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3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

Posted By Guest Blogger 16th of August 2017 Blog Promotion 0 Comments

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

This is a guest post from Jonathan Chan of Foundr Magazine.

You are probably here because you are a proud blog owner.

Your content is consistently fresh and up-to-date, your mission statement is on point, you’ve managed to create a brand from scratch and everything is going swimmingly. But you’re still not using Instagram to promote your ground-breaking content.

If that sounds like you, we’ve got great news. 700 million monthly users are waiting for you to reach out to them.

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

In one of their articles, Forbes compared promoting content on Facebook with Instagram. The results showed that a promoted post on Instagram gets 4x more likes than the average Facebook ad. The interesting thing is that the number of impressions isn’t drastically different between the two, but Instagram users engage with content much more than those on Facebook.

This means it’s time to make the leap and look at Instagram as a full-fledged content platform; not an afterthought.

To help you do that, we’re sharing 3 highly effective ways that are guaranteed to turn your already engaging blog posts into even more captivating Instagram content.

#1 Pull Quotes

The brain reacts to visual stimuli in as little as 13 milliseconds. This means you have a fraction of a second to grab a viewer’s attention – and pull quotes, i.e. visual representations of key points – are the perfect way to do just that.

In order to create an engaging pull quote, pick an image you think will grab a person’s attention and add to it an engaging quote from your blog post. The best way to make these posts interesting is to keep them short and sweet, like so:

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

The extended version of that same quote, or a short paragraph explaining the quote, should go in the description section below the image. Note that you have 2200 characters to get the user to click on the shortened link you’re attaching with the image; plan ahead to make sure you don’t run out of space!

Chances are, you’ve seen plenty of pull quote posts on Instagram. This makes sense: according to Yotpo, Instagram drives the most engaged traffic compared to other social media platforms (including Youtube and Pinterest). This means that text, which may scare less engaged users away, works extremely well on Instagram. This is huge for your marketing – and here’s the reason.

People are likely to remember 10% of the information they hear and read several days later. But if you pair the same information with an image, you are likely to remember 65% of it.

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

Yes, folks, vision is the sense to exploit in content marketing – and pull quotes are an easy way to turn text into visual content.

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

Next on our list, let’s take a look at…

#2 Infographics, data visualizations, and beyond

According to eye-tracking studies reported by Nielsen Norman group, internet users prefer looking at images that carry information. The same study found that infographics and data visualizations get 3x more shares than other images on social media.

In other words, infographics and data visualizations aren’t just a powerful way to convey all the information you want to show your followers in one image. They’re also a highly engaging form of content on their own!

The catch is that you don’t want to make infographics too complicated or have them give out too much information. The best thing to do it is give the users a little snippet that has them wanting to know more. The idea is to “wow” them, drive them to your core piece of blog content – and hopefully convert them into subscribers or followers!

Alternatively, you can place an entire infographic on Instagram using their slideshow feature, like so:

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

Now, to the fun part. Here are 3 tools you can use to make infographics, data visualizations and other data + text images for free:

  • Canva is a great app for creating engaging graphics tailored to the social media platform you want to share it on. Whether you’re creating an Instagram post or want to include the graphics on your blog, Canva is easy to use and has great design options.
  • Piktochart → According to Facebook Marketing Strategist Amy Porterfield, Piktochart is an easy tool for people who want to create viral infographics.
  • Many content creators like WordSwag: an app that lets you add text to any image within seconds. It also features a massive library of 290,000 free images you can use for your pull quotes and more!

Last but not least, let’s cover…

#3 Videos

We pretty much saved the best for last. Why is it the best, you ask?

Because 4x as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than have to read about it. Yes, we have become a community of skimmers and slackers. This is why video content, like this post from Sir Richard Branson, works so well:

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

Having understood the effectiveness and potential of video content, Instagram now allows its users to use the 1-minute per video option. If you’re wondering how to get more Instagram followers, you should be actively using the video feature. Here are some key tips to doing this well:

  • Avoid being too commercial and keep it personal. Videos are the best way to really connect with your followers, and posting too many ads and salesy content could ruin that feeling for your followers. Show a snippet of what is coming and get them excited!
  • Use hashtags! This is the most effective way to entice users that are outside of your follower base. Experiment with popular hashtags that describe your content in a nutshell.
  • Use the “swipe option”!! Posting a link through Instagram stories gets publishers 15-20% more clicks. It’s never been more simple, guys, Instagram is helping you out. Create personal posts through stories and make sure to include a “swipe” option that transfers the user to the blog post itself.

This is a great time to jump on the video marketing bandwagon and use the video content tools brought to you by Instagram. KPCB reports that 74% of internet traffic will be video content this year!

