So I missed last month…I’m sorry. It’s been a pretty chaotic month or two and I’ve had to let some stuff slide. But The Instagram and Instagrammers I love is back.
I’m still loving Instagram but like many of you I am getting a bit frustrated with the algorithm and also the follow/unfollow action that seems pretty rampant right now. Unfortunately I think those problems are here to stay so you just have to suck it up and get on with it. Some people use the follow/unfollow system as a growth method and whilst it’s not for everyone I can almost understand it as I know myself how frustrating it can be to see people seemingly get thousands of followers over night whilst you work hard for each new one. All I can say is look at the long game, Instagram are constantly deleting bot and spam accounts as well as many of the apps that have been used for this technique. More and more brands and PR’s that I speak to tell me they are looking at engagement and quality of followers these days rather than the actual follower number so focus on producing content you believe your audience will like and as always engage, engage, engage.
I don’t post an image every day but I use stories a lot of the time now, especially at press events and trips. I find people really engage with stories, in fact my Instagram stories whilst in Ireland reached 25,000 people. Which is kind of crazy as I only have a 5k following. If you are using stories, use them to your advantage by adding locations to videos to see your reach massively improved.
My growth is continuing steadily but slowly, I’m at 5300 now. Which although seems really slow to me is an actual 300 follower increase since May and they are all real followers, no bots ( I delete those ). I get an average of 300-400 likes on an image which works out at an engagement rate of about 6.5%.
My top 3 photos over the last month were:
This shot of me at The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, this was part of an incredible press trip with Tourism Ireland.
Another photo of me on the same trip learning to longboard came in next, as always photos with a person see to do better than standard food images or flat lays. I know that when I scroll my feed I always notice the images with people in first so everyone now again pop yourself into the frame. Followers like to see the person behind the account.
And finally some food.. I know you were getting sick of me. This a recipe I created for Krombaucher for Beer Glazed Chicken:
The Instagrammers I Love. As ever I have some fabulous and slightly different Instagram accounts for you to follow this month starting with:
Explore With Ed aka Jamie is a fellow Welsh food and travel blogger who is an incredible photographer too. I love his perfectly curated feed and his posts always seem to tell a story, I especially like the ones that he is in because 1. He is my friend and 2. He always looks dapper.
Harrison Hopton is a video creator I met a few months back and I instantly fell in love with his feed. He posts beautiful drone images as well as some cool car pics and they always make me feel a little awestruck. I love this post in particular of the Dorset Coastline:
Emma from The Emasphere is a fashion blogger I met on a press trip to Spain and can I tell you she looks just as perfectly put together in real life as she does on Instagram. Yet you can’t hate her even a little as she is super sweet too. I love her feed for a little escapism and for a fashion fix that I didn’t know I needed in my life.. I am pretty useless with fashion but I do like to admire it. This is a photo of her looking beautiful and happy on our press trip to Spain:
Lauren Croft aka Elle_Croft is a travel writer ( and also actual author as she has only gone and written a book! ) who I visited Ireland with recently. She is a lovely, lovely lady and lots of fun on a good old Irish hoolie. I really enjoy her feed which is a mixture of food, wine and travel as well as her favourite spots in London 😊. I love this photo:
And last but most certainly not least is the lovely Emma from Supper In The Suburbs, I feel we have very similar loves in life like all of the food. Her feed is always bright and fun and just a pleasure to scroll through. Go check it out while I drool over these meringues..
Who are you loving on Instagram right now?
Wow love that photo of the Dorset coast! I don’t really manage to find time for IG right now as so busy with work and house extension. Hopefully I will get back to it after the kids summer hols!
Thanks for the lovely comments Becky – a great list and the beer glazed chicken looks the business!
You are right – there’s a lot of automation going behind the scenes of IG going on. I can’t help but wonder whether IG will go down the same route as Twitter, where bots reign nowadays. Great roundup!
Love your picture on the longboard! I’ve tried myself a few times but Im absolutely useless on it 🙂 Great Insta recommendations, following a few already but I’ll check out the rest!