If you want to take your business to the next level, it’s vital that you learn how to become a food blogger on Instagram in order to better market yourself and connect with your customers.
These days, most people don’t just have one social media account to follow their favorite brands and trendsetters; they have several.
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world that began as a photo-sharing app and now has transformed into a business platform. You can become a food blogger on Instagram with thousands of its users judiciously using the platform’s active and giant audience to market food-related services.
So if you’re an aspiring individual who wants to become a food blogger on Instagram, it’s worth checking out. This guide will help you become an influencer on Instagram while building your brand as a food blogger.
What is food blogging:
Food blogging is a component of food journalism that connects a passion for flavor and taste with blog writing and food photography. Food blogs are typically authored by food enthusiasts, or "foodies," and they can be utilized for commercial purposes by the blogger to make money.
Although the food blogging market is large, Listed below are some excellent niches for food bloggers.
- Food or Restaurant Review:
One great food blog niche idea is the restaurant review. You can only focus on writing specific reviews of restaurants you have gone to in specific countries or regions. These reviews may include. Customer service, the Kind and types of food sold in the restaurant, Taste and food quality, and so on.
- Food and Travel (Ethics and Culture):
Also referred to as an Ethnic Cuisine niche is simply another niche idea where You can focus on a specific country, Ethnic, or Culture`s cuisine: For example Chinese, African, Middle Eastern, French, Mexican, and so on.
Focus can be on recipes from common categories such as:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Drinks
- And so on.
Food Photography:
This is a very common niche that involves taking great pictures of food. Professional-looking photographs can be shot by beginners on something as simple as a smartphone camera app.
Some top food photography tips!
- Prepare your food to be photo-ready
- Get the lighting right
- Experiment with framing
- Edit your food photos like a professional
- Be Creative
If you’re someone who loves to cook, then starting a food blogging account can be a fun and rewarding way to make money online. I know, not all bloggers get paid (just like not all YouTube vloggers make money), but some do earn income from their pages and that can be every bit as good as having an actual salary.
On Instagram, You can focus on any of the above-mentioned broad divisions of food blogging. That said here are some tips on how to become a food blogger on Instagram :
1)Pick your favorite food niche
There are a number of different food niches to choose from high-end restaurants, recipes, cooking techniques, specific diets, ethnic cuisines, and more.
When you become a food blogger on Instagram you should pick one niche that is related to your particular culinary expertise and interests. For example, if you love baking cakes then bake a cake every week for 6 months and take pictures of each one.
As soon as you feel comfortable with your new skill set then register an account with a social media website (Instagram is popular) where you can upload your photos and share them with people who have similar interests in real-time.
You may wish to visit local farmer’s markets or join online forums dedicated to your chosen topic. Follow other bloggers in the same industry - there's no harm in following their posts and commenting on their latest posts!
2) Create your food blog with a catchy name:
When deciding on a name for your food blogging social media platform, it's important to choose something that's immediately recognizable as you. If possible, your business name should incorporate some kind of brand recognition or personality.
For example, Pint-Sized Baker wouldn't work well with just Pint-Sized. The Baker in Pint Sized Baker makes it clear that she's running a food business. But more than just easy-to-recognize branding is at play when choosing your moniker; there are legal aspects to be considered as well.
A quick Google search for SEO considerations when naming a business will give you all kinds of good ideas about how to make sure you've got a solid name to support and grow your future brand or Visit namelix to help you with blog name ideas.
3) Prepare Your Instagram
Before you even begin taking pictures of your food, it’s important to lay some groundwork. By creating a professional-looking profile and following some key industry influencers, you can be on your way to becoming a food blogger in no time.
Of course, step one is actually taking great photos: use natural light and good composition; don’t take pictures with your phone (get an actual camera), and check out other #foodporn for inspiration.
Once that’s taken care of, all that’s left is getting followers. Follow as many relevant people as possible until you get rolling; but once you do, make sure they know they should follow you back if they want more exposure themselves—the golden rule of social media.
The last thing worth mentioning before we dive into the meat of the guide is hashtags. Use them strategically to optimize posts for search engines, increase likes and follows, or just add humor (#fail). They’re also a great way to find new recipes! The best ones are usually in the top comment on any post so try those first.
