Beginning with Instagram in Vancouver WA

My One Year Experiment with Instagram

I am on a one year experiment to see if Instagram is a good Social Media for book promotion and other misadventures I fall prey too.

While I have dabbled with it like fishing with a shoestring in a mud puddle for a few years I did not make the decision to move to the real Instagram waters till late last year. 

I started with taking a course on Lynda.com which I could do for free with our local library. It was a good enough course but didn’t move the needle on my Instagram account. At this point I might have had 20 followers – maybe less. I can’t remember. I did learn enough though to want to continue with Instagram.

Mostly I just like watching funny videos and even creating one or two about my cat. 

Then I decided to take an Instagram Web course with Kat Coroy. Spent six weeks on this – and $400. 

Deeping Diving with More Instagram Education

I went week by week through the course but the material was so extensive I mostly concentrated on a one time run through with the mental promise to start again and do the work (which I continue to do but not as faithfully as I told myself I would).

A few of the valuable gems I am treasuring  from the course are:

  • Designing your Instagram home page with color, font and media that matches your brand. 
  • Using a design grid that I absolutely love but still in the process of putting it into action for myself.
  • Using Canva to create Instagram materials.

 I already liked and used Canva but her course totally upped my game there. Learned lots more but that is a good start for justifying the big bucks I spent for the course. 

My Instagram followers moved to somewhere around 80 at this point.

Why so few?

Because silly, I learned stuff I just haven’t implemented it. Duh!

Why do I do this to myself?

Continuing On . . .

But I am determined to carry on. To the point where I actually start, (gasp) implement what I have learned.

So now I have jumped into a month by month group coaching class ($40) with Jenn Herman instagram.com/jenns_trends/ and while only a few weeks into this I am finding it valuable enough to continue for a bit. 

The big takeaway for me so far is how to strategically use hashtags (she has a secret formula) be consistent (which I’m not) and basically just keep learning, experimenting and doing things with Instagram. Here’s the thing with me – I am one of those folks that feel coaches and learning programs really, really help me to move forward. Granted I am “so” slowly moving forward but I am moving forward.

Today my follower account is at 97. And really I could have a few more but there are slimy, folks that follow you for no good reason and I just delete those folks. 

Vancouver WA Themed Hashtags

So I am almost ready to move into the “Get With It” stage of my Instagram journey. This means:

  • Create & Follow a Strategic Plan
  • Create Weekly Content
  • Use Hashtags 

Using hashtags on Instagram is apparently not as valuable as former times but still useful. Here are some that I have gathered over the last few weeks to hopefully up my Vancouver, Washington Instagram Outreach. Feel free to use and would appreciate knowing of ones I have missed. 

Pacific Northwest (PNW):
Popular: #pacificnorthwest #pnwonderland #thatpnwlife
Medium: exploringthePNW #pnwadventures #pnwexplorations #PNWExplored #pnwdiscovered #pnwgirl #pnwkids #pnwisbeautiful #pnwisbest #pnwlifestyle #pnwliving #pnwmom #pnwparadise  #pnwroamers
Low: #pnwtravel  #travelthepnw #nwdiscovered

Washington State:
Popular: #washingtonstate
Medium:
#livewashington
#springinwashington #thingstodoinWA #washingtondaily #washingtonian 
#explorewashington #washingtonrealestate #swwashington Low: #thingstodoinwashington #thingstodoinwashingtonstate

Clark County:
Medium: #clarkcountywashington

Vancouver, WA:
Medium:  #vancouverwa #vancouverwashington #columbiariver #thecouve  #vantucky #explorevancouverwa #downtownvancouverwa #vancouver_usa #visitvancouverusa
#fortvancouver

My Favorite Instagram accounts in Vancouver WA

This is just the beginning of my exploration to find the top “Instagram” sites “I like”  and that focus on living in Clark County, Wa. I will admit to searching out those that I most find interesting so quite biased here. And since I’m a Senior pushing towards 7o (66 at the moment) I’m sort of on an Instagram side road of popularity for a lot of Instagram users. To put it more plainly not into tatoos, cars or coffee with buxom women, etc. Just plain vanilla sites that grandmas and kids can stumble across without eyebrows raised if someone walks by. 

First off, I want to share “my” favorite top ten in Clark County. These may not be the most popular in number of followers, posts, etc. but they are the ones I like the best. 

MY TOP TEN In Clark County Washington 

Fort Vancouver NPS fortvancouvernps 
Walk Vancouver US   walkvancouverus    
Connect Clark County  connectclarkcounty
Vintage Books  vintagebookshop
Vancouver Library van_library
I Paw’d It Forward  ipawditforward
Get To Gather Farm gettogatherfarm
Clark County Historical Museum  cchmuseum
Visit Vancouver WA  vancouver_wa
Vancouver Farmers Market  vancouverfarmersmarket

Well that’s enough Instagram for today. My follower count has dropped to 96 so we are not getting anywhere fast. . . Stay tuned though things might actually improve if I start working on this. 

Fun Zone

The fun zone needs some work. Not loving this puzzle game much – so will see if I can work on something else when I can. 🙁

Book Update

Book image of Explore Vancouver WashingtonStarting the slow process of pushing book out into the world. So far I have sold about 23 books on Amazon and 11 in the Fort Bookstore and that’s probably it. For the most part no one in the area knows about it so that’s my focus now. Working on my first news release at the moment and hopefully get that completed week. Just sending to different media one at a time for now. My big hope is to get it picked up for the Columbian – but other local news will be wonderful as well. It did get shared a bit on Facebook, forgot about that. 🙂    

Fort Vancouver Bookstore    Vintage Books    Amazon

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