Five Instagram Tips for Bloggers

So I’ve become pretty addicted to Instagram lately. From my trip to Paris to my visit to Facebook’s London offices, I just have to snap away so that I’ll get a good pic for Instagram! I am by no means an expert, and I don’t have a huge following (yet!) but I’ve learned a few things along the way about taking pictures and gaining followers. After talking to some people about it on Twitter chats, I’ve realised that some of what I’ve learned could be helpful to other bloggers and Instagram enthusiasts.

Make sure your Instagram content is different to your blog and Twitter content, so that people have a reason to follow you. I think that because Instagram is a much more visual medium, you should carefully decide what to post on there. With Twitter, pictures don’t have to be perfect, but with Instagram your profile is all about the pictures so they need to make people want to follow you (and keep following you).

I’ve recently started using VSCO to shoot and edit pictures for Instagram, and I’ve found that it helps with editing snaps from my phone and getting the right brightness and colours. I would not recommend using any of Instagram’s own editing features or filters, as I’ve noticed that doing that reduces the quality of pictures.

You really need to catch the user’s eye, so bright and colourful pictures often work well. My favourite props to use are flowers (you can probably tell) and as with blog photos, I try to find good natural light to take my pictures in. Stylecaster has some good tips for styling your photos.

Now that you have a profile full of pretty pictures, all you need is for people to see them, right? That’s where the hashtags come in. It’s always best to add these in a comment after you’ve posted the picture, so that they are not the first thing people see. This way, the hashtags will even become hidden if you get a few comments afterwards.

Keep these relevant, and choose well. You can only use up to 20 hashtags, and you also don’t want to overdo it and annoy people (I might be guilty of this). Good ones to use are #lbloggers, #fbloggers, #bbloggers, and #fdbloggers, depending on what you post. VSCO has a big community on instagram, so you can also use #vscocam, #vscolondon, etc.** UPDATE: Instagram has changed the hashtag system, so you have to add hashtags when you share your photo and not much later otherwise your picture will appear a few pages down, depending on how long ago it was published! You used to be able to add hashtags to old pictures and get them right at the top of the hashtag page but that probably led to too much spamming. **

Another way to get noticed is to interact with other people with similar interests. I find that commenting a sentence or two (not just an emoji!) on someone’s picture means that both the author and their followers might have a look at your profile. So go and follow all your favourite bloggers and brands, and make sure you comment on their posts from time to time. You can also check out and interact with some of their followers, as they’re likely to have similar interests to you too. I’ve found that I get more action/followers when I do that!

This is probably the tip that most people will not have heard of. A bit like on Twitter, there are some accounts that will repost (regram) nice pictures if you use their hashtag or tag them in pictures. The difference with Twitter is that they are more selective. When I was in Paris, my pictures were regrammed by repost_paris and travelers_journey. In London, london_rep and the hashtag #igerslondon can get you some regrams. I think you’ll find that there are plenty of accounts for different topics, but the challenge is finding them.

Whenever you’re posting about a product or an outfit, make sure you’re tagging the brands too, as they might also enjoy your content and post it to their pages! It also helps your followers to know where your items are from.

Honestly, the best way to learn about promoting your Instagram is to observe what others are doing. I’ve noticed big fashion bloggers tag up to 13 accounts like stilkolik, aboutalook, zara_daily, zara.mania, and standardfashion_.

5. Other ChannelsSure, you can promote your account on Instagram, but don’t stop there! I recommend getting an Instagram widget for your blog, for example SnapWidget. This means that the readers you already have can easily check out your latest Instagram snaps (see mine in my sidebar on the right). Including a link to your account on Twitter is also useful, and why not ask other bloggers to share their links with you? Then you can extend your blogging community from Twitter to Instagram.

All of the pictures in this post are from my Instagram, so make sure you’re following me if you like them! Please share your Instagram accounts with me in the comments and I’ll make sure I check them out.