Instagram Review

Instagram is one of those sites that everyone is always talking about to the point that it feels like not having an IG account is social suicide.

Still, I managed to resist until recently.

It's honestly not a social network I thought I would be for me. I'm not really into photography. Obviously I take some photos for my blog, but other than that I rarely do.

I'm definitely not a selfie queen. In my whole life I have taken the grand total of one selfie. That was only because a blog I was guest posting on required a photo of the writer and there was no else around to take a picture.

I hate having my photo taken altogether, and I am yet to see a photo of myself I like. I am that person who always gets caught blinking, or moving or looking a bit demented!

Aside from that, I quite like the idea of having photographic memories, I just always kind of forget to take the photos. I have seen me go on holiday and come back and I haven't had the camera out of my bag - I carry it around but just never think to use it.

I like the idea of seeing other people's pictures, but before blogging, when it would have just been an account for personal use, it seemed pointless because everyone I know who has IG has it set up to post their photos from IG onto Facebook anyway.

Anyway, since starting blogging, every blogger I've spoke to has been shocked when I say I don't have an IG account. After some debate I finally bit the bullet and joined.

Things I like:

1. Although I'm not into taking pictures, I do enjoy looking at other people's (nosey much!)
2. If used correctly, it can really show what your brand/blog is all about. I don't use it correctly! It's something I'm working on, and recently I have read a fab series about this by Nikki at The View From In Here. Check it out, it really is a fantastic IG guide.

Things I don't like:

1. I hate the fact everything has to be done on my phone. A lot of the images I want on there are ones I have designed on my laptop - its such a mess about sending them to my phone to post instead of doing it direct.
2. Not being able to add clickable links to each photo. I have the main blog link in my bio, but who actually goes and clicks on it? If it's there, people are much more likely to click through.

Top tip for bloggers:

If your IG account is your personal one, I understand why you might have it private. If it's your blog account, don't do that. You are more likely to get followers if your account isn't private. Partly because people can see some examples of your photos and get a sense of whether your account is of interest to them. Mainly though, if your account is private, people will assume you don't want strangers following you. If I come across a private account, I only request to follow them if its someone I have already connected with on their blog/other social media. I find it quite unwelcoming.

Love it or hate it?

As a fun network, I love it. I enjoy taking a little glimpse into other people's lives. As a blog promotion, I don't think it's all that great though to be honest. Having said that, I haven't focused much attention on it. I think I might up my game a bit, try to post more regularly and see how it goes!

What do you think? Are you an IG lover or hater? Let me know in the comments and if you are on IG, feel free to leave your links in the comments and follow each other :)

You can find me here: Twitter Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!

How To Successfully Promote Your Blog

Assuming your blog is older than a week or two, you will by now have discovered that writing amazing content and taking stunning photos isn't enough. Here's the good news though - if you have nailed the content and the images, you've done the hard part! Now it's just a matter of letting people know your blog exists.
When I first started out, I had no idea I would have to promote my blog (this seems so ridiculous in hindsight!). I thought I would write posts, and people would magically know they where there! I realised pretty quickly this wasn't the case, so I plunged blindly into the world of online promotion!

Some general ways to help promote your blog/boost your traffic are:
*Join linkys - Have a look here for how this can help
* Use your images as more than just window dressing - See here for how to do this
* Improve your SEO - See here for some easy to implement ways to do this

By far the most effective way is through social media. The whole world is quite literally at your fingertips. You can advertise to potentially millions of people worldwide without moving from your chair, and best of all, it's free!
Some blogger's use networks such as Google+, LinkedIn and Periscope, but for me, it's all about the big four - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

For Twitter, there is so many great uses, it's a post in itself - and it will be! Twitter tips will be going live tomorrow, so please do check back.

For tips on how to use the other three, read on!

Facebook

I don't actually use Facebook to promote my blog. Maybe I should, and I'm sure at some point in the future I will. I decided Facebook will be my personal social media. However, I still see is value for blog promotion.

*Firstly, set up a page, invite all you friends to like and share it and invite some of their friends.

