Social media is important in the daily lives of millions, now more than ever. Instagram is extremely successful as a platform where a lot of different sorts of people can come together quickly and effectively through the use of pictures. That doesn’t mean that writers are out of luck on the platform, they just need to be a little bit more creative in order to attract a following.
In order to get your writing noticed on Instagram, you need to focus heavily on the following:
- Branding
- Engagement
- Quality
A social media profile is like an advertisement for yourself and your work. You want it to be something that is attractive and sells itself. However, it’s not as simple as throwing up a silly, unrelated picture and hoping for clicks. Keep reading for an in-depth explanation on how to get yourself noticed on one of the most popular social media sites to date.
Get a Lockdown on Your Brand
Gone are the days of low quality, haphazardly placed imagery, details, and anything else mixed into the pot. Now, every post has to get the point across as quickly as possible while also being recognizable as yours. There are millions of people vying for that attention, you have got to have a consistent, unique look that gets the point across while someone is scrolling by.
Here are some ideas to get a good brand lockdown going:
- Make sure your bio is targeted. You will never please everyone, so get a lockdown on one field in particular
- Add a link to your website/blog/etc. Be sure to hyperlink it instead of leaving it naked for a more professional look
- Use consistent formatting and colors for everything. Keep up a theme. Always use the same fonts, the same style of border, or the same colors to create a sense of consistency and unity that can be used to separate you from the 500 million other registered users on the site
- Always use the same handles across all websites. If you’ve used a name on a different social media for your writing, make that your Instagram name as well. That way if someone has spotted the name somewhere else, they know it’s still you.
Now, let’s take a look at being engaging as possible.
Be as Engaging as Possible
A simple fact of the matter is that people love to feel like they are being seen, and that includes by the people that they are looking at on a social media profile. Therefore, you want to be as engaging with your audience as you can manage. You can do that passively by simply posting and waiting for viewers to come to you, or to be more active by going to viewers yourself.
Here are a few ways to be engaging:
- Post frequently and consistently
- The consistent part is key, as people will eventually get used to your schedule and wait for updates.
- The more you have out there, the more that can potentially run across someone’s screen.
- Make clever use of those hashtags
- A common misconception is to drown the hashtags on each piece. Instead, you should consider finding a few popular tags as well as a few specific to your niche/business.
- Keep the hashtags around 3-5 per post.
- Always tag. Don’t ever forget, that’s how people find you.
- Interact with others
- Like things, comment, start conversations with other people.
- Be friendly. People are always more willing to interact with someone they think is nice.
Now, let’s take a look at limiting yourself to your best.
Limit Yourself to Your Best
There’s not a lot of space or time to get your point across on Instagram. It’s mostly for pictures, and people are going to be scrolling fast. You don’t have time for them to find something that isn’t exceptional. That’s not to say that you should never post anything that isn’t stellar but consider keeping those locked down to your own website for further investigation by a curious viewer.
A few tips to picking out what is the best choices to post:
- Pick whatever you are personally most proud of
- You’re never going to be able to please everyone, so you might as well ensure you like what’s going up. This will also ensure that you don’t get burnt out too quickly, as you are seeing things you personally like go into it.
- People don’t actually know what they want. It’s up to you to give it to them.
- Don’t cave into only posting what’s popular now
- The fact of the matter is that fads change. It’s fine to post into a popular space to get the attention, but fads will eventually move on. Posting more than what’s immediately popular gets your feet in the water for what’s to come next.
- Always keep up a consistent, high-quality collection of posts
- Never post when you’re in a bad mood, it will reflect badly on you and your work.
- Lower-quality posts make you appear less professional.
- Give yourself a standard and strive to exceed it at every opportunity.
- Make sure the pictures are relevant to the rest of the post.
Now you know how to get your writing noticed on Instagram.
Conclusion
Getting noticed on any social media takes a lot of hard work to get going, and Instagram is no different. While there is a heavy focus for pictures on the site, it’s also a great platform to get your writing noticed if it is used effectively.
You’re going to want to maintain a quality, professional appearance in every post that you make. It doesn’t matter if it’s the post itself or in the comments, it needs to stay consistent, professional, and to the point. There’s only a few seconds of time to capture a potential viewer, so you need to make every one of them count.
References
How to Win Instagram If You Are a Writer
10 Ways First-Time Writers Can Get Noticed on Social Media