4) Have an awesome profile photo
What’s your food photography all about? Do you want your followers to look at your posts and think, I need to cook that now? Or do you want them thinking, Gosh, I want what she’s having! Maybe it’s both. Either way, how you position yourself is important—not just in how others see your content but also for generating organic reach.
Posts with images receive double (sometimes triple) the engagement as those without. Thus, having an awesome profile photo is one of several ways in which influencers can increase their visibility.
As a food blogger looking for more engagement and thus more page views—this is especially important!
5) Research your audience
The first step in becoming a food influencer is to figure out who you’re trying to reach. For example, if you’re an aspiring food blogger, your audience may include 20-something mothers or 30-something millennials looking for easy weeknight recipes.
Knowing whom you want to target will help keep your photos relevant and give you ideas of where to find potential followers. You can either identify your audience based on basic demographics like age and gender or take it one step further by determining psychographics—things like personality traits, interests, education level, and social class (see related story below).
Once you know your audience, it becomes easier to make decisions about what kind of content to post. What are they interested in? What topics do they enjoy? Keep track of which posts get the most interaction so that you know what type of content gets noticed and shared.
6) Follow Restaurants
Building a network of restaurants is a great way to get shots for your Instagram account, but don’t do it randomly. Just because you follow them doesn’t mean they are going to follow you back.
Engage with their content and pay attention to who they are following. If a restaurant is following all of their local competitors, chances are they won’t be interested in following you unless you have something special to offer that their other followers don’t.
Offer Something Unique:
When looking at how to become a food blogger on Instagram there's more than just posting pretty pictures.
Add information about the food such as where it was from, how much it cost, what you ordered, and what makes this dish unique so people know what sets your account apart from others.
Locate Good Restaurants And Follow Them:
There's no point in waiting for good restaurants to follow you before engaging with them online or visiting their location. You'll be missing out on some opportunities if they aren't already paying attention to your account!
7)Learn what hashtags to use
Hashtags are simple words or phrases preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) that can be used in social media posts.
A good hashtag choice will help you connect with other users and will be searchable. It should also be easy for you to remember so that you can consistently use it across multiple posts.
However, if your goal is simply to get as many followers as possible, then it might not matter so much which hashtags you use because new followers are going to come from people who already follow you anyway.
To learn what hashtags to use, simply look at how other food influencers are using them and copy their strategy. The great thing about food is that most of it isn't copyrighted; there's no plagiarism issue! Once you find out what hashtags other food influencers are using, go through all of your past photos and add these tags.
Notice - If you want to increase your chances of being found more easily, include both general food-related hashtags such as #foodporn or #cheflife but also more specific ones like #desserts.
8) Know The Basics Of Photography
There are a few photography rules to follow if you want your food photos to look nice, but for most people, it’s not about whether or not you’re using a high-end camera. What matters is knowing how to compose a photo and capture your subject in such a way that it makes sense with what you’re trying to accomplish with your feed.
You don't have to master photography or understand advanced lighting techniques. Instead, start by learning what makes a good photo, and understanding those basics can help get you started.
9) Use an eye-catching background
Put simply, if you're sharing your own content, you want as many people as possible to see it. But when you're sharing someone else's content, think about what makes their content so great and whether or not those same qualities apply to your own.
If it is worth sharing at all! Simply put, don't share anything and everything just because you can. Quality over quantity.
10) Upload photos with good lighting
Many times we upload photos only to find out they are too dark or blurry. Bad lighting is probably one of the biggest mistakes people make when taking photos.
What most people don’t know is that there are special apps that you can use when you want to edit your photos. These apps allow you to adjust brightness, contrast, and add warmness in order for your pictures not to be pixelated and look professional.
Notice - If you want more information about how you can take great pictures then check out our full review of these amazing iPhone applications. You will be able to see just how easy it can be for anyone, even if you have never taken a picture before!
11) Get Featured On Other Accounts
Getting featured on other accounts will be a big boost for your foodie Instagram. If you have a friend or two who is popular on social media, ask them if they would consider featuring you!
If not, there are tons of groups and communities online dedicated to helping aspiring bloggers find their voice and audience. Be sure to get active in your community and follow others with similar interests.
When one of them posts something they think you’d like, send them a message asking if they’d mind sharing it with their followers. Worst case scenario: they say no, but you’ve still made yourself visible in a new community! Most cases? You go viral (like everyone else who asks)! Plus, most people in these groups are really friendly.
