Jan 16, 2017 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Extend Your Blog’s Reach with Instagram

Instagram has hundreds of millions of users — here are ways they can find and follow your blog.

Are you using Instagram to grow your following and drive traffic to your blog? As of late 2017, Instagram had 500 million daily active users, which makes it a great place to find new readers and connect with like-minded bloggers and fellow social sharers. We’ve shared some tips before to get you started, so once you’ve got the basics down, here are ideas for how to use Instagram to extend the reach of your blog:

Make your Instagram feed reflect your life.

Here are some WordPress.com bloggers I follow who share their content on Instagram too:

Sharing the real you is a great way to cultivate a following of interested, engaged readers. Personally, I love sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes looks, so Instagram feeds that show real life are my favorites.

sarahblackstock-instagram-bulletjournalI love bullet journaling, and I share little glimpses of this process on my Instagram feed (see: #BulletJournal). Once I’ve got enough content to say more about it, I’ll turn it into a full blog post (or maybe a series of them) on sarah.blog.

Share the snapshots that make up your day, like that DIY project you’re in the middle of (and aren’t quite ready to blog about yet), or a look at the mess you just made in the kitchen with the cookies that went horribly wrong (#KitchenFail). Once you finish that project or get the recipe right, blog it and share the triumphant photo on your Instagram feed with a link to the post with all the details.

Rather than filling your whole feed with blog promo or perfectly styled shots, be sure to include you, too.

Extend your blog content’s reach.

Beyond filling your Instagram account with glimpses of your daily life, share photos adapted from individual posts.

  • Did you blog your recent vacation? Grab one of your best images from the trip and Instagram it along with a caption promoting your full blog post for viewers who click over to your site.

Curious about Canva? See their tutorials to get started. We’ve shared some helpful tips here, too.

  • If your post is more wordy, why not grab a quote and make a graphic? I use Canva.com to create the WordPress.com Instagram quote images and also like the Word Swag app for quotes on my personal feed.
  • Are you featuring an image-heavy post that is light on words? Make a collage with PicMonkey.com or Instagram’s Layout app.
  • Do you review books or share makeup tips? Share a nicely styled image related to your blog post and use it (along with some relevant hashtags) to get more eyes on your post.

Unsure how to use hashtags? We’ve shared tips on choosing hashtags here.

wordpressdotcom-instagram-bookhashtags

No matter what you blog about, there’s a way to convert your content into something Instagram-worthy to help extend its reach.

Keep the link in your profile current.

When you’re sharing blog content on your Instagram account, it’s important to make it easy for people to get to the post. Since Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in the caption or comments, update the link in your profile to take viewers straight to the blog post you’ve featured most recently.

Or go a step further, and create an Instagram landing page. Publish a new page called Instagram, so the URL is YourSiteAddress.com/Instagram. One perk of this fully customized page is that you can decide exactly how you welcome people to your site. Consider including a quick hello, link to your top posts or the content you’re most proud of, and display your most recent posts so they can find what may have brought them over from your Instagram profile in the first place.

Looking for more tips? Lorena Salinas at Cravings Journal uses Link in Profile, which helps drive traffic from Instagram.

The key to either method of linking in your Instagram profile is to to keep it current and make it as easy as possible for people to follow your content from your feed to your blog.

Remember to be yourself.

No matter how you choose to adapt your content and share your life on Instagram, the best way to connect with potential readers and new social media friends is by being yourself. Share the images you would want to see on someone else’s feed, and be sure not to promote your content so often you’d want to unfollow yourself.

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  1. This was awesome to read thank you! I’m not sure how to do this blog/put myself out there thing yet, but this helped me so much! Thank you!

    Liked by 9 people

      1. Aww thank you! I’m being a creeper and looking at yours as well. I love your writing style! The images you choose for each chapter is perfectly executed! I enjoy your writings as well!

        Liked by 3 people

      2. Made my day to find you comment on my very first post. Showed instantly what a genuine and great follower you are! Hoping to support you throughout all your writings! I’m glad I found your blog! Xoxo

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Aww right back at you! I will read more as I can! (kids think they need attention and stuff 😉 ) have a beautiful say!

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Well thank you! I hope to inspire people as much as I can. My experiences are my lessons in life. I look forward to checking out your posts as well! Beer and humor are topics I do not mind! Haha. Have a great day!

        Liked by 2 people

  2. Thank you so much for sharing such precious tips 🙂 I started on Instagram last month and I’m still learning how to take the best of it to my blog! Cheers PedroL

    Liked by 4 people

  4. Great tips! Thank you so much for the share. Hoping to focus more on my instagram too. Although my blog is quite recent it’s been blooming in the darkness lately!
    I mostly write exaggerating my daily life into poetry and small chapters of magical stories draped in darkness

    Hoping to meet some great blogs and follow a ton of amazing writers!

    Liked by 8 people

  5. Thank you, Sarah, I have actually considered this, however, I have been on Instagram longer than I have been blogging. I am not quite ready to drive that traffic to my blog. I have cultivated a following there and have a fairly consistent routine, and focus that is only, partially related.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. I have quit smoking by using an vape and advocate for recognition of that being a safer easier way to quit than, alternatives pushed by big Pharma and for common sense regulation of a thriving small business community- plus some spiritual memes thrown in @vapor_sage tongue planted firmly in cheek 😗💨

        Liked by 1 person

  11. I am a very private person (despite blogging online) I share my works but nothing of my personal life and rarely (almost never) put pictures of myself out there. I have an anonymous facebook page which I only use for reading important feeds and stalking some specific people (just being honest) I tweet once a day and only links to my posts in my blog. But since I published E-books and planning to publish more and recently finished my first novel I know that I can’t be anonymous forever if I want people to know me as a writer. Reading your post made me consider Instagram to reach more readers and potential followers and buyers for my books (I am scrutinizing the ins and outs of Instagram while writing this comment) Still having second thoughts but like I said if I want people to know me I have to introduce myself. Thanks for this inspiring article.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. For some posts, maybe you could come up with a photo that represents the flash fiction somehow & mention it in the caption. Or grab a quote from the text and make a quote graphic. 🙂

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  17. Hi Sarah,

    This article could not come at a better time! Thank you!

    I already knew that Instagramming is the new blogging but I am finding it difficult to juggle the two platforms at the same time.

    For now, I’ve decided to primarily focus on creating consistent content for my blog. Then, once I am confident that I have a decent amount of articles, I will start promoting it on Instagram. I try to make my content timeless and not too time-sensitive so it can still be relevant for any one at any time.

    Liked by 2 people

  19. Great tips, thank you. I really got into Instagram more last year, using the phrase “New at my #blog………” to introduce the topic and sometimes summing up the whole blog article in a few words. I blog about writing, running workshops, reading, and family life – I enjoy being able to include snippets about what I’m up to on Instagram.

    Liked by 2 people

  23. Great tips and wrap-up, thank you! I’ve just started on Instagram and as a photographer I like how I can link my shots there on WP (that’s another cool tip–use the widget on WP to display your Instagram shots). And I’ve certainly noticed more traffic to my blog as a result. Still small, but growing… I’m on Insta as @anyfidelity…. Cheers

    Liked by 3 people