So you want to join Bookstagram? A beginners guide to posting about books on Instagram

Instagram is a massive platform that is growing by the day with users spreading worldwide. There are niches galore, with hundreds of thousands of users coming together to share their passions. I assume you’ve clicked on this link because you want to join them and create a Bookstagram account, the corner of Instagram dedicated to book lovers. In this blog post, I will go into the steps you need to climb to start your very own Instagram for books!

Step 1: Think about what you want from this account

Are you doing this because you love books or because you’ve heard you can get money through it? Are you doing it to share a love of photography or to meet new friends? Establish in your head how you are going to approach this account. In regards to starting because you want to make money from Instagram, I would say this can be a mistaken approach. Generally, the best accounts are started from love and turning it into a business could be something that happens over time if you put in the work, but I wouldn’t go into creating an account with this specific intent. Not to say you can’t start it with a more professional/content plan approach, but just take it as it comes and make sure you’re enjoying it.

You can also select from either a personal, business or creator account. The advantages are a creator or business account gives you advanced analytics.  I would recommend a creator account as a business account is tailored towards more commercial features.

Step 2: Decide on a username

This can honestly be the most difficult step. I don’t remember at all how I came up with the name BooksNest back in 2016, but I’m still happy with it now so I did something right! When considering your name think of the following things:

• Is there a particular book you can take inspiration from?
• Thinking about step 1, why are you doing this? Let your name reflect this. For example, if you want to be more professional then pick a more streamlined name that is easy to remember.
• Think about where you want your content to go, the one thing that I’m restricted by is the Books part of my name, I feel I couldn’t ever leave behind the Books side of my blog if I were to branch more into social media advice/marketing.
• Check if anyone else has your username
• Try not to include your year of birth in your username… I talk from past experience here!

Step 3: Set up your profile/bio

Once you’ve assigned a username to your account, you’ll want to upload a profile photo and write your bio.

Profile Photo

Statistically photos including you/your face in some way perform better. This makes your account look more personal, less generic. Orbit Media says “Studies about the psychology of images show that faces leverage a cognitive bias built into our brains.” Use books in your profile photo to show at a glance what your Bookstagram is about, include a favourite if you’re able to. It’s also nice to match your profile photos filter in some way to your account, whether it’s using a key colour you’ll be integrating into your feed or mimicking the same filter from your feed and/or Instagram Stories.

Instagram Bio

Your bio is the first text potential followers will see when clicking on your account. This should contain a brief overview of what you post about, who you are and what to expect from your account. Make sure to use keywords in your bio to appear in more searches for accounts like yours. For example, in my bio, I use: Bookstagrammer, Content Creation, Brand Packages, Blogger.

It also doesn’t hurt to state your location as sometimes publishers may be looking for bloggers in specific countries for collaborations.

Don’t forget to utilise the option for a single link in your bio. You could use this to direct traffic to one specific site or use a site that can allow you to store links to multiple sites in one place, for example, I use carrd.co to make my link card.

In your name option feel free to add your real name or your blogging name. This usually indicates as to how people should refer to you and how you will come up when commenting on other user’s content.

Step 4: Add in your contact details

You don’t have to do this step, but if you wanted brands to reach out to you you could either include your email in your bio character limit allowing. Or you can include a contact link button where you can send potential brands straight to your inbox. You can add this in at any time, so there’s no pressure to add it at this stage if you don’t want to.

Step 5: Post your first photo

Use your first photo as an introductory post, make the photo personal to your interests and write a caption to match. Highlight your account, what is unique about you and what you want to offer any new followers. Make sure to use relevant hashtags – take a look at popular Bookstagram accounts and make a mismatch of up to 30 hashtags from what you see used on their photos. Over time you’ll be able to see what works better for you and adapt this strategy going forward.

You may want to create a theme using specific filters for your photos, again you don’t have to do this, but it can look good to offer unity in your posting. If you already have a style you like, try to create it in your feed, or just play about until you find something that fits.

Step 6: And now, start following other users

Now you’ve set your profile up and shown you’re active with a recent photo, you can start to follow other users. Jumping from user to user is easy as Instagram learns what type of accounts you like and presents you with users to match. You can follow your favourite Bookstagrammers or find new accounts to follow.

From here, keep posting consistently and following new users, engage with them, comment, reply to their Stories. Over time you will see growth and your account will start to take shape. Be patient, the Instagram Algorithm takes time to learn what you’re like as a user. Growth isn’t an overnight thing if you’re doing it organically, but by putting in the effort now, you’ll definitely benefit from the rewards later.

If you’ve found this post helpful, I have several other Instagram Advice-related blog posts here.