It probably doesn't help that any time I look for help I get articles like "how to take the perfect flat picture" or "how to build your business on instagram." Blogging is not a business for me and I could care less about flat pictures of the latte I'm not drinking or the new clothes I'm not buying. I just want to have more encouragement to capture all the sweet but all too fleeting moments with my kids while I can. And to share with you all our fun times and to continue to be a part of the community I've wedged myself into. So my goals are clear and I think Instagram can be a useful part of that but how? Another blogger I had followed pretty much stopped blogging but continues to feed her Instagram to her blog and I had originally planned to do that (the feeding the post part, not the stop blogging part :-). So I could keep up blogging consistency but not worry about posting as many big thoughtful posts when I don't have the time to do that. I love those because its my brain dump but they will have to be less frequent. But I'm wondering now if that's redundant if most of the people that read the blog will also follow me on instagram? So keep them separate (except for my name)? Install a widget so you can see my instagram pictures on the blog? That will only work if you read from the actual site but how many of you are feedly readers? I love feedly but most you use a reader or come straight here? Ahh! To many decisions.
Feel free to offer advice or suggestions. I have quite a few followers (on the blog, not instagram) but not very many commenters (except on my book posts! Yay! That made me so happy!) so if you do take the time to comment, you have a big influence on me.
Oh, and it just occured to me that maybe you'd like to follow me on instagram (see, new to this!). I'm brc_mackenzie. And if that didn't tip you off to my newness, head over to my feed and see Lucy in three different pictures (on three different days!) but the same outfit. An real Instagram wife would never have made that mistake.
First thought, commenting on your blog from a phone is hard! I wonder if you could change a setting to make it a bit easier. I just tweaked my settings on WordPress, but I don't know if helped.
ReplyDeleteMy sister just made me join Instagram because she's posting cute pictures of my kids when they spend time with her. I seems redundant to me since Facebook has lots of pictures, but I like words instead of images, so I'm not the target audience.
I do read your blog on Feedly, and I go to your blog when I want to look something up or when Feedly clearly did something wrong with your post. I'm not sure what the options are but if you could use some sort of automator that turned Instagrams into a blog post that would be best for me. ;)
I use feedly but I try to click through and comment when I get a chance. I'm new to instagram too and I'm just having fun with it. Some blogging and social media are more for business now so I'm enjoying an outlet where I'm not worried about what I'm "supposed" to be doing.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if that helps you at all but I'm wrestling with similar issues.
Good feedback. I changed comments to no word verification (as long as the spam stays away) and embedded. Let me know if that is easier.
ReplyDeleteI have found there to be a big overlap with facebook but as I've been able to blog less, I've started fb-ing more pictures and things and was feeling like I was posting too many pictuers there which was why I wanted to try instagram. But most of my extended family isn't on there so I ended up posting to instagram and fb anyway. So I think I will look into feeding into posts, I don't think it is hard and then the non-instagramers can see the pictures. And if you don't like seeing my stuff twice, I guess you can unfollow me on instagram ;-)
And it is good to know I'm not alone.
I have the same wonderings you have. I choose not to cross-post by blog posts to my personal Facebook page because my blog tends to be pretty carefully focused on homeschooling. So I have a separate FB page for the blog and keep my personal page personal. But for Instagram, I have the two merged. (No separate IG account for Joyous Lessons.) I occasionally cross-post my IG pics to the blog, but I too feel like that's sometimes overkill. But then there are SO many blog readers that don't do IG...I have the widget in the sidebar, but like you said, a lot of readers are following via feed reader or email, so they don't see the site anyway. It's a conundrum for sure! As for my reading: I read almost exclusively via feedly. I don't leave as many comments as I should. (And like you, my blog posts about books get the most comments too! I suppose it's no surprise that we have a lot of book-loving readers! :))
ReplyDeleteI'm a feedly reader and I don't click through. I'll be 36 in two weeks so I'm way too old for Instagram. ;)
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