My 30-day Instagram Challenge: Day 20
Now I’m two-thirds of the way through this challenge, it’s time to actually focus on why I’m doing it.
Like many small business owners on social media, the aim of the game is to entice people enough to click on your website links. Those all-important clicks can be encouraged through deals, launches, giveaways, freebies, all prettily bundled up in effective copy writing.
I am a food photographer, writer and blogger. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world and is ready-made to supply people with a target audience.
Throughout this challenge of growing my visibility and promoting my business on Instagram, have I had more clicks through to my website?
Nope.
So, how can I emulate the people in my niche who do grow their businesses?
New to my challenge? My previous updates are here:
What does my target audience want?
This is the question we always need to ask.
In any industry, there will be different styles of approaching audiences. Let’s take the world of foodie social media as that’s the industry I know well. Most commonly populated by young women, there appears to be two main camps:
- The classic food blogger: Photography sets, props, professional photos, food styling etc. Usually with a caption encouraging you to click for the recipe as ‘these cupcakes are out of this world.’
- The low-key everyday food lover: No styling or fancy photography, often a bird’s eye view of a dish, always in the same place. Close ups, natural lighting. Captions are either extremely short or poetically describe the writer’s state of mental health.
From these two factions, we can gather that the original form of DIY food media — the classic food blogger — is evolving. Now, the food-loving audience wants relatable, easy and obtainable. We want to see food that an everyday person has made, and of course, it still needs to look delicious but without any fuss or unrealistic photography or styling.
The low-key everyday food lover is one of the people. For instance, a girl I follow with 107k followers writes in her bio ‘I love you. I want us both to eat well.’ And the first photograph on her Instagram grid is of scrambled eggs and avocado.
I mean — what?
Is this for real?
Even if the photograph was of a delicate homemade French pastry, made with care and skill, the audience still wants it to appear effortless. ‘If she could make it in her normal kitchen, maybe I can too.’
Then there’s the catch — the audience won’t actually make it.
Instagram is for the promise of something.
On Instagram, there is always the prospect of something new to see. People mindlessly scroll, pausing when something catches their attention.
As Instagram is visual, we pause to look at beauty, or something cute, funny or silly.
If there is anything we think we’d like to return to, we’ll save it.
But beyond saving a picture or video — an idea — will we really do anything about it?
Therefore, telling my followers to ‘click for the recipe, link in bio!’ is not going to have desired results.
What I need to give them is food that they will eat imminently. Luckily for me, there are three structured meals a day.
My plan for the next 10 days
- Put relevant recipes at the right meals times in my stories so the link is right in front of them (Instagram doesn’t allow interactive links in posts).
- Create an aesthetic of obtainable sex appeal (like that good-looking person we actually have a shot with) — post pictures of life and food that people can easily recreate themselves e.g. breakfast in bed, hot chocolate with marshmallows, autumnal hygge.
- Creativity makes people pause in their scrolling sessions. So, even if we want tips for normal life (in my case, recipes for everyday meals) we also want to be amazed.
It’s all food for thought! In more cases than one!
