Tuesday Style Link Up: Best of Instagram for 2018

Happy New Year’s Day friends! I hope you all had a lovely evening ringing in the new year! I went to bed early and thought maybe I should add a blog post today. New Year’s Day is a quiet one for many people and if you’re not into watching the parades and football bowl games I thought I would share with you my top 9 posts on Instagram for 2018. 

Why Instagram vs. Facebook as my top social media platform?

I use Instagram as my top social media platform for my blog because it outperforms my FaceBook page in reaching people who will stop over to read my blog. Instagram is owned by FaceBook but the people who are on Instagram spend more time engaging with me with an average of 100 comments per post vs. a sprinkling of comments on my FaceBook page. Maybe the people who follow me on FaceBook don’t realize how important it is to leave a like or comment on my page, but that’s why Instagram is so important when treating your blog as a business and not a hobby.

A lot of brands find me on Instagram (the marketing department is full of millennials) for collaborations and the first thing they ask is for my Instagram media kit and never ask about my FaceBook page or my blog’s analytics.  When I do a collaboration most of the brands only want me for my Instagram account but I actually end up writing a blog post as part of the collaboration. Brands want to work with the best influencers who will represent them and Instagram is a quick way of assessing who they want to work with. The digital marketing people are young and don’t have the time to read our blogs. (Remember they want fast results and reading doesn’t deliver fast results!)

I spend at least 2 hours every day on Instagram following my 3 business accounts (yes, all 3 accounts are businesses.) I earn income and receive gifted items on my Instagram account linked to this website. Some people use Instagram for personal use, I use Instagram for business. I don’t post selfies because I find it a fun thing to do or being a narcissist. I am being paid by brands to photograph. write, and post the items I wear as a way of advertising for them. I am representing brands in about 80% of my Instagram posts and they actually track my engagement. Comments and likes are a big deal for brand collaborations when you post on social media and when you write a blog post about their product. If you want to work with a brand they look at numbers and engagement ratings. They even put tracking codes in all of my social media platforms and on my blog post.

When I started to create my fashion and lifestyle blog as a business in 2016 I was already on Instagram for my interior design business and I separated the two accounts in 2017 when the fashion and lifestyle images outperformed my interior design photos. I see many millennials posting everything on one account and my plan is to combine all platforms into one big account in 2019.

If you’re interested in learning more about Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for your business or blog, I will be teaching the workshops in January at the Influencers of Midlife Summit.

Instagram Top 9 for 2018

If you want to see the Instagram analytics for each post I have linked all top 9 from my Instagram account.

This Instagram post was from the Little Black Dress post. My first Instagram over 3K and it was just a simple and elegant dress for the holidays.

This post was a collaboration with Chico’s and from the Scarf that gives Back to Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

This post on Instagram actually started me writing about whether we should be wearing a bikini after 47. Some young thing had written an article that said we should hang up wearing bikinis after 47 which prompted women over 60 to post photos in swimsuits last summer and we were up for the challenge. This didn’t appear in the blog post but the swimsuit did. This was the first post to receive over 1500 likes on Instagram and yes it brought out the creepy men of Instagram too.

This was a post only request for my Instagram account from Dress Barn for collaboration but I wrote about the pants here.

This post was part of the Daytime Holiday Style where I wore the red floral pants 3 ways with everything from Chico’s.

This post was a discussion I wrote for Wellness Wednesday on whether or not you see yourself as having your glass half full or half empty. I wrote it because at our age we need to feel more confident and have a positive outlook. The woe is me factor can lead to depression.

This post was another Wellness Wednesday post that I wrote about in collaboration with Chico’s for their home collection while creating a healthy 4th of July party.

This post was about our trip down the Seine River Cruise from Paris to Normandy and I highly recommend you take a river cruise in 2019!

My last top 9 for 2018 on Instagram was actually a #throwbackthursday that I wrote in 2017 as another collaboration with Chico’s for their 20th anniversary of their Traveler’s collection.

As you can see the importance of using Instagram for my blog is to attract brands for collaborations and to create value for the brands I work with. I do not take on every brand that reaches out to me for collaborations only the ones who represent my lifestyle and fashion. Chico’s has been my top collaboration in 2018 and I hope to share with you more in 2019.

Even on this website, I have a dedicated slideshow at the bottom of only my Instagram feed. It seems to be the best social media platform for even websites.

What are your intentions for 2019?

Is Instagram your largest social media platform?

I would love to know!

Happy New Year my friends! I appreciate your support and I am grateful you stop by to read my blog!

Join me tomorrow when I share on Wellness Wednesday Sammy’s journey on the Whole30 diet!

LINK UP PARTY

Every Tuesday at 6 AM EST through the following Tuesday, Bloggers, and Instagramers will be able to share their favorite posts by clicking the blue Inlinkz button below. Adding your link will allow you to show off your hard work, make new connections, and gain new followers! Share whatever you like and be a part of the community!!

Here’s what to do . . .

Follow me on Bloglovin, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Visit a few other bloggers, to make new friends and increase your own following!

Be sure to tell your friends about this linkup so they can join in the fun too. The more the merrier! Have fun hopping around all the Blogs and Instagram accounts that have linked up!

By linking up you acknowledge that you have rights to the photograph you are using for the thumbnail and that the thumbnail may be used on our group Pinterest board, featured in an outfit or look of the week or month, or a slideshow on other social media.