Instagram For Food Bloggers - How To Run a Food Blog on Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for sharing content in the shape of images and short-form videos (Instagram reels), which makes it a very viable place to share food- and cooking related content. Whether you wish to use Instagram as a way of directing visitors to your own cooking website or want to establish a following on Instagram alone, this article is a guide on how to make a food blog on Instagram and the steps you need to take in order to run and maintain your Instagram blog.

Why you should start blogging on Instagram

According to Statista, Instagram has approximately 1.35 billion monthly visitors, making it a perfect platform for content creation that has the potential to be seen and shared by millions of people.

Alongside a huge audience, Instagram also has many benefits specifically to food blogging. Some of these benefits are:

• Instagram is very visual. When people browse Instagram, they are looking for visually appealing and entertaining content, meaning that food blogging, which has food images and how-to videos, is a perfect format for engaging people on the platform.
• Opportunity for engaging with the audience. The barrier between publisher and reader is very small on Instagram as people are free to leave comments and reactions in the comment section of a post. This makes people more likely to leave feedback and praise to your posts and makes it easier for you to engage with your audience in a less formal way.
• Instagram reels. One of the most popular short-form video content on the internet is cooking tutorials and guides that showcase everything from budget friendly meals for students to luxury restaurant reviews. The popularity of these videos comes from them being short and concise (often between 20-40 seconds) while still being learningful and entertaining.

If you are already running a blog on your own website, Instagram is still a perfect platform for sharing excerpts and previews of your content in order to drive traffic to your own blog. Instagram allows you to append a link to your website in both post descriptions as well as your profile bio which makes it easy for people to find your website.

How to start an Instagram food blog

The first step to creating an Instagram food blog is creating your account on the platform. When creating your Instagram account, it is a good idea to set it up as a “professional account” which enables useful features such as Instagram insights which allows you to see how many people you reach on the platform and how people respond to your content.

Naming your Instagram food blog

In order to create an Instagram account you need to come up with a catchy and memorable username. If you already own a blog , it is a good idea to pick a username as close to that name as possible, though you might need to be creative if the username is already taken.

Coming up with food blog Instagram names can be a daunting task, and while it is an important step since you are not able to change it, it is also important not to let it block you completely from proceeding, as the quicker you start producing content the better.

Setting up your account

Before you start posting content to your Instagram food blog, you should have set up your account to look clean and professional. This includes adding a profile picture, which can either be a logo or a picture of yourself, depending on how you want to brand your blog. You also want to create a catchy bio, which is the small text field underneath your username on your profile. Having a short and concise Instagram bio which portrays your blog and brand in the best way is very important to gain trust and make people know what your blog is all about.

Some Instagram food blog bio examples are:

• Including a short introduction to who is behind the blog
• Describing what the focus of the food blog is (for example vegan or focused on being budget friendly)
• Your posting schedule to leverage expectations of your visitors

If you are running a food blog on another website it is also important to include a link to that in your bio in order to direct traffic.

Making content for your Instagram food blog

Once you have your account set up, you should start posting content to the platform. When starting out with your Instagram food blog, it is important not to spend too much time promoting and advertising your blog until you have established yourself, and you should instead focus on consistently providing high quality content that people will enjoy engaging with.

Take good recipe photos

As previously mentioned, one of Instagram’s strengths is being a very visual platform, which means that it is important that you provide good and high quality photos of the content that you are sharing. If you wish to know more about how to take great food photographs, you can read our article on food photography tips for content creators.

Create good descriptions for your posts

Once you have your photos taken care of, it is time to create an engaging description to your post. Instagram has a text limit of 2200 characters (approximately 300 words), which is sufficient space to share anything as short form posts.

If you are making an Instagram post for a blog post that also exists on your website, it is a good idea to use the description as a short teaser for the actual blog post in order to attract your audience to keep reading on your website.

As Instagram is a less formal platform, it is also a good idea to consider how you want to brand yourself via the way you create your descriptions - it can for example be a good idea to write in a less formal way and use emojis to enhance your writing, which would otherwise be uncommon to find in blog posts on the internet (😛).

Use hashtags

A good way of making your content on Instagram discoverable is by using #hashtags. Hashtags are used to convey the message or topic of a blog post and will show up in search results if people are searching for a specific term within that topic, making it important to know what hashtags to use on Instagram for food.

If you are for example uploading a post on chocolate chip cookies, you should add hashtags that are related to chocolate chip cookies, such as #baking, #cookies or #chocolate.

However make sure that you are not overdoing hashtags, as they can sometimes become distracting to the reader if there are too many. Some Instagram blogs add their hashtags in the comments after uploading a post in order to keep the hashtags away from the post description.

Engage with your audience

Instagram is a perfect platform for having informal engagement with your audience. By replying to comments to your posts, you create trust and increase the chance that people will continue following and engaging in your posts. By communicating with your followers and commenters, you also open up a channel of feedback where you can get information on what your readers like and dislike about your content in order to improve in the future.

Some extra tips for food blogging on Instagram

While we have now covered the most important things to go through when starting up your food blog on Instagram, here are some extra tips and tricks you can use in order to excel at your Instagram food blogging game:

• Share exclusive content. You can use Instagram as a way of treating your audience with behind-the-scenes content such as which equipment you use in your kitchen or some of your own secrets and hacks you use when making food.
• Share Instagram stories. Use the Instagram stories feature to share and promote additional content such as behind-the-scenes (as mentioned in the previous point) or upcoming sneak peaks of recipes and blog posts.
• Create seasonal content. While it may not be exclusive to Instagram bloggers alone, being seasonal and staying on top of holidays and events is a good way to stay relevant and appeal to your audience. It could for example be to create a special advent calendar on Christmas where you share a recipe a day or creating easter-specific recipes in easter; it’s all up to your imagination.

Final words

I hope this article has been helpful in showing the path on how to get started on your Instagram blogging journey. While this guide will help you get started with your food blog, it is still important that you experiment yourself in order to find a style that you enjoy and that your target audience resonates with.

While an Instagram food blog is a good way to post food- and recipe related content, it is also a good idea to have your own website that you can post to in order to get the full benefit of food blogging. If you are interested in getting started with your own cooking blog, we highly recommend that you check out Wasabee, which is the best and easiest way to build and host your food blog.