How to Build a Strong ‘Foodie’ Account on Instagram
Starting a new account on Instagram about food is like hoping Kim Kardashian will give you a shout out on one of her social media accounts; unless you do something different, there’s a slim chance of success. However, with a few hints and tips, you can discover how to create a ‘foodie’ account that people will want to actually follow!
Weird and Wonderful
There are millions of accounts on Instagram that are designed around some sort of food whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner or the more obscure ones such as yolk porn or accounts solely dedicated to ugly fruit and vegetables. The only way you’re going to get noticed is by being diverse. Work out what makes you different from all the rest and then plan around how to continue making your account stand out in a sea of other foodie accounts.
Examples of this could be doing a contest with another friend on who makes the best dinner and then each week your followers vote in a poll on Instagram who made the best — or making only green food. The list is endless.
You’ve got the Idea
Once you have an idea as to what’s going to make your account fly, if you’re not fully up to date with the ins and outs of Instagram and the etiquette of what’s allowed and not, then do your research. A fantastic expert in the field of Instagram and social media, in general, is a man called Neil Patel, and he gives you many ideas on how you can start your account and then gain followers and likes on your posts.
Dive Right in
If you’re going to take on the challenge of a food account, prepared to be fully committed to the cause because it can be extremely tiring and hard work. Firstly you need to make sure that all your photos are ‘Insta Worthy,’ which we will touch upon later.
Also make sure you post often, sometimes as much as three times a day, but that is dependent on your audience. For example, if you’re trying to entice the ‘housewife’ market onto Instagram to check out your posts, then an ideal time to post is mid-morning and lunchtime. Once you start posting more often, you will be able to access your own personal analytics, which tells you a lot more such as age, demographic, and location across the world. With this, you can then tailor-make your posts to fit in with that information to gain more ‘likes’ if that’s what your aim is.
Remember, the more likes and followers an account gets, then the closer they start pushing towards influencer status where you can start charging for posts, and people pay you to promote something via your channel.
Make sure you understand fully the different mediums of Instagram, such as posting, hashtags, descriptions, and Instagram stories. Also be on top of the ever-changing algorithm of Instagram as one day you can post as you have historically, then they will change a key element in the ‘back office,’ and everything will change such as how many hashtags you can use, or how many people you can follow. The algorithm is like a big secret though as Instagram will never tell you what they have done or why. You have to work it out through your own investigations or forums on the internet.
Picture Perfect
As mentioned above, there’s a lot of work that needs to go into the photo element of Instagram because if your photo is not deemed ‘Insta Worthy,’ then it’s going to struggle to reach thousands of likes. Making a shot worthy is about making sure you have captured the dish or food item to perfection – really set the scene.
If you live in a beautiful house with a huge kitchen, make sure the kitchen stoves are in the shot with some props for effect such as a chopping board, a knife and some herbs alongside the main focus of your picture.
Make sure the light enhances the photo, preferably with natural light and that you’ve staged it at the right angle.
Then make sure that you use filters, either those that come with Instagram or ones attached to your phone. Or if you’re really keen, then you can buy a wealth of Photoshop packages that make dull photos look incredible.
Creating a successful account on Instagram for food lovers can be exciting, but make sure you fully plan and take into account that you have no real control of what people decide what is deemed popular or not. Also remember that things can change on Instagram in an instant with no rhyme or reason behind it.