I started sharing my writing on Instagram a couple of years ago, during 2019. Since then, I have tried different aesthetics and styles. Even though I am not an expert on this topic, I think I have had enough experience to share some of the helpful advice I was given or I learned throughout this journey.

So, here you go! A list of tips I think are important to consider when sharing your own writing on social media (specifically Instagram).

Be Consistent

This is perhaps the most important advice I can give you. I personally post every weekday, so five days a week. You need to find a schedule that works for you in a realistic way. If you know that you don’t have enough time to create content to post every day, then create a more realistic schedule such as twice a week or even once a week.

Another advice to create consistency is to schedule your posts. You can use any website or app to schedule them so you can post every day at the same time, or you can set an alarm.

Be Active

Being active refers to more than just posting on Instagram. By being active, I mean posting stories, commenting on other people’s posts, replying to comments and messages, etc. If you interact with others, you will not only have more engagement but you will also build a community of writers online.

It is important to support other accounts just like your own so you can give each other advice, interact with each other’s writing, and even feel inspired by others. Sometimes if you are going through writer’s block, reading someone else’s work might help you find inspiration again.

Hashtags and Tags

I think we all know that if you are trying to grow a “business-y” account, you will need to use a lot of hashtags and tags. However, it is important to know how to use them correctly. Seeing a lot of hashtags in one post can be overwhelming for the reader. So, choose which ones to use wisely. There should be a balance between widely-used hashtags and “smaller” hashtags. Again, this is when following other writing accounts may help. You can check out posts similar to yours to know which hashtags are effective.

Similarly, when tagging bigger accounts in your posts, you need to know who to tag. There are thousands of accounts who share writing by other poets. How do they find these poets? When they are tagged in their posts. However, much like hashtags, you will want to find accounts with different ranges of followers. The accounts with a larger following, even though they will give you more exposure, it is less likely they will find your post among others.

Find Your Aesthetic

This personally took me a long time. I struggled finding an aesthetic that worked for me. I went from pastel-colored backgrounds, to black and white digital images, to typewriters photographs. There is so much to take into consideration!

First, think about the length of your poems in general. If they are too long to fit in a single image you might want to choose an excerpt to be part of the first image and then add a second image with the entire piece or maybe you can use the caption to write out your piece. Shorter texts tend to get attention that longer pieces.

Then, consider how you want your profile to look visually. If you use a filter then you might want to add that filter to all of the pictures so they are cohesive. Also consider whether you want it to be all pictures of your writing or maybe you consider adding some other random pictures like book recommendations or famous quotes.