Instagram Growing Pains

I went to a workshop on how to better use Instagram a while back and I have been trying to implement some of what I learned. It hasn’t been without its challenges!

First, let me say I balked at even using Instagram for a really long time. When other people were praising its merits, I was determined NOT to buy into yet another Social Media platform. I finally gave in and I admit, I actually enjoy it — probably more than I should!

I started out by trying to schedule two posts a day– one in the morning and one in the evening, with the occasional afternoon thrown in. I have some recurring content like these blog posts and my Booktalks, so it seemed like those were good places to start. I also promote events and other book-related things along with random features of each book. (When you have as many as I do, it makes for quite a bit of content.)

However, the tricky part has been NOT only posting what seems like advertising. Of course, that is part of what I want to do and is frankly easiest, but I know it is not the best practice because people get sick of the “Buy my book!” message. I posted a ‘Mug of the day’ as well as various art pieces, which I thought were fun. Still, I knew I needed to up my game. Engagement is the key.

At the workshop, I learned about ‘Stories’ and ‘Reels’. Oh, bother! Now I have to start doing that, too?! Turns out, it’s not as difficult as I feared. One thing I’ve been doing is posting short readings each day to my ‘Stories’ from my devotional book DIVINE APPOINTMENTS. I’m actually happy that they don’t last more than 24 hours since I’ve had some issues with the images flipping upside down or becoming inverted. I had no idea what I was doing differently or wrong. Turns out–at least from what research I’ve done–that this has been a problem for other people with Android phones. Sigh! So for anyone who has noticed, my sincere apologies!

It is a learning curve, for sure. I honestly don’t have a lot of time to spend each day and I don’t want to take away from other things–like actually writing! (Especially right now during NaNoWriMo!) However, it has been fun to try to think of ways to engage more, make my posts creative, and get more relevant content out there.

Anyway, suffice to say, I’m experimenting. I’m making mistakes. I’m also having fun. Hopefully, someone is finding some of what I’m sharing worthwhile and engaging. Follow if you want to see the evolution in real-time!

@tracy.krauss