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5 Mistakes That I Made As A New InstaPoet. How To Avoid Them.

My writing journey on Instagram began on 30th December 2015 when I had casually posted the feelings and experiences of being a writer as quotes on Instagram. Little did I know, the path I had taken was exactly the path I was meant to be on.

Even though it began without any aim, I was still writing a book at that time––the book never finished––but a whole new journey of Instapoetry started for me that day. I had no clue about Instapoets back then. I didn't know who Rupi Kaur was, who Atticus was, who Faraway was and so many more.

I just posted my first write-up because I felt like posting and my Instagram wasn't of any use anyway. Here's a fact: since Instagram is a photo-posting platform, I was embarrassed to post words written on an image, so embarrassed that I kept using the hashtag #InstagrammingWords in all my posts until I found more writers like me there.

You just have to take the first step even if that seems illogical but you're called to do so.

After making my first post, what did I do?
I made a post and my only readers, at that time, were my friends from Twitter who were following me on my Instagram. They read it, they supported and encouraged me then––they support and encourage me till date, ceaselessly.

Their praise gave me the courage and confidence to make another post the next day and then, I made a post on every single day of January 2016.

Then I joined February writing challenge by Artson Publishing House in February 2016. Throughout February, I made 2 posts daily—one for the writing challenge and the other for my random poems/quotes. I, totally unexpectedly, won that challenge and it was all I needed as a sign to keep walking on the path of writing and poetry. I found and befriended some great Instapoets through that challenge.

By the end of March 2016:
  • I was posting regularly every day.
  • I had become a part of the writing community.
  • I was using hashtags.
  • I was getting all the support and engagement from my readers and friends.

So, where was I lacking? Why were my followers growing at a snail's pace?

Let's look at the mistakes I made.

1. Not Having A Business Instagram Account

Believe me, I had no guidance, no idea about the algorithm or tricks of Instagram until the middle of 2018.

But after postponing for a year, I finally decided to convert my personal account to business account on Instagram in March 2017.

I had doubts like: what's a business account? Who would manage a Facebook page along with this Instagram account? Do I have so much time? I didn't even know how Facebook pages work. I didn't know what change could come by converting to a business account... but when I finally did it, I realised that just by converting to a business account, so many insights into my account and its reach were revealed.

I was clueless about all these things, but I kept experimenting and learning until I got a hold of it all.

If you haven't converted your personal Instagram account to business/creator's account yet, please do. Yes, now there's a separate category for Creator's account.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

2. Not Knowing How Feature Pages Work

I used to see all these poets getting featured by different pages and I had no clue how they were getting featured. No, I didn't envy them. I just wanted to know how to reach out to the pages. When you believe in your content, you don't need to feel envious of others' content. And that's the beauty of art, everyone has their own style.

Getting back to the feature pages. It wasn't until one of the pages posted their submission guidelines that I realised that we had to tag them on our post to be able to be discovered by them. It was this simple, but I could not figure it out!

Feature pages have been my best help in expanding the reach of my content. You don't need to make a single paid promotion of your content if it's discovered and shared by feature pages. So, make a list of pages you want to tag and then, tag them on your posts. But don't be disheartened if you don't get featured. They get hundreds of submissions each day but can choose only a few. So, don't give up on tagging even if you're not featured for a long time.
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

3. Using Hashtags That Didn't Work

I had 2-3 sets of hashtags but none of them showed an expected reach. Why? I don't know. But sometimes, hashtags become our foe instead of a friend. Using the wrong hashtags has often killed my reach. 

When I made the right set of hashtags, my posts' reach shot up incredibly and I saw my account growing at a nice pace.

You may see how to choose the right hashtags in this post.

4. Not Reaching Out and Leaving Meaningful Feedback on Others Posts

I used to only comment on my writer-friends' posts, not realising how important it was to reach out to other poets on Instagram and leave our feedback on their post. Even if they don't reach out to you, other people might come across your profile through their post.

But when I say reaching out, PLEASE do not go around copy-pasting: "check out mine" comments. They are irritating. Even if someone could have checked out your profile for your feedback on the post, none would check out because you asked them to do so. And the worse is, appreciating someone's post only to end it with, "check out my page too, hope you would like it." No one would check your page that way and your appreciation would too come off as a desperate attempt at attracting followers.
Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

5. Posting at Wrong Timings

I had a rule when I first started posting write-ups on Instagram: to make a post before 1 pm. Why did I choose that time? Don't know. As I said above, I had a personal account, so I had no access to the insights and didn't know what was the best time to post. 12-1 pm seemed convenient, I guess.

I gradually started posting after 4:00 pm and my posts started doing better. I didn't know timing could have such an impact. But better late than never. I learned a lot over these 4 and a half years and still learning.


These are small things that collectively make such a huge difference. This isn't just for writers but every InstaArtist. I hope you found this post helpful. This is why I had written How To Grow Your Writing Account on Instagram so that what I learned could be valuable to you.

At the end of the day, your content and the consistent posting matter THE MOST. And the people who have been with you since the beginning are your target audience. Never forget them while chasing the followers. Be loyal to those who are loyal to you.


Connect with me on Instagram at @meetlife240




Comments

  1. Very well-written... Will definitely prove helpful to new artists๐Ÿ˜Š❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad I had you so I didn't do such mistakes ๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜

    ReplyDelete

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