If you’re ready as a food blogger to learn the Instagram Reels best practices, then you’re not going to want to miss this episode with Maria Gureeva who has over 220k instagram followers.
IE 265: Instagram Reels Best Practices for Food Bloggers with Maria Gureeva
Maria is a food blogger on EarthofMaria.com, where she shares fun and approachable plant-based recipes and cooking tips that anyone can enjoy regardless of dietary preference.
Outside of that, Maria also helps other food bloggers and content creators within the food niche get visible on social media through the power of video.
What makes a good instagram reel as a food blogger?
It definitely comes down to who you are and your audiences, and specifically what you’re trying to do through your instagram strategy.
What this leads into is people that do really well with instagram reels really have something about them that’s quite creative and a little out there in terms of the actual recipes or their editing style that really makes them stand out as a creator.
There are so many people trying to make themselves visible and now instagram has given this massive opportunity to get a much higher reach than ever before.
Everybody obviously wants their own slice of the pie, so it really helps if there’s something about the way in which you present yourself and youre content that really grabs the viewers attention.
I would recommend niching down and getting to know your audience and specifically who you’re trying to reach.
For instance, I started out kind of flip-flopping back and forth for a while and even with the vegan niche there are so many different pathways that you can take.
The other question that always comes up is authenticity vs. content that’s a bit more tailored, it all comes down to the audience you’re trying to reach.
How do you get max views on instagram reels as a food blogger?
When it comes to getting views, I like to place my focus on my content as opposed to other tactics because it’s so easy to get caught up on how many hashtags you use or the audio you use or the caption you use and the time that you post.
Above all you have to focus on your content and really providing some sort of value to your audience whether that’s a delicious recipe or a fun cooking trick or your progress in food photography for the last year.
If you’re not providing value, no number of tactics will be able to compensate for that and going along with that you have to find a way to grab the viewer’s attention.
I like to do very short clips, very abrupt cuts to kind of keep it moving very quickly, other food bloggers have a more flowy fluent style so it’s really about what works best for you and your platform.
Another way to grab your viewers attention is storytelling during the videos, basically persuading the viewer to try out the recipe.
I often make the video my own by showing myself trying the food and reacting to it to give a sort of human element to the video, it does really well and adds personality to the video.
How often should you post instagram reels?
There isn’t exactly a set answer for this and I would say to try and do it as often as possible or as often as your schedule allows and I would say to focus more on Instagram Reels as opposed to different forms of content.
For myself, I post around 4-5 times a week, most of which is reels and to go along with that I would recommend leaving room in your content calendar to do a recipe that’s exclusive to instagram.
So personally, I haven’t noticed a difference in engagement whether the recipe is in a caption or if I say to go over to my website, but I find that sometimes to do a recipe that’s more specific that you’re making an effort to keep users within the platform and will also nurture the audience that you have.
Just with my work strategy I post my website around three times a week at the moment and I will obviously go in and share those recipes to my Instagram as Reels.
Around twice a week I’ll do Instagram exclusive content just based on what’s trending or what I feel like doing.
How do you get a reel to go viral?
Once again, this really comes down to the content and I find that creators with viral success after viral success make recipes that are really unique and something that a lot of people would want to make.
With me people can expect really approachable, plant-based recipes but the sort of plant based recipe that isn’t just for vegans but also something that everyone can enjoy.
It all comes down to studying your audience or even experimenting with what works and what doesn’t and then rezooming in and doing different variations of the sort of content that really seems to resonate with your specific audience.
Another potential strategy is to do something that’s a little bit controversial that encourages people to comment or to kind of start a discussion in the comment section.
I would suggest that you find 10-20 minutes a day maybe to scroll through instagram reels and have a look at what other people are doing to get an inuitave sense of what they’re doing and apply them to your videos and add your own personal spin to it.
You have a resource that helps food bloggers level up their Instagram reels. Can you talk a little about this?
I have put together a guide which details my top six tips that food bloggers can apply to their Instagram reels.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or whether you find yourself dabbling in reels but they’re not really going anywhere, this guide puts forward my six favorite quick and easy tips that you can implement into your existing videos.
Where are the best places to connect with you?
You can find me on Instagram at EarthofMariaa and you can also visit me on my website earthofmaria.com.
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