Instagram. Oh, Instagram. We've had a bit of a love/hate relationship over the years, but I've started to bring it back to love again. Let me show you how...

Instagram can be a time-sucking black hole of comparison, procrastination, and structured reality. With themes, flat lays, and almost-too-perfect-to-be-real holiday snaps, it’s hard to take a step back and asses the actual benefits of Instagram as a platform for your blog or business.

It’s hard to keep up with - I think we can ALL agree to that 💁🏻 I used to spend more time trying to figure out strategies and understanding the algorithm changes than I did actually posting new content.

"Should I switch to a business account? How many hashtags should I use? Why did this photo I took 30 minutes editing get 40 likes but this spontaneous selfie get 120 likes? What is life?"

These are all questions that I’d not only ask myself, but questions that members of my community would ask me on a regular basis. As a social media strategist at the time, it took a lot of guts to say “I honestly don’t know.”

I can only teach what has worked for me but I don’t work at Instagram or Facebook. I can’t tell you exactly what the algorithm favours; I don’t know for sure if being a business account is the best move; I sure as heck can’t tell you if ‘shadowbanning’ is real or not 😂

I can tell you one thing though and that is: Instagram is exactly what you make of it.

If you want to be surrounded by perfectly curated feeds, do it. If you want to push through all the changes and use Instagram as your primary sales platform, then do it. If you want to use Instagram to make meaningful connections and grow a community, You 👏 Can 👏 Do 👏 It!

I’m going to walk you through how I shifted my focus away from the aesthetic and vanity metrics of Instagram, and towards a focus on building a community and making connections.

Keep reading to learn more!

Okay, hands up if you are sick of the 'follow/unfollow method', spam comments, and algorithm changes on Instagram? 🙋

I know I'm not the only one here.

I feel like everyone is in sort of a love/hate relationship with Instagram at the moment. I've seen a lot of conversations on Twitter and in Facebook groups where fellow bloggers + creative entrepreneurs are losing followers, seeing engagement rates drop, and losing all hope of doing well on Instagram.

It's definitely disheartening when you start to see a decrease in numbers. I've spoken before about how social media unfollowers are actually GOOD for you, but drops in engagement rates are something that shouldn't be ignored.

Instead of losing faith in Instagram, there are 7 things you can easily do to help boost your presence and connect with your audience on Instagram. Let's hack the system, pals! ✊

Recently, I've been having a bit of a rejig with my Instagram theme. I felt like my posts weren't actually reflective of the type of content I actually enjoy.

I know I should focus on what my audience want to see and what they will like, but my engagement was gradually decreasing and I felt like a change was in order.

So, I decided to take more of a 'regramming' approach and share photos from accounts that inspire me with my own written captions that will inspire and help my audience (from Instagram tips to solopreneur real-talk)!

I couldn't have made this change without the help from my little friend, Planoly. This app has made is super easy for me to plan my Instagram theme, monitor comments, share photos to my account, and track analytics.

I'm sure you might have your hesitations about using an app to schedule and plan your Instagram account but, let's dive into exactly what it can do, and I'm sure it will win you over! 📸

I don't know about you but I love reading about Instagram tips and tricks as well as sharing them on my blog. That's why I was hella excited when the lovely Melissa Hebbe approached me to write about Instagram on Zoe Linda. I can't wait for you to read her simple steps to planning and scheduling your Instagram content. Take it away Melissa!