As both businesses and individuals are moving toward social media, microblogging has become a great informative tool for marketers, influencers, and brands. Just like blogging on the web, microblogging is one way of increasing engagement on social media platforms. These platforms are therefore amazing places to start your own microblog. There are some general tips to start a microblog on social media. But here, we will focus on microblogging on Instagram. As you need guidelines to become a blogger, you need some instructions to start microblogging on Instagram.
Take a look at the infographic to grasp a quick idea of what you are going to read in this article:
What Is Microblogging?
Microblogging is an informative content production for online platforms. Due to the growth of technology and the value of time, internet users have become fast readers because they want to get the most information just by looking at photos, videos, and short texts. Instagram is by nature the best place to share this kind of content thanks to its features.
What Is Microblogging on Instagram?
Microblogging on Instagram is the art of writing informative captions while keeping an eye on Instagram caption limitation. This limitation is up to 2,200 characters which are about 370 words. There are many influencers who microblog on Instagram. They microblog different content such as travel information, cooking recipes, marketing strategies, and advertising posts.
It seems that storytelling is one of the features of some popular accounts on Instagram. Each photo has its own narrative that should be told. Depending on how interesting your story is, the posts that you share can gain more and more engagement. In fact, people rather devote their time to reading a narrative that is worth it. This is the reason why famous brands focus on their captions and narratives. Posting for the sake of posting on Instagram is absolutely wrong and will definitely be a waste of time.
What Is the Difference Between Blogging and Microblogging?
If you know how to make your blog successful even if you are not an expert, it cannot exactly lead to being a successful microblogger as well. Bloggers need to know that they cannot keep up their traditional blogging strategies on Instagram because Instagram has its own system of blogging. Instagram is a media of pictures with short entertaining or informative captions. So, microblogging replaces traditional blogging on Instagram. Therefore, we need to see how microblogging differs from traditional blogging.
1. Microblogging on Instagram is Dynamic and Fast
Microblogging on Instagram is much more dynamic and faster than traditional blogging on the web. Using Instagram features such as comments, hashtags, direct messages, and Instagram stories, microbloggers can build up an effective and profitable relationship with their followers.
2- Microblogging on Instagram Has Push Notification Advantage
Setting up notifications is possible for a traditional blog on the web. However, microblogging on Instagram allows you to set up push notifications. Unfortunately, your posts do not appear on all your followers’ feed according to the new Instagram algorithm. This is where push notifications come handy to assist you. You can ask your followers to turn on the notifications of your account n so that they can see your posts any time you post them. This useful feature helps you get more engagement as your followers do not miss your posts.
3- Microblogging on Instagram Through Insights
Microbloggers can check out some useful information from their posts on the ‘Insight’ section. You can see how many times your post has been saved or shared, for instance. What is the use of knowing these statistics? Well, you can realize which kind of content is more favorable to your audience, and as a result, you can concentrate more on producing that kind of content.
What Should a Microblogger Share on Instagram?
Microbloggers should first decide about their niche. In other words, as a microblogger, you should find out what your skills and interests are and in which fields you have enough knowledge that is interesting for others. Then, you should develop original ideas on that field. The field can be anything from travel and tourism, food, beauty, sports, marketing, etc. The original ideas can be:
- Behind the scene content
- Tutorial content
- Informative content
- etc.
Of course, there are many other things that original ideas can stem from. However, microbloggers should make sure that the content is fast to read and interesting to know. Just as there are effective ways for bloggers to make their content unique, microbloggers can follow the passage to learn the ways to make their content standard and outstanding.
How Should a Microblog Caption Be?
Instagram is a fast media and most Instagrammers are impatient to read lengthy captions. So it is wise and more time-saving to keep Instagram captions short. As Instagram shows the first 125 characters of your caption on the feed, it is important to use these characters strategically. These characters determine whether your followers’ attention will be captured or not. Therefore, they have a crucial role in the engagement of your posts.
Writing less is not what traditional bloggers are used to because they are good at writing and their texts are usually long enough to surpass 1,000 words. However, according to Contently, 75% of us prefer to read articles that are less than 1,000 words which are about two pages.
It obviously does not mean that turning from a traditional blogger to a microblogger is impossible. Neither does it mean that you should limit yourself to writing only a few sentences as captions. According to the analysis of more than 81 million Instagram posts by Hubspot, the more lengthy the caption, the more engagement it receives. So, it is actually promising and it means that you should not write very short captions.
