[Sarahfi]

I just moved into the dorms at college. Everyone has Instagram and uses it to connect. Also, I’m in a new city with a new church. The student group also uses Instagram. I don’t really have any social media, but it looks like I’m going to get Instagram.

I’ve heard a lot about Bookstagram as a book marketing tool, and I’ve considered doing it someday. The thing is, I don’t really enjoy social media. My current marketing/platform plan is a website and an email list. However, I do like pretty books, and I have a small, cute bookshelf here in my dorm.

So I guess I have two questions. My first: Is it worth it to try out Bookstagram? I don’t really want to do something high-stress that will take up a lot of time.

\Second: if I decided to do Bookstagram, would I be able to only have one account that I would use for Bookstagram and for friends/church? I know that there’s such thing as Instagram stories. I don’t know if messaging is a thing, or not. But do you need to have those separate?

Thanks for the help!

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
-1 Corinthians 15:36b

[Lizzy]

Instagram does have its merits for a marketing tool, and it can be fun to be a part of the bookstagram community. But feeling pressured into getting it is…not so fun. Please don’t feel like you absolutely have to get on or do a bookstagram, and even if you do decide to get on, it’s your account. You don’t /have/ to post every day if you don’t want to, or even every week. If you start small, then figure out later that you have time/inspiration/whatnot, then you could add an extra post per week. There’s been several things lately of “you don’t have to give explanations for an absence–we’ll still be here,” “you don’t have to follow trends if you don’t want to–do what you’re comfortable doing,” and other things like that.

I got on Instagram this year mostly to follow bookish accounts because they didn’t do as much on Facebook. But I ended up starting my own bookstagram after a bit, and it’s actually been really fun. I’m only posting once a week because I didn’t want it to become stressful and something that runs my life. (Plus, I don’t want to annoy people by posting constantly…) I’m really glad for that choice, because it’s fun but still manageable. In the future, I may decide to increase posts per week, but I’m still just taking it slow for now.

As far as number of accounts, you can have one for everything, and that’s fine. I know of several people on Instagram that have both a personal account and a bookstagram and/or an art account. But lots just have the one and post everything on there (life updates, writing, random thoughts, art, etc.). It depends on what your preference is. 🙂

Stories are nice if you just want a quick post to let people know about something without thinking too much about aesthetics and editing and all that. IG does have messaging; there may be another app for it (I don’t know), but you can just use the main app for messaging, and it seems to work fine. There are apps like Layout that you have to download separately if you want to make a collage, which is a bit annoying, but oh well.

So anyways. Hopefully that made sense and at least a teeny bit was helpful! 😀

[Sarahfi]

That is really helpful. Thank you for taking the time to lay that out. I think probably I won’t start Bookstagram yet, just so that I won’t feel forced into it.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
-1 Corinthians 15:36b

[Josiah DeGraaf]

I like Lizzy’s thoughts. Honestly, I would try not to feel much pressure to make any immediate decisions on what you want your account to be. Instead, I’d just get an account, follow people you care about or find interesting, experiment with different kinds of posts, and see what sticks and what feels the most like “the real you” so to speak and the type of brand you’d want to build as an author.

[Sarahfi]

Thank you all so much. This has really helped me clarify what I want to do.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
-1 Corinthians 15:36b

[Lizzy]

Sarahfi wrote:

That is really helpful. Thank you for taking the time to lay that out. I think probably I won’t start Bookstagram yet, just so that I won’t feel forced into it.

Yay, so glad to hear that! Sounds like a plan. 🙂

[Author]

Posts