My 30-day Instagram challenge: the first 5 days
I am a food blogger, photographer and writer and I have been struggling with Instagram. I’m sure I’m not the only one! What a minefield ey?!
Social media is a maze of algorithms and strategies and the half-hearted are kicked to the kerb! If you want to succeed, whether that’s growing your audience, finding your target market, or selling your services or products, you need nerves of steel, a whole bucket-load of determination, and the thickest skin ideally made of rubber so any negativity just bounces off!
My 30-day Instagram challenge kicked off on Tuesday — to find out exactly what I plan to do, check out the article here! — so it’s still very fresh and new and positive (do I sound cynical?).
So, how have the first 5 days gone?
Surprisingly well!
The first thing I have noticed is my attitude. I am hopeful, determined, and I simply don’t care about low engagement because I have to keep up the momentum for 30 days. If I didn’t have this challenge, I would have already scuttled away from the platform mortified, vowing to never use it again! The heart-breaking drama!
Posts
I am posting more regularly, adapting my style to share photos that will attract a target audience — a photo of creamy tomato baked eggs which I shared on Tuesday (in this new style incidentally) actually gained my 5th highest reach ever which I was not expecting.
From here, though, I need to focus on the ratio of reach combined with actual engagement.
Stories
Stories have been busier than usual over these 5 days! I’ve made sure to take more photos to have an ‘Instagram Story’ backup— a nice picture of a visit to a cafe will do for when there’s no inspiration.
Interestingly though, the stats have gradually gone down… there’s probably a reason for this — if anyone knows, please comment!
Even so, this low reach is coupled with higher engagement… is it that my target audience is actually engaging and everyone else doesn’t care (which is fair enough) or are my responses coming from people who do “like for like”, “comment for comment”? This is something I must avoid!
Reels
Ah reels… my nemesis of Instagram. In the sheer determination of becoming the next TikTok, Instagram has forgotten its modus operandi.
I posted one reel of handmade pesto, and I always hate uploading reels because the results are often pitiful (despite this new alleged algorithm?!). So far, stats are poor but I didn’t expect much. Will see if I can do anything about it over the next few days.
It’s a combination of trending music, appetizing images of food, and good timing from what I can gather.
For the next 25 days I will…
- watch YouTube videos and read guides on reaching and engaging a bigger audience
- research my target market more — what do they want to see?
- keep it sexy — my mantra for life
- and just keep going.
Stay posted for my next update coming soon!
