How to Grow Your Poetry Account on Instagram (2024)

Many poets turn to Instagram as a creative outlet. If you want to grow your audience on Instagram, we’ve compiled a few best practices that will set you up for success.

Why Grow Your Poetry Account on Instagram?

Sharing your work on a platform and steadily growing your poetry Instagram account are two different things.

Consider growing your poetry account if:

• You want to become a published poet
• You want to connect with other writers
• You plan to submit a manuscript (poetry or otherwise to agents and publishers)
• If you have a poetry “side hustle” – maybe as a typewriter poetry (like our editor) or otherwise

Having an active and growing poetry account shows agents and publishers that you are invested in your writing.

How to Grow Your Poetry Account on Instagram

If you want to grow your poetry account, follow these seven tips. These are best practices, and you can adopt them as you see fit. For the best results, follow all of the Instagram growth tips below.

Post Poetry Regularly

Posting regularly is critical. Accounts are rewarded by the “algorithm” if they are active. If you are just starting out, we recommend posting every day. That being said, consistency in posting is key. Create a schedule (if daily is too much) that suits your writing rhythm, whether daily or weekly, and stick to it. This routine helps followers know when to expect new content.

Once you get more “insights” from Instagram regarding the most active times of day for your followers, post at that time for more engagement.

Create a Poetry Aesthetic

Instagram is a visual platform. To make yourself stand out to readers and other poets, create a consistent aesthetic for your poetry posts.

What does this mean?

Consider always using the same font or background. If you like hand-writing your poems, do that for every post. Essentially, you want to create a consistent “image” so that with time, your community comes to recognize your posts without necessarily knowing they’re yours.

Use Poetry Hashtags

Using hashtags on Instagram is a great way to engage with specific communities and get your poetry in front of new audiences. Here are a few hashtags we love:

• #poetrycommunity
• #writingcommunity
• #poetsofinstagram
• #poetrylovers
• #instawriters
• #instapoets
• #poetrysociety
• #poetryisnotdead

We also recommend using other relevant hashtags. For example, if you write a poem about a forest, use nature-focused hashtags.

Incorporate Reels

