A topic i’ve wanted to talk about for a while is Instagram, the app I love to hate. I’m sure i’m not the first and I won’t be the last to talk negatively about Instagram but for an app I used to love, I’m now kind of at a loss as to how to get the same enjoyment out of it. After doing a bit of research into using Instagram as a blogger, I thought i’d discuss my thoughts and how i’m going to try to enjoy using the app through 2020.
Some thoughts on how I want to use Instagram through 2020..
For as long as I can remember, i’ve been at a loss with Instagram and how to use it not only to share and promote my content online but how to also share what i’m up to in terms of travel etc, whilst making it all fit into my ‘feed’. For me that’s the problem, curating an idealistic ‘feed’ that to be honest just isn’t me. If you’ve followed my Instagram profile for a while, you may have noticed that I go from posting regularly to completely falling off the grid for months at a time. This is mainly down to the fact that blogging isn’t my full time job, it never will be so I don’t have content to share every day of the week and half the time I feel that what I do share is just boring and not relevant to me as a blogger.
One thing I also did a couple of years ago was create a personal Instagram to share anything and everything that I feel that I can’t on my blog account, its not that I can’t but I have to remember that although I blog, my friends and family don’t and sometimes those aspects of my life I want to be more private. I make it sound like I have millions of followers, when in reality I have less than 2,000 but i’m sure most bloggers can relate to me on this one. Having said that, I do want to get to the point where I can share more personal things which I have begun to do but it’s still something very out of my comfort zone. Only in the latter months of 2019 did I start sharing more photos of myself, not that my identity has ever been a secret, but any posts of me were my least liked posts, so I often thought to myself ‘what is the point’. I guess what i’m trying to say is that I want to get to a point where I don’t feel restricted to post things, purely because they don’t fit into my theme or feed.
Towards the end of 2019 I started to really consider how I wanted my Instagram to look, as I often scroll through my feed and you can really tell where I was on my A game, and then where I wasn’t. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind this at all as it shows growth and how my content has changed over the years, but I do often compare my feed to those that look so cohesive and planned out. Now this might sound slightly hypocritical to what i’ve said above, but I do want my feed to look cohesive going forward but in doing so, I also want to share more of what I don’t already and have more freedom in what I do and don’t post.
If you take a look back at the content i’ve been posting over the last couple of months, you’ll see how its completely different to any type of content i’ve posted before. Before it was all flatlays, brightened within an inch of their life whereas now i’m sharing all kinds of content. From travel, to more quick outfit of the days, home content and even pretty buildings whilst i’ve been out and about, and from posting more of the things that I want to post, the more enjoyment I have gotten out of Instagram recently.
So, how am I going to use Instagram in 2020?
Plan my feed before posting – As I mentioned, I want my feed to look cohesive with the content that I am posting and more so recently i’ve been using the app Preview to plan my feed a little more. More so just to ensure that i’m happy with the order of the images that i’m posting, especially as i’m posting more things as I used to just post any photo and i’d look back and think ‘god this looks like such a mess’. So far i’m really happy with how my feed is looking since using this app, and it allows me to not stress about what i’m posting and when.
Concentrate more on the captions – One thing i’ve seen and also read about is caption lengths, and how in 2020 caption lengths are set to increase to be a minimum of around 400 characters. For me it’s not always about the picture, but more about what that person is saying. I often use the caption area to talk about a few things, whether it be a round of up of my week and to also promote a recent blog post or two. I find in doing so that I create more of a discussion in the comments and that I feel slightly more relatable to those engaging with my posts.
Tap more into IGTV – As I mentioned in my recent goals post, I want to get more into IGTV in 2020. I’m not entirely sure why, but I often find myself in an IGTV hole and although I have zero skills when it comes to editing videos, it’s something I really want to try! Youtube is never going to be something that I do, but IGTV seems slightly more achievable to me.
Care less about the likes – One thing that I noticed in 2019 was how little my posts get seen/liked and to be honest i’m over it! I’m over trying to get my posts out there because it seems Instagram will do anything to stop your content being seen, so what’s the point in trying.
Interact more – Another thing i’ve been doing more recently is actually commenting on peoples posts. I know that interacting on Instagram is one of the easier ways to get your profile seen, but I also really like creating discussion within the comments and have been trying to do so more recently.
How are you going to be using Instagram in 2020?
