Does your niche thrive in blog posts but fall short on social media? Do you struggle to create visual content that’s as effective as your blog content?
It’s hard for bloggers in text-based niches to be active on social media beyond publishing link posts for blog posts.
This is especially true for bloggers who wish to remain anonymous or don’t want to have to show their faces or talk in order to create content.
In this post, we share tips on how to thrive on Instagram as a blogger in a non-visual niche.
Why Instagram is so difficult for non-visual creators
Instagram is a visual social media platform. You cannot publish a post or Instagram story without attaching a photo, video or some type of visual element to it.
On platforms like Twitter (X) and Facebook, you can publish posts that contain nothing but text.
Heck, telling jokes and sharing quick updates used to be Twitter’s primary purpose.
But Instagram is entirely made up of visual content, so it’s harder for bloggers to use and difficult for bloggers in non-visual niches to make time for.
Plus, some creators in non-visual niches are too shy to speak or show their faces.
Some may find it difficult to learn how to create visual content while others may lack the creativity to get started.
Whatever the case may be, Instagram is not an easy platform to learn when all you’ve created is text-heavy content.
Strategy #1: Get to know Instagram better
If you want to start posting on a particular social media platform, take the time to get to know it.
Create a personal Instagram account, and start browsing. Follow friends, creators, artists and bands you’re into.
You should especially follow fellow creators in your niche. This gives you the opportunity to gain inspiration from their content and see how they use the platform.
Here’s a crash course on the app to get you started.
These are the post types you’ll find on Instagram:
- Instagram Posts – Posts on Instagram either have an image, carousel or video. They also have a caption.
- Instagram Carousel Posts – A carousel is a slideshow with multiple images.
- Instagram Reels – Every video posted to Instagram is a “reel.” When you view a reel, you can scroll up to watch another from a different creator, scroll up to view another, and so on.
- Instagram Feed – “Feed” refers to two locations on the app. First is the home screen where you can browse posts from people you follow and posts from creators Instagram thinks you’d be into. Second are the latest posts published by a creator displayed as a grid when you view their profile.
- Instagram Stories – Stories are temporary posts published by creators you follow. They’re only visible for 24 hours, though creators are able to save them in collections, which you can view on their profiles.
Every post has a few buttons you can interact with to like the post, share it, comment on it and save it.
Those are the basics of Instagram, but I highly recommend creating an account to learn the ins and outs of the platform on your own.
Strategy #2: Come up with ways to make your content more visual
To recap, these are the content types you can create on Instagram: image posts, carousel posts, reels and stories.
Your job is to figure out how to transform the content you already create into these content types.
One of the best ways to do this is by turning text-based facts, theories and ideas into infographics.
These can be as complex as large infographics that contain every fact about a topic or as simple as a small graphic that contains only one.
Use tools like Visme, Canva or Piktochart to create infographics on the fly.
These are graphic design tools that have hundreds of infographic templates for you to use.
All you have to do is import a template, change its styles to suit your needs, and edit its text to contain your own words.
You can also try breaking a topic down into several portrait-style images, then adding them to a carousel post on Instagram.
Try sticking to a maximum carousel length of 20 images to avoid overwhelming your audience with information. A platform like Instagram is not made for long-form content. It thrives on content that’s short and easy to consume.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, create videos that consist of you talking about the topic instead.
You can either film yourself talking to the camera, create an animation or create a voiceover for the slideshow you were going to publish as a carousel post.
Instagram Stories are fantastic for quick updates that aren’t important enough to create actual posts for. They’re also a fantastic way to promote content, affiliate links and products.
Strategy #3: Educate your audience
It’s best to repurpose your blog content while you learn the ins and outs of what it means to be an “Instagram influencer.”
But once you gain your footing on the platform, you can start creating original content for it.
This means creating content buckets and coming up with ideas to fill those buckets.
Once such bucket should be filled with content that’s meant to educate your audience. Fill it with tutorials and guides.
You can use any content type on Instagram to educate your audience, but carousel posts and reels work best.
Strategy #4: Inform your audience
Your goal should be to become a go-to source for information in your niche.
Not only should your audience come to see what you have to say about a trending topic, they should learn about those topics from you.
Use Instagram Stories and all of the other tools Instagram provides to create “breaking news” posts for your niche.
These can be related to changes for popular products, new releases, updates from various sources and updates about prominent figures.
Strategy #5: Be more personable
While consumers are willing to follow brands, they’d much rather follow influencers.
Brands are faceless. Influencers are more personable since they consist of a single or small group of individuals who actually show their faces and speak candidly about topics in a particular niche.
This is why you should consider being more personable in your content.
