My Heart is Booked Blog

Hello book lovers! Welcome to part 2 of my series about making the most of your Bookstagram. If you’d like to view part 1, Creating an Account, please click here.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am by no means an Instagram expert, but I hope that I can share some of my knowledge to help others who are just starting out or looking for tips to improve. In this post, I will cover the various types of Instagram posts and how you can utilize them specifically for book-related content. The post types to be discussed are as follows:

• Feed Posts
• Stories
• Reels
• Lives
• IGTV

Please feel free to open a dialogue in the comments section if you have any additional questions regarding posts.

Types of Posts:

What do you do now that you’ve created your Bookstagram account? It’s time for your first post. I briefly touched on this in part 1, but I believe a feed post will have the most benefit as your first post. Instagram profiles are currently divided into Feed Posts, Reels, IGTV, and tagged posts. When someone clicks on your profile, your feed posts are the first thing that they will see. Therefore, it will serve you best to establish consistent feed posts before exploring the other posting options.

Feed Posts:

Creating a feed post begins outside of Instagram, with the creation of an image. This is most commonly an original photo. Although memes, info graphics, text posts, and reposts are other options, I would avoid them for your first post. Deciding content is a personal choice. Obviously, you’ll want it to be book related in some way, but this could be any number of books, series, merchandise, etc. My advice is to select a topic that is important to you and will set the tone for your account (like a favorite book). Here are some bookstagram accounts you can check out for inspiration:

• the.booklovers.guide
• readwritedesign
• blissfullybookin
• ve_xo
• shaked_reads
• temporary.escaper
• me

Part 3 of this series will further detail photography and editing. For now, you want to take a clear, high quality image with either your phone or camera. Consider relevant props and edits. You can play around with these until you discover your style.

To upload your image to Instagram: open the app and click the plus (+) sign. Depending on what version you are using you may also need to click “feed post“. This should take you to a screen where you can select your photo. Then, you’ll be given the option to apply filters or edit your image. Feel free to utilize these features if you don’t have another editing app.

Next, you’ll write a caption. For your first post, it’s a good idea to introduce yourself. Talk about why you chose to start a bookstagram, what your goals are, personal info (if you choose), and something about your photographed content. Adding a QOTD (Question of the Day) will encourage interactions. It can be as simple as “when did you start your bookstagram?” or “what are you currently reading?” You may also want to include an ID, or Image Description, for people with vision impairments who use screen readers.

Finally, you’ll want to include some hashtags. Hashtags help you get discovered by other accounts as long as your account is public. You are allotted up to 30 hashtags per post. You can use Google or Pinterest to find some great hashtags to use. Always include ones that refer to the subject of the post (title of the book/series) and avoid overused ones like #bookstagrammer. Some hashtags have been banned due to overuse/misuse. It is a good idea to mix in lesser used tags with popular ones. You can Google these as well. I try to vary what I use daily, but here are some that I use frequently: #BookBloggerLife #BookishLove #BookReview #FantasyBooks #IReadYA #IGReads #BookObsessed #BookAesthetic #BookSpines #Bibiliophile #BookAddict #BooksForDays #AllTheBooks #IReadromance #BooksToRead #ReadIn2020 #CurrentlyReading #BookMail

*Note: capitalizing each word of your hashtag also benefits the visually impaired because their screen reader is able to discern individual words rather than reading it as a jumbled mess.

Once you’ve completed your caption, you can tag people (if you know any) and add location (personal preference again). You can also share to other social media accounts. Click the “share” button when finished.

Make sure you respond to comments. It’s also a good idea to comment on someone’s post if they comment on yours. More on Engagement in Part 4.

**New: Instagram now offers comment controls. You probably will not need these right away, but it is nice to know they are there.

Now that you’ve got your first post out of the way, here are some other post ideas:

• Book Reviews
• Book Birthdays/Release Days/Publication Days
• TBR (To Be Read)
• Wrap-Up (books you’ve read)
• Book Haul (books you’ve borrowed/bought/received)
• Shelfie (picture of your bookshelves or selfie in front of bookshelves)
• Aesthetic
• Rep Post (more on Rep/Influencer positions in Part 5)
• Bookish Opinion
• Unboxing
• #MapMonday
• #FantasyFriday
• #WickWednesday
• #StackSaturday
• #SockSunday
• #MeetTheBookstagrammer

If you choose to upload a video to your feed, there is a 60 second time limit. Also, be aware of screen size limitations in a feed post. They are usually a smaller area than stories/lives/reels/IGTV.

Stories:

Instagram Stories are similar to Snapchat (and now Facebook) stories. They exist independent of your feed and are only visible for 24 hours, unless you make them a highlight (see below). There are several options within stories including Stories are a place where you can be more informal. How you use them is up to you. Many bookstagrammers will use their stories for unboxings, book hauls, rants, games, shout-outs, life updates, tags, etc. There’s no limit to what you can do with stories. My suggestion is to play around and explore the options. You can also check out the stories of other bookstagrammers for ideas.

Here are some important things to note about Instagram stories:

• They are visible to everyone, or just your followers if your account is private. You can limit your audience by sharing only with “close friends”, which is a group of your choosing that you can edit as you please.
• Using stories improves your algorithm and provides an additional way to interact with your followers.
• You can share posts to your story by clicking the paper airplane icon below photos. Many people share their new posts to their stories with a teaser to increase traffic to the post.
• You can create professional looking stories using Canva.
• Verified accounts with at least 10,000 followers can add links to stories using a swipe up feature.

Story highlights provide the chance to save stories in their own “gallery”. This, in turn, makes a story more permanent, though it will only be available to view in the highlights section of your profile. Many bookstagrammers will use their highlights to organize unboxings, reviews, rep posts, book hauls, etc. I also have sections for indie bookstores I’ve visited, NaNoWriMo updates, blog posts, and BookCon 2019. The possibilities are endless.

There are a number of ways to add a story to a highlight. The easiest way to accomplish this the first time is to click the plus (+) sign in the highlights area or the top left corner and create a new highlight. You will be prompted to select stories to add to this gallery, then choose a cover and title for your highlight. You can add stories to existing highlights in one of three ways:

1. Press and hold the desired highlight until a set of options appears, click “edit highlight”, click “add”, select desired stories to include.
2. Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner, click “archives”, select “Stories Archive” from the drop down menu, select the desired story, click the “highlights” icon, select desired highlight gallery.
3. View a current story by clicking your profile image, tap right side of screen until desired story appears, click the “highlights” icon, select desired highlight gallery.

Reels/Lives/IGTV:

Reels, Lives and IGTV are additional options for video posts outside of a typical feed post.

Reels are essentially TikToks for Instagram. They can be posted within your feed, on it’s own tab in your profile, or in your stories. You are currently limited to 30 seconds in length. There is an editor within Instagram where you can add audio and manipulate videos or you can import a TikTok or video that you’ve edited outside of Instagram. Reel content is largely varied among the bookish community. So go wild!

Lives are only available through the story option. They are the most interactive, offering live comments, Q&A, and guest option. Time is limited to 1 hour max per live, but you can go live again as soon as one video reaches the time limit. Lives are great for author interviews because you can both be live in one screen using the guest feature.

Like reels, IGTV can be posted to the feed or as a separate tab on your profile. IGTV is a great way to share unboxings, hauls, wrap-ups, and reviews. Your post must be at least 1 minute with a max of 15 minutes from mobile device or 60 minutes from a computer.

Keep an eye out for Part 3 where I will be discussing photography, editing, and developing your style. Please feel free to drop questions or topic ideas in the comments and I will do my best to include as many as possible.