Happy Wednesday! Thanks to everyone who comments and leaves feedback for us! We love to hear how our tips have helped you create blogs you love. We’re brainstorming how to better share all the work you’ve done with your own blogs. If you have a big project that you’ve completed using tips from us, please feel free to share! One question we receive on our social media posts is whether you need a separate Instagram account from your personal to promote your blog?
There are so many ways to go about social media for your blog that it won’t take long to find what works for you. There are benefits and drawbacks to both. We have a separate account for this blog. We did this for a few reasons: we were new so we really wanted to establish brand awareness. We had a color palette, logo, design, and content worked out, and it just made sense to translate that to Instagram, despite each of us having our own accounts. It ended up being a HUGE plus! It drives traffic and gets our name out there, and the best part is it wasn’t something that took a ton of time. We post a few times a week and the only requirement for us is that we promote our blog posts, stick to a theme, and utilize proper hashtags. Other than that, the account doesn’t require much maintenance.
However, we have enough content to keep the Instagram fresh. If you only blog once a week, you might not have much content to post on your accompanying account. Even if you have images to post here and there, it’s tough to consistently come up with content. I’ve worked on a lot of other accounts and unlike TBM, most require more frequent and consistent posting to grow, so if you choose to create a separate account, you should be aware of the possible commitment.
Another thing to consider is what you already post on your personal account. If it has little to do with what you blog about (say you love posting photos of your cats but you love blogging about beauty products), it makes more sense to keep the two separate. Otherwise, you’re trying to market beauty blogging to followers who are either your personal friends or cat lovers, and they likely don’t care to click over too much. But this doesn’t mean you should never post about your blog on your personal. A perk to having separate accounts is that I have more places to share. When we have a post that my personal followers would like, I go ahead and post it! There’s no reason not to occasionally cross promote.
So you might be wondering if I’m saying that you should definitely have a separate account? Nope! There ARE ways you can stick to a personal account and still grow your blog and social media presence. It all goes back to whether it lines up with your blog’s content/readership. My personal account is very lifestyle focused. I make sure to always upload high quality photos, stick to a theme, etc. So even though it’s “personal” I prefer to run it like I would a blog account. I refrain from posting selfies (I save it for Snapchat, okay!) or dark, grainy photos. So when it comes time to promoting my work, it doesn’t feel off-brand. The same followers that follow me are curious as to what I’m blogging about, too.
A lot of times lifestyle influencers, fashion bloggers, and those whose blogs are their brands will stick to one account and just make sure it’s very curated. This is the most successful way to get around having to create a separate account for your blog, but it doesn’t work for everyone. If you don’t want to have to limit your personal content, I’d say to create that second account. It’ll be freeing to know that you don’t have to make your personal posts live up to your polished, edited blog content. As much as I love having a pretty Insta, sometimes I really do wish I could just post *whatever*!
Ah social media, what a crazy world! Do you have more than one Instagram account?
Stephanie says
I actually just created a new IG for my blog. It feels very freeing to have the space separate from my personal IG. I can just focus on blog content and not feel like I’m oversharing if I want something more personal, and just for friends, on my personal account.
http://aneducationindomestication.com
Dan says
I must admit that I still don’t understand how Instagram is good for most blogs. It seems to me that unless your blog is focused on photos then it’s hard to relate the account to your blog.
Roy says
HEY! thank you for this post, I was having a hard time deciding if I should link my personal account to my blog, but I think it lines up pretty well. :)
Marie Monserrat Hadar says
I just started my own blog and made another Instagram. I have more followers on my personal account but I figured I could just promote my blog on both during the beginning!
http://Www.stylecoffeeweed.com I’ll be launching next week!
Anita says
I just found your blog as I’m trying to dig in and get serious about my own. I can’t wait to start absorbing all this knowledge!