*Facebook has a reasonable window of opportunity for people to see what you are sharing, so I would recommend posting two or three times a day only.

*There is no limit to the number of characters you can have in an update, so use the extra space. Add a brief description of the post.

*Join and use blogger groups. Search blogger groups, and you will find loads, choose one or more which you feel best interest you. Share your posts here for a much larger audience.

 

Instagram

Instagram is the best place to share pictures. Post the pictures from your latest blog post. Have your blog link in the bio and always point this out in the caption so people can find you easily.

 

Pinterest

Pinterest has the largest window of opportunity for views by far. Even months down the line, someone could re-pin something and start a flurry of visits to your post. Try to make sure all of your posts have at least one pinnable image. A pinnable image:

*is portrait

* is in focus and not blurry

* has the post title attached to it, either directly in the image, as part of the alt text, or both.

 

As a general rule, the opinion seems to be that for every one post of your own you promote, you should share five of other people's. Much as I like to share the blogger love, I must admit I don't do this.

I like to share content I enjoyed and that I think my followers might like. Some days, I might only share one post of someone else, other days ten. I hate the idea of sharing things just to meet a quota rather than because you actually enjoyed them!

I definitely advise sharing content you love though!

There's also nothing wrong with cross promoting your platforms, for example, mentioning you have Instagram to your Twitter followers (please through a tweet though, not an auto DM!).

 

I hope this helped you - let me know in the comments below. Don't forget to check back in for tomorrow's Twitter post!

 

You can find me here: Twitter Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi! 

How To Use Images To Boost Blog Traffic

I talked yesterday about how using images helped me build traffic. You can read the post here if you missed it. The question of how you can use images to boost your traffic is still a very relevant one. So, here are my top tips on how to use images to boost traffic.

Having them!

This sounds like a weird heading I know, but it's true. I'm not sure how or why it works, but just having images in your posts improves traffic. For me, posts with images get around 4x more views than those without. Personally, I think it is because the image captures people's attention and piques their interest. I could be wrong, but whatever the reason, it works!

 

 

 

 

For me, apart from making your posts visually appealing, one of the main ways to bring traffic in through images is via social media.

 

 

Twitter

Twitter is, in my opinion, the best social network to promote your blog posts. However, Twitter is busy, and it's fast. Your tweets need to grab people's attention. How do you ensure people see your tweet within the 100s of other tweets going out every minute? That's where your images come in! When you write out your promo tweet, add an image from the post. The image will stand out far more than just text, ensuring it is seen by more people. Pair this with a catchy post title, and you'll find more and more people are clicking through to your posts.

 

Instagram

For Instagram, every update is a photo or graphic. There are no text only updates on here, so if you don't use images, you won't be able to successfully post your updates! Be aware that all the pictures are a standard size and are all square - this doesn't mean all your blog post images have to be square. Just be aware that you need some detail in a basic square shape that will work as a stand alone image.

 

Pinterest

Pinterest fascinates me. It's like everything you could imagine wanting to see in one place, and I think it is still massively under-rated as a promotional tool for bloggers. You can pin any shape image, but portrait ones work best, especially for mobile browsers. The beauty of Pinterest is, unlike the other sites, your window of opportunity to be seen isn't limited to two minutes as it flies past! Pinterest works almost like a search engine - people look for things they want to pin, and when they find them, they generally click through to have a read. I have found a few great bloggers this way!

 

 

General tips for amazing images

1. Use good, clear images that aren't blurry.

2. Use images that are large enough for the details to be clear, but not so large they become pixelated.

3. Try to use at least one portrait style image so people will pin it (add a Pin it widget to your side bar, the easier it is to share your material, the more people will do it). I often do this by making a portrait collage of the smaller images I've used and adding the post title.

4. Utilise the alt text. Remember, this text is displayed with your image on Pinterest. Use your post title rather than IMG1234!

5. Have fun! Play around with photo editing software to design and create great images. I use Pic Monkey, it's free and easy to use.

 

Have you got any top tips for using images to increase your traffic? Share them in the comments :)

 

You can find me here: Twitter Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!