Nevertheless, there is an effective trick to lead people to read your lengthy content. Share your video or photo with one or two sentences as a caption and then guide them toward a link to your website in bio for a full article. You can use CTA phrases like ‘read more on the link in bio’ or ‘click on the link in bio for more’.
Are Visuals as Important as Textual Content on a Microblog?
Traditionally, blogging is more to do with texts and written content than visual designs. When it comes to microblogging on Instagram, the importance of visuals come into sight as Instagram is a photo-centric social media. Visuals can be photos, graphic designs, infographics, illustrations, and videos that receive twice the engagement as photos.
This instruction is not just limited to posts and you can apply them to your Instagram story as well. For instance, if you have a Youtube channel, you can share your youtube video on Instagram story.
Is Microblogging on Instagram Against Blogging?
Microblogging on Instagram not only does not limit your blogging activities but also can be used to strengthen it. How? Microblogs can give more leads to blogs if you do not share the whole story on your microblog. You can make your microblogging content mysterious, unfinished, and undiscovered so that your followers become eager to read more. Using an appropriate CTA phrase can lead your followers from your posts to your blog where you have provided the whole story.
Needless to say that bloggers should use proofreading tools for content writers to avoid any grammatical or structural errors in their full articles.
How to Start Microblogging on Instagram?
After all, let’s see what you should know before starting your microblog on Instagram. Here are four tips:
1. Plan for Your Microblog Goals and Audience
Planning is the most important part of any project. Microblogging just the same as any other business needs to have clearly defined goals and specific target audience before the start. To define your goals, you need to ask yourself several questions such as what your initiatives are to start a microblog on Instagram; is that for the sake of entertainment, or you want to sell a product or you want to grow your brand?
ِDefining your goals helps you understand what type of audience is suitable for you. You can target a group of audience with the same interests and start producing content. The content that you produce will attract more and more followers from your target audience so you will have a growing engagement on your microblogging account.
2. Plan for Your Content Strategy
After planning for your microblog and specifying your target audience, you should create a business or creator account. The difference between a public page on Instagram and a business or creator page on Instagram is that you can access your account’s analytics with a business or creator account.
The analytics help you recognize useful statistics about your content and audience. You can have a better online behavior analysis and demographics of your followers with Instagram analytics. It also helps to know which posts have the highest engagements. Accessing all the information is influential because it can change your strategies for future content.
3. Connect with People and Partners
After creating a business or creator account with an appropriate username on Instagram, you need to focus on making a creative bio. Remember that your username, bio, and profile picture should represent your niche. It does not make sense to use a food-related username for a beauty microblog of course. Try to use the keyword of your niche in your username and other keywords in your bio. It makes your account easy to search and also easy to remember.
If you have other social media, you can add your social media link to the Instagram bio. You can also add the link to your blog on the web to your Instagram bio if you already have one. As you might know, Instagram does not permit you to add more than one link to your Instagram bio. So, what is the solution if you have more than one link that is equally important? Using Instagram tools such as AiGrow can be the best solution. The Bio Link feature in AiGrow allows you to keep all your links in an organized wardrobe of links! In other words, you can add one link to your Instagram bio in which your other links are added. As a result, your followers can access all your links by tapping on one link only.
Bio Link provides the opportunity of connecting with your followers and partners. It is a bridge that makes communications or sales engagements possible.
4. Measure Your Success and Keep Track of Your Goals
One crucial thing that you should keep in mind is that you should always check whether you are moving in line with your pre-determined goals. Constantly check your analytics and your followers’ behavior, optimize your content strategy, make any necessary changes to both stick to your goals, and keep your followers satisfied.
Learning all the tips above, you are now ready to become a microblogger on Instagram. Make sure to keep them in your mind in all the stages of your work. You are more familiar with blogging in general if you have been a traditional blogger. All you need to do is to adapt to Instagram’s limitations. Remember that as there are must-do constant activities on your blog, your microblog on Instagram should be repeatedly checked and updated. If you do not have any blogging experience, it is still easy to become one if you follow the tips above.
Conclusion
Starting a microblog on Instagram can remarkably affect your business or personal brand. Before starting a microblog, you should learn the principles of posting and caption writing on Instagram. Focusing on the ways that bring more leads to your account is necessary to grow your microblog engagement. A careful reading of the tips mentioned above can help you on your way to becoming an Instagram microblogger.
I am Parichehr Parsi, a born writer, and a freelance copywriter in the fields of travel, fashion, and Instagram marketing. I currently write for SocialPros and online magazines in Italy and I love reading, writing, and researching.
An execllent article from you, all useful in stuffing my head up with helpful knowledge.