building a brand, and creating content. But you’ll have to do your best for everything else.
Now, what about those whose blogs don’t fall into any of these categories such as bloggers writing about business, motivation, economics, or finance? Or what about those who write stories and songs? In short, we ask about those who deal with all topics related primarily to verbal rather than visual. It will be more difficult for them but not impossible. They will need to do a little bit more work on their Instagram profiles to build brands and bring the blogs to a higher level.
Things to Do Before You Open an Instagram for Your Blog
- You need to be aware that your blog is your business even if you’re just writing it as a hobby
- Need to be prepared to build a personal brand that will make you recognizable
- You need to know who your audience is and who you want to reach
- Know who your competition is and get familiar with their profiles
- Have to decide in which direction you’re going to grow your brand on Instagram
- Build a topic
- And most importantly, you need to decide if you want to create a profile for yourself as a blogger or for your blog
- Check Instagram verification requirements and verify your account
Is Instagram Star a Blog or You?
If you create an Instagram account, insert a blog link in Bio, and start posting randomly selected photos, your blog will be overshadowed. Most people on Instagram aren’t overly interested in clicking a link unless you give them a reason.
For example, you wrote a new text about the importance of education but then you posted a sunset photo and expect people to rush to your blog. They won’t. People will like your sunset because it’s beautiful and because they belong to a group on Instagram that loves sunsets (#sunsetlovers #skylovers).
They aren’t interested in the importance of education and if one of them even clicks on the link, they are unlikely to stay on the blog as they will quickly realize that it has nothing to do with sunsets. Do you understand what we’re talking about?
The aesthetics of your Instagram profile must be closely related to the blog topic so that people are clear about what it’s about and to reach the audience you need that will click on the blog link. Otherwise, you don’t need a blog profile but a personal profile under your name (or nickname) and you can leave the link where it is. If someone clicks on it – great; and if not – well, that wasn’t the goal you wanted to achieve in the first place.
Many bloggers who have long used Instagram to post moments from their private lives face the problem when they decide to promote their blog on Instagram. In a gallery full of selfies, sunsets, lunches, quotes, and travel, a blog that has nothing to do with this kind of topic won’t come to the fore.
Build an Instagram Profile Around the Topic of the Blog
If you have a blog about cooking then it’s totally logical to post a picture of lunch or groceries you bought in your weekly shopping. If you have a business blog, this wouldn’t be a good idea unless you have a restaurant. While a picture of an all-night party will suit a lifestyle blog, such a blog post can only hurt a business blog.
All this means that you have to think very hard about whether you want to open a separate profile for your blog and a separate one for yourself as a person because, usually, one doesn’t work with the other. To know what to post, you need to know your audience and think about how the posted image on Instagram fits in with the topics you write about on the blog.
Don’t Want Separate Accounts for Yourself and the Blog?
Create a “healthy“ balance between business and personal posts. If you run a blog only for a hobby and don’t have or don’t expect business benefits, then you can carefully balance personal and business posts. But, in this case, you need to make sure that the post has something to do with the topic.
For example, do you write about the importance of eating oranges in the winter and post a picture of your dog? Wrong. But if you post a picture of orange from a fruit shop or a bowl full of oranges on your desk… you won’t go wrong.
Stay on Topic, Don’t Stray, and Benefit From the Blog Link
If you decide to open a separate account dedicated only to your blog, you have a bit more work to do, but fun work, because you love your blog and enjoy what you do (otherwise, you wouldn’t do it, right?).
In connection to this, here’s a good idea of what to do:
- Have your Instagram profile called the same as your blog
- Have a profile picture from a blog
- Post regularly
- Change the link in Bio to the latest post
- Link an Instagram profile to a blog
- Link your Instagram profile to your blog’s Facebook page and Twitter account