So you decided to become a digital nomad, and as you travel, you attempt to grow your blog audience and expand your freelance services. In order to do this, you will need to get social. That’s right, you need to be on social media, and I don’t just mean Facebook and Twitter.
Since travel is all about experiencing the beauty of our breath-taking world and sharing it with others, as a travel blogger, engaging your audience on the two most popular photo sharing platforms is a must! However, in order to have these platforms benefit you – and avoid irritating other fellow travel bloggers – how you use these platforms is just as important as actually using them.
Below are some of the “Do’s and Don’ts” for utilising one of the biggest and best photo sharing platforms for travel: Instagram.
Post only Good, Quality Pictures
Instagram is all about pretty pictures. So don’t post anything less than your best.
This doesn’t mean that you need to be a professional photographer to achieve this, just put a little more thought into the photos that you’re taking, and a little editing work to boost them a bit before sharing on Instagram.
Don’t Filter
You are much better off to use your own photo editing software to play with brightness and bring out colours than to use Instagram’s filters. Filters are there to hide that a photo perhaps isn’t that good to begin with. Go for good quality and avoid the need for filters to begin with.
Don’t Think Followers, Think Engagement
Your number of followers is not the be all and end all of your Instagram success. What you should really be focused on is your engagement level.
Try to post your brilliant photos with intriguing captions – perhaps a question or a joke – something that might get them talking, as well as liking your posts and following your account.
Keeping people engaged while maintaining instagram etiquette is a full-time Instagram battle. Get creative with your content and keep people interested.
Don’t Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
Speaking of creativity, it is a good idea not to copy yourself too often. Perhaps you take the world’s most appetising latte pictures; that’s all well and good, but after a few photos, a latte is just a latte.
The key is to keep your content diverse. You can always re-share posts, but don’t take the same type of picture over and over. It gets old really fast.
Stick to a Schedule
Try to be as consistent as possible on Instagram. You shouldn’t have times of high activity and then times of no activity. This of course, like any social media, can be time-consuming, but if necessary use scheduling services to stay on top of a posting schedule.
In the end though, quality is better than quantity, so one really good post a day is better than three average ones.
If you need a little more guidance, here are some examples of travel bloggers that are doing Instagram right. Feel free to be inspired by them, and don’t forget to like and follow!
INSPIRED? PIN THIS TO YOUR TRAVEL PINTEREST BOARDS ↓
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8 Comments
I revived my old Instagram recently and I’m really enjoying it. I actually like using filters occassionally. It’s a quick way to make a photo “pop”. Other times I use the editing tools instead. I do edit photos on photoshop first but find ot easier to make the final adjustments to phone viewing from within the app.
So glad to hear you’re enjoying the instagram experience Anne! We love using it to showcase our photos and follow what everyone else is up to.
Granted yes, there are some pretty fun filters on the app itself. I find I always fall into the trap of going over board though and the filters usually ruin the shot. Each person has to find their own style though, so if it works for you that’s awesome!
Happy snapping :)
I love Instagram because I am such avisual person. It it has become to frustrating lately. You are probably right: these days it’s not about growth but about engagement. I will work on that from now on. Thanks for the share.
I agree, we’ve seen a lot of changes to Instagram which have made it quite frustrating too. But definitely focus on engagement as opposed to growth, and the growth will come organically too :)
What a useful guide for bloggers – Instagram is one of my favourite platforms and I love interacting with followers there.
Glad it was helpful for you Suze :) Happy snapping!
Some great tips. Thank you. Just followed you as well
Thanks Rebecca! Glad you found the post helpful :)