They just want to help each other out by spreading the word about great content they love! It can take time to build up the reputation of your account, so be patient with this process.
12) Set Up Automation Software
With automation software like Hootsuite, it's easy to schedule posts to go live during your peak engagement times.
But you don't have to limit yourself to one social network—you can build out a strategy that allows you to post relevant content on different platforms based on how many followers you have and what type of content works best for each platform.
For example, if you're an edibles company with a meat-heavy menu, you may want to spend more time promoting these items on Facebook where most of your followers are interested.
You can then supplement your Facebook promotions with targeted Instagram promotions and tweets where you see engagement from others in your industry. That way, you'll be able to engage the right audience no matter which social media account they follow you on.
13) Tell a story in one image
Humans are visual creatures, so if you have a story to tell, try putting it in one image instead of using words. After all, humans can process images up to about 10 times faster than text.
If you want your story or product to really connect with people, using an image is much more effective than just text. It allows for more creativity and provides more opportunities for you—or whoever else is involved in your social media marketing—to connect with followers on an emotional level.
14) Show your personality
There’s no sense in playing it safe with your account, either. For example, post an image of yourself when you were younger and include your current contact information in your bio for added character and dimensionality, Haynes says.
By doing so, you add a sense of familiarity and trust with followers who want to know more about you outside of just recipes. (This works even better if you actually have some very cute baby pictures!)
15) Be original
Copycats are never as successful as trendsetters. If you’re going to start a food-related Instagram account, you’ll have better luck if your recipes aren’t ones that you find online—even if they're from famous chefs.
People want someone who’s willing to do things their own way and show them something different than what they see every day. To succeed in such an already-crowded space, think of your content as pieces of art rather than something functional like a recipe book or how-to guide.
Also, consider that people are scrolling through their feeds while they eat; they don't necessarily want more information about what is making them gain weight.
For example, a common tactic for most popular food bloggers is to snap photos of their dishes right before they take a bite out of them. It's a clever tactic because it catches viewers off guard with the moment of anticipation before they get to indulge in the real thing.
16) Engage with other users
If you want your new account to grow, you'll need likes. While many people use paid services like like4like or social media management apps, it's much more effective (and affordable) to engage with other users organically.
Following related accounts and engaging with their posts is an easy way to accomplish that goal. And remember, just because someone is following you doesn't mean they'll automatically follow back! If they don't follow back after liking one of your photos, be sure to follow them so they can see more of your content.
They may change their mind later! If all else fails, go ahead and pay for some likes—but make sure that's the last resort.
17) Post regularly
You can also ensure that you're posting regularly by scheduling your posts in advance. To do so, simply go to your Instagram profile, tap on Post, then Scheduled. In addition to letting you plan your uploads well in advance, it will also save precious time and make sure that you won't miss an important date such as weekly or monthly promotions.
It's always better to be safe than sorry! Also, it doesn't hurt to ask for help if you need it; some blogs have marketing experts who are more than happy to share their knowledge with you.
All pictures must be of high quality (good lighting and angle): Photos should capture moments; they should feel personal enough that your followers want to tag their friends in them because they are so excited about what they are seeing.
Make sure all of your photos show what is special about your brand - why should people follow you? Post content regularly and provide high-quality photos; this is how one becomes a successful food blogger on Instagram.
18) Know when to share your own content and when to share others' content
Sharing other people's content can help you build your audience, but know when it makes sense. If you've spent time creating something new and useful (like an original recipe), try sharing that first, before someone else does.
On the other hand, if you're trying to attract followers who may be interested in what others are saying about your topic, consider sharing high-quality posts from other sources.
Experiment with different types of posts until you figure out what works best for your specific business—and remember that it can take several months for something to gain traction.
Conclusion
There are many different ways that you can make money from your passion for cooking and serving great food. You can start by getting yourself in front of people so they know who you are and what you have to offer.
While there's no official handbook for becoming an Instagram sensation, there are some simple steps that you can take that will help get you started.
Taking action is always better than being paralyzed by fear, so why not get started? Start now with these simple tips and your passion for great-looking photos of delicious meals will be paying off before you know it!
READ ALSO:
Post a Comment