A lot of people aren’t aware of how to use Instagram to grow their blog but you can totally utilize this platform to grow your blog + business. When I started to take Instagram seriously in January of this year I focused on a solid strategy and my following and engagement exploded. I went from having 2k followers to over 10k followers in less than 3 months.
But, not only did my Instagram account grow but my blog grew as well. Yup! Instagram is one of the most checked social media platforms which means you can totally use it to grow your blog + biz! Instagram is a little different than the other platforms because you can’t directly click on links within’ posts but if you develop a strong and consistent brand on Instagram you can gain followers and boost your engagement.
Since Instagram is a visual platform you can use it to connect with your audience in a way that you can’t on other platforms. You can put pictures up of your behind the scene life, of your family and more. You seriously can create a solid photo story very easily by uploading different photos daily on Instagram.
That’s why it’s so important to develop a theme Instagram feed that fits into your brand and shows your personality. In this post, I will share 7 ways how you can grow your blog with Instagram!
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1. Spice Up Your Bio
On Instagram, your bios are very important!
Make sure to fill your bio with information such as who you are and what you do. Also, put a call to action at the of your bio which will help with generating traffic back to your site. By doing so you will be sending your visitors back to your site which can definitely grow your traffic. You can link a new blog or link it to a page where you are giving away a freebie such as a checklist or a guide. If you are looking to link multiple things in your bio, check out Linktree! Linktree, let’s bloggers + business owners house a ton of links in their bios to help drive the Instagram traffic back to their site.
I use this tool for my blog posts, my facebook group and more! I LOVE IT! Oh! and it’s free.
2. Put Your Website Link In A Video Story
Instagram released a new feature that is truly GAME CHANGER! If you have 10k followers or more you can NOW put links to your website and other places right in your Instagram story videos. This feature will make it easier to send Instagram traffic right to your website.
Not Sure How To Add A Link To Your Instagram Story? Here is how!
- Go to the top of your Instagram page and click on your profile image in the circle!
- Then create your Instagram story! If you just want to add an image you can do so by swiping up and picking an image from your phone photo gallery!
- Then click on the chain icon in the right corner.
- Enter the URL you would like and upload your story!
- ( Remember, currently only business Instagram accounts with 10k followers or more can use this feature)
- If you are looking to boost your Followers? Check out this post on how to rapidly grow your Instagram following by clicking here.
Need Ideas On How To Send Instagram Users To Your Website? See Below:
- When you write a new blog post show a little preview of the post in the video with an image. Then link it back to your website in your Instagram story to direct the readers to the full post.
- If you have an upcoming webinar and/or masterclass, show an image of it in your Instagram story and link it back to the sign- up the page where users can sign up easily.
- If you have services on your website link it in an Instagram story and send users back to the landing page to check out what you offer!
3. Create a Theme
Instagram is a visual platform so having a solid color theme is HUGE. If you want to gain a loyal following with #Superfans that will love what you put up daily it’s super important to make sure your theme is focused and clear. For example, if you are a brand or photography blogger you might post images of quote & business related photos like @Sheisbold does on her page.
As you can see she has a strong & consistent feed and she also uses her brand colors in her feed. Her feed tells a story and she uses photos that fit in with her brand which is HUGE! She also puts up business related photos such as her writing in notebooks, etc!
She is a brand & photography genius and currently has an awesome FREE branding course that teaches students how to brand their businesses and stand out! You can check out her course by clicking here and don’t forget to check out her amazing Instagram feed! Like, really?!
GOT HIGHER QUALITY PHOTOS?
Posting high-quality images is a MUST and if you aren’t sure where to find high-quality stock photos check out this post that lists over 20+ places online to find high-quality stock photos by clicking here!
Posting photos that aren’t clear or blurry or posting photos that aren’t really relevant to your brand will make it harder to grow on Instagram. So, figure out who your audience is and what they want. You want to post content that they can relate to or that will empower them to achieve their goals. By doing so, you will gain more followers which will also grow your blog.
Promote Your Blog In Your post
When you have a new post or something new that you are launching you can totally post it in a daily post on Instagram. You can put the link to the new post in your bio which will make it easier for the users to get to your website. By doing so, you will be sending them to your site which means more traffic! You can also promote your Facebook Group, Facebook Fan page and more!
Pretty neat, right? So, think outside the box and post up new blog posts, FB group launches, webinars dates and more.
4. Post consistently
Being consistent on Instagram is KEY! Posting once a day or once every other day will help promote your brand. To get ahead with posting daily you can actually save photos and post content in advance to stay ahead. When a person isn’t consistent on Instagram their followers might forget about their content.
To help with staying consistent checkout scheduling tools such as Hootsuite and CoSchedule to help with scheduling.
5. Engage With Others In Your Niche
Supporting other bloggers on Instagram is GOLD! Not only can it help grow your blog traffic but it can also help build a community within’ your niche. I engage authentically by commenting on fellow bloggers in my niche profiles to help with boosting engagement on my page. Most of the time, those same bloggers will stop by my page to check out my latest blog posts and support.
6. Utilize Relevant Hashtags
In the Instagram world Hashtags are EVERYTHING! When you upload a new photo make sure to put relevant hashtags in the first comment section of your post or in the caption of your post. In order to get your photos seen by the right people, it’s very important to use relevant hashtags that fit in with your niche. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people do on Instagram is to put up random hashtags such as #like4like and #follow4follow. By doing so, you will only hurt your engagement and send spammers to your account.
For example, If you are a food blogger who posts pictures of food + recipes and but only put up hashtags up such as #Dog #IloveDog #animals #like4like under your food photos you might get more animal lovers being sent to your page and not people looking for amazing food recipes. Get it?
