Instagram: 13 followers, 10 posts

Guy K.’s tips for Instagram aren’t too different than his tips for other social media, but since Instagram is image-driven it gives new possibilities and new challenges. Just like Facebook, I’ve had a personal Instagram account for a few years, but I never took a deep dive into it. It was a way to share images with friends and see their world, not to promote a brand or product. So, I was curious to try it out as someone who is trying to create a platform or brand. I’m not selling anything but I am trying to be part of the world of those who are, and might be interested in what I’m selling, when I am.

So, here is my Instagram account. As you can see, I’m keeping a consistent photo across all platforms because I want people to recognize me if they follow me elsewhere too. Looking at my account you can see I was busy in the past two days that I’ve had the account. I’ve got photos of my dogs, myself, and what I’m doing during the days. I want to focus my posts on my writing or love of books a little more, so I’ll probably keep the personal photos to a limit, but I won’t ever not post them because I know I love seeing a glimpse of the daily lives of people I admire and follow.

That opportunity is what makes Instagram so much fun. Not only do you get to hear their thoughts (like on Twitter) but you also get to see how they view the world. You get to see them as people, and that is one of Guy K’s tips: be approachable and make genuine connections.

His other tip for Instagram is to USE THE HASHTAGS! And I have to agree. That’s one of the really cool things about Instagram vs. Twitter. As you are typing a hashtag both autofills with some popular hashtags so you can get the right one. But, Instagram lets you see how popular certain hashtags are. So, you can tailor the hashtag to the most popular ones, or to the smaller ones. I’ve been going popular, but with the Powerball on my mind, I’ve been thinking statistics, and might try a few experiments to see if the smaller hashtags result in more people, since the bigger ones are probably so big that your little post might get lost among them. Also unlike Twitter, Instagram lets you hashtag it up! So, add as many as you want, don’t just do #selfie but also #selfy #selfiegram and more. Instagram shows you what tags there are as you type a tag and you can just tap to add it.

Don’t forget though, that Instagram likes, followers and all the rest are fun, but your real business is doing the writing! Try not to get carried away by checking notifications all the time. I can see this might be one of my weaknesses, so I’m mostly saying this for myself!

Here are some more posts about Instagram use for authors, so you can see some examples of what to do and how others are doing it.

Top 7 Ways Authors are Using Instagram from The Book Designer

5 Ways to Use Instagram as an Author from Jane Friedman

Instagram for Authors from DIY Author

Want to follow some literary folk? Here’s a great round up of publishers, writers and readers that HuffPost did.

Now excuse me, I have to go follow all of them.