Record voiceovers at the very least. If you’re bold enough, include your face in content as well.
If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, create a character for your brand instead. Then, include that character in your content in place of yourself.
Examples of brands that thrive on building content around a character image are Duolingo and German dancer Avemoves.
Strategy #6: Be more approachable
Another reason why influencers are more popular among consumers is because they’re much more accessible.
When brands have real people creating their content, consumers are much more likely to engage with those brands’ content.
Having an influencer potentially respond to your comment is enough of an incentive for a lot of consumers to continue consuming your content.
To make yourself more approachable on Instagram, respond to every important comment you receive, and answer questions.
You can also use Instagram Stories to poll your audience.
Use the Poll and Questions stickers to create interactive stories. Add a question to the Questions stickers’ header, then have your audience receive anonymous replies to those questions.
Unlike regular posts, only you, as the creator, can see what someone responds with on Instagram Stories.
You can also use this sticker to host an “Ask Me Anything.”
Use the poll sticker to gather audience feedback and quiz your audience on various topics related to your niche.
Strategy #7: Promote links sparingly
One thing you shouldn’t do is use your Instagram account as a hub to promote links to your blog posts and nothing else.
Instagram users are willing to visit off-site links, but for the most part, they prefer to stay on the app.
This is why your primary focus as a new Instagram creator should be to repurpose your best blog posts into visual content.
If you want to promote links to your blog, use Instagram Stories, and create a link-in-bio page.
A link-in-bio page is a simple web page that contains buttons for every link you want to promote on Instagram but can’t.
Instagram does not allow creators to add URLs directly to posts. So, creators must create a link-in-bio page, then add that page to their Instagram bios.
When they want to promote a link, they say “link in bio” in their caption.
Our favorite link-in-bio tools for Instagram are Shorby and Pallyy.
When you repurpose blog content on Instagram, add a link to that content to your link-in-bio page, then say something along the lines of “learn more in the link in my bio.”
Strategy #8: Focus on providing value when promoting affiliate links
The internet has become one giant advertisement. Consumers are used to it, but they’re also sick of it.
Does this mean you shouldn’t promote affiliate links, sponsor products and your own products?
Of course not.
It just means you need to be more careful about how you promote these products.
Focus more on providing value with affiliate content and less on getting your audience to take a specific action, such as clicking your affiliate link.
Post honest reviews for affiliate products, and create guides for it.
A lot of brands make the mistake of creating lackluster instruction manuals and even thinner knowledge bases.
Bridge the gap by creating this content yourself and linking to the product in your bio or link-in-bio page.
Strategy #9: Switch your account over to a professional account
There are three account types on Instagram: personal, Creator and Business.
Creator and Business accounts are called “Professional” accounts.
These account types give you access to more features than the personal account type does, including more analytics, linking your Instagram account to a Facebook account, including contact information in your profile, running ads, and selling products.
Here’s a quick guide on how to choose an account type:
Create a Business account if you sell products and services first but also happen to create content.
Create a Creator account if you create content first but also happen to sell products and/or services.
General Instagram strategies to know
There are plenty of Instagram strategies that aren’t specific to bloggers.
They include:
- Using a scheduling tool to keep track of your posting schedule for Instagram.
- Being consistent with your posting schedule.
- Being consistent with your content in general.
- Using relevant hashtags in your posts.
- Collaborating with other Instagram creators.
- Keeping track of your analytics.
When it comes to Instagram tools, we mostly recommend Pallyy.
It was designed with Instagram in mind. You can use it to create drafts, manage your schedule with a calendar-based UI, manage comments, manage direct messages (DMs), view analytics, and create a bio link.
When you start posting on Instagram, it’s best to choose a consistent posting schedule.
Studies say the overall best time to post on Instagram is 8PM, but you can view your analytics to determine when your audience is most active.
When you do choose a time and day (or multiple times and days) to post on Instagram, stick with it. Any followers you do gain will know when to expect new content from you.
Be consistent with your content in general as well.
If you use a carousel post to create a tutorial and it resonates well with your audience, always use carousel posts to create tutorials.
To find relevant hashtags for your posts, enter keywords related to your niche in the search bar on Instagram, and see what types of hashtags come up.
You can also use a tool like RiteTag to find trending Instagram hashtags related to your niche.
As you browse Instagram, you should start to notice a few creators who create content similar to yours. You may even share audiences.
These are your competitors, but you can also work together by collaborating on content to expose each other to new pockets of your target markets.
Lastly, monitor your Instagram analytics to keep track of your follower count, number of engagements you receive, engagement rate, demographics who consume your content, and more.
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