FIVE TOP TIPS FOR CREATING BOOKISH CONTENT ON INSTAGRAM IN 2022

• Develop your content in a way that makes it easy to plan into your day. For example, by shooting at your desk before work, or in front of your bookshelves at home on a Saturday morning.

• Utilise Instagram Reels. It might seem intimidating, but you don’t have to be recording crazy TikTok dances or embarrassing trends to create interesting and successful reels. If you’re nervous, start by adding a simple video to music – video is just a moving picture after all!

• Spend 15 minutes a day interacting with other accounts in your niche. That could be books in general, or a genre within that such as yoga or the wellness world. Find a relevant hashtag and scroll through, liking and commenting on images that resonate with you. Stick to this as part of your daily routine and you will see results in terms of engagement on your own account.

• Research hashtags that are relevant to your niche and use up to 30 on each post. You can start broadly by using phrases like ‘bookstagram’ and ‘bookworm’, and then niche down to tap into those smaller communities where your posts will have less competition to be seen. Examples of these are phrases like ‘yabookstagram’ and ‘mentalhealthbooks’

• Keep an eye on and tap into trends, while staying true to your brand and what makes your account original. For example, this summer bright, vibrant book covers and colours are very popular and lots of accounts are sporting the ever-popular rainbow bookshelves. My advice is not to change your style depending on what is popular, but to lean into trends and find ways to put your own spin on them. It will help you to gain views, but also maintain your own original style.

• If you’re waiting for the perfect time to start your Instagram account, just do it. Everyone starts somewhere, and if you don’t start, you won’t get anywhere. I started my Instagram account in the middle of the night, in between internships at publishing houses after finishing university. Now, six years later, Instagram has given me so many incredible opportunities and changes my life in many ways. The best piece of advice is to just get started.