The main goal of using hashtags is to bring your target audience to your page to grow your following in an organic way. You want to gain followers that might turn into LOYAL subscribers and who are interested in your content because ultimately that’s how you successfully grow a blog + biz.
So, there you have it! Over 6 Ways to Grow your blog with Instagram!
I love your tips which I plan to implement in my Instagram posts.
Thank you so much! Instagram is a huge opportunity for me, I definitely don’t see much return on it right now. I will definitely be revamping and using your tips, especially on the color/theme. Thanks again!
I have been slacking on Insta lately because of the whole algorithm change and the drop in engagement that everyone is experiencing. I need to up my game over there.
These are some great tips! Unfortunately, I don’t have the feature yet for adding links to a story. I’ve heard that right now only business accounts with over 10K followers have it. I only have about 5.5K. I think having that would be a game changer for me. One day!
Wow this is so helpful! thank you so much for this share!
Great tips!! I love Instagram and I want to start using to its full potential.
These are GREAT tips! I have not tried linking my stories to my site! What a great idea! You have done a great job. I need to focus more on growing my following and engagement and these are a great place for me to start!
Great ideas. Thanks so much for sharing. I have been trying to improve on my Insta game, so I’ll try these too
Thanks for all of these great tips! I think it is so important to be able to use Instagram for your advantage especially to grow your blog. I started linking my post to my site and ut has helped. I need to start linking my stories also. and I am growing my following and engagement.
IG is my favorite social media platform and my most engaged. I love the Linktree and being able to use more than one link! I am SO close to 10k and can’t wait to use the links in stories, I feel like that is one of the biggest game changers recently and an amazing way to drive traffic
These are great tips–some I use and some I don’t so I excited to try some new things with my Instagram page!
There are so many ways to use instagram for promotion. I am going to use instagram more!
Thanks for all the tips. I am interested in growing this a bit faster than I have been. I’ll be trying some of your ideas.
These are all great tips! I have the swipe up feature on my lifestyle blog but not my SMM biz yet.
I don’t know why I have never thought of putting my website in an insta story!
I’m signing up for link tree right now! thanks for the tips!
It definitely works so well together! Instagram is a huge part of your blog especially if you have a good following there. These are great tips! I do the same things for my blog and my instagram account!
Just what I needed
You have some awesome tips here. I am doing these all. Except, I wish I had more of a theme to my account.
I have never been an Instagram fan, but I may be getting back to it soon
I can definitely attest to the fact that this works! I have been more creative with y Instagram account lately and I’ve seen how many more followers have come to my blog from it~
These are great tips!! I’m so bummed that you have to have 10k for the story links to work. Such a great tool!!
Wow, this is great! We just launched our blog and have done very well on Facebook, but our Instagram strategy needs some work. I wish we had 10k though so we could post the links in our stories. Guess we have some more work to do!
I’ve been trying to use Instagram more in the past year. I can see where it’s been beneficial for sure. I appreciate you sharing these tips with us. I’ll definitely have to give some of them a try.
I really did enjoy reading your tips. I am going to incorporate them. Thanks again
I totally agree with these awesome tips! Sharing this to my friend who is new on blogging!
These are such great tips for anyone wanting to grow their Instagram!!
I’m new to the blogging world…I’ll definitely step my Instagram game up after reading this post! Thanks!
I always promote all my posts in all my social accounts but instagram is definitely the best with blogging. They go hand in hand especially for my food, fashion and travel posts! These are so helpful!
Very sound advice! Congrats on all of your success!
xo Debbie | http://www.tothineownstylebetrue.com
My blog actually does a decent job of getting traffic from Instagram. It’s not as good as some of the other networks but it’s a good one.
Love it, great tips! I think we tend to get a little lazy or complacent with social at times so it’s always good to get a little kick in the pants to up your game. I don’t get a ton of traffic from Instagram but I get some so I could definitely improve on it. Will be waiting to get over 10k so I can use the link in stories feature! 🙂 Thanks for all the tips.
This is so helpful! I don’t get very much of my traffic from Instagram yet I put a lot of time into it.
Thanks for these tips. I had lately seen people putting “like4like” and it didn’t seem like a good idea but I wasn’t really sure.
Thank you for this post! I’m actually not too bad when it comes to Instagram but I had never heard of that Link Tree thing to put in the bio so that you can have more than one link! Thank you so much for that it’s a big help! x x
http://www.caitylis.co.uk
These are great tips. I don’t use Instagram at all really for my blog. I might start a new account for that! Bookmarking these tips so I can refer back
I love me some instagram but haven’t used it for my blog yet. Trying to learn and concentrate on pinterest for now. But, when I do start with instagram I will have to try these tips.
Oh, yeah! Using Instagram for my blog has helped me develop a solid connection with my audience. I love it. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
I love Instagram and I have been struggling to use it to grow my blog. This information is great and right on time. I am excited about using Linktree … my first time hearing about it is through you. Thanks for sharing!
Ah, so perfect! 🙂 I love using Linktree, it rocks. Thanks for stopping by, Toni. 🙂
Latasha: You have some great tips for growing my Instagram! Thanks so much for the helpful info! 🙂
Great post. Thanks for sharing this informative post. It’s really useful.
Thanks a ton!
Thanks for the tips! I am just getting started with instagram, so it has been very insightful to read. Keep up the great content and thank you.
Thanks! 🙂
wonderful post about get traffic from instagram to blog … thanks
Thanks a ton!
Thanks for sharing this useful information! Hope that you will continue with the kind of stuff you are doing.
Thanks so much, Michael.