Let’s wrap it up

3 Ways to Turn Blog Posts into Engaging Instagram Content

We probably lost you at “700 million monthly users”. Here’s what you really need to remember:

  • Pull quotes are a great way to grab the attention of your followers quickly. Select a good photo, add a short but powerful quote to it, and attach a description with a short link in the comment section.
  • Infographics and data visualizations are powerful. Keep them simple, but make the reader want to know more.
  • Videos, videos, and more videos. Whether you are posting Instagram stories (regularly, no less) or videos on your page, make them personal and make sure to attach links to your blog posts.

If there’s a 65% chance you’ll remember these last points, our job here is done. Good luck!

Jonathan is the Content Crafter and Marketer for Foundr – place dedicated to empowering each and every entrepreneur out there with the best knowledge, tactics and actionable advice on the planet. Whether it’s finding out the latest productivity hacks, or figuring out the best startup business models, Jonathan is all about making sure that anyone that calls themselves an entrepreneur has a chance to continuously improve. You can check out more of his writing, and more about Foundr itself at: foundrmag.com

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Comments
  1. Lucas Smith says: 08/16/2017 at 1:20 pm

    Instagram definitely is the largest pool of target audiences with 700 million users per month.
    But it is also true that that fact alone is insufficient if you don’t know how to engage those audiences or pique their interest.

    With that said, these tips are really helpful. Apply these with the latest trends and topics, I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to captivate a large enough viewers for your blog.

    Thank you for sharing this information.

    Cheers!

  2. Well Written – I should say!!

    Quotes, Infographics and Videos always help!!

  3. Somia says: 08/16/2017 at 8:14 pm

    Great article! After merging of fb and Instagram, things are getting more easy.
    Thanks for sharing it.

  4. Rug Cleaner says: 08/16/2017 at 10:06 pm

    Awesome! We blog weekly as well as post to social media. It’s all great SEO work, but we haven’t figured out a way to use our Instagram accounts yet. This sounds perfect! Thanks for the info, Jonathan!

  5. Sharing quotes with your audience is a great way to provide value across the social landscape. It provides your audience with a slice of the post … a taste of what it’s all about.

    Great ideas, Jonathan!

  6. Thank you for sharing Jonathan! I’m new to Instagram and haven’t known exactly what to do. You have given me some great insight! I’ll put it to use!

  7. amantripathi says: 08/17/2017 at 5:10 pm

    this information so valuable

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  8. Солиха Умм Муса says: 08/17/2017 at 10:59 pm

    Hi! Great post, these are the things im contemplating on these days as i have a blog and want to start using instagram more actively.

    Did quite get this: ” Note that you have 2200 characters to get the user to click on the shortened link you’re attaching with the image”.

    Im new to instagram. What link do u attach to the image and how?

  9. Reading the first option, pull quote on instagram. I agree it is great content that drives likes but then.. when we do promotion on instagram, they always said we had too much words on our pictures.

    so how do we do the right ways?

  10. Kristin Hanes says: 08/18/2017 at 1:18 am

    This is awesome!! What I have had a hard time with is putting links on Instagram….they seem to not allow clickable links, or am I doing something wrong?

  11. Thanks Jonathan for sharing these tips on how to turn blog posts to engaging instagram content. Instagram allows you to engage with your audience and create fun, exciting content.

  12. i will try on my own blog

  13. Thanks for this, I knew the video stat and have started sharing more on instagram. I love the stories. Blogging takes the majority of my attention (rightly so) but other social platforms require focus and I’ve found quite different audiences across each one with a younger one on Instagram.

  14. Hello Sir,

    Thanks for updated great and usefully post to update on blog website it on to user search and read your tips and some usefully.

    Thank You.

  15. Nice post-Jonathan Chan! Thank you for all those tips! I have merely a couple Instagram followers yet, therefore I actually will need to work with growing this number.

    Thank You

  16. Hi, Jonathan!

    Foundr is crushing it on Instagram. I have had the privilege to listen to your podcast interview once, in which you explained how Instagram platform worked out for your online magazine.

    I’m glad to tell you that Instagram is my favorite social media platform. I often tell people that 1-min video is a great opportunity because the content stays online forever unlike the stories that disappear after 24 hours.

    Great post. Love it.

  17. Hello,

    Good one…! i have to try this type merging techniques…
    Thanks for sharing valuable information…

  18. Thank you for this article! I hadn’t thought of breaking down posts into infographics… so simple yet genius. I implemented it right away and am already seeing benefits.

  19. Wait, I thought the “swipe up” link option on Instagram was only for verified users?

  20. Thanks for sharing such a valuable information for Instagram.
    Keep it up.

  21. Joie Mojica says: 01/30/2018 at 11:17 pm

    This is really very helpful. Instagram has really become an “essential” when it comes to social media marketing and creating a following for your brand. What can you say about tools for instagram like hashtag generating tools such as Hashatory? Do you think this can help us in building a genuine following in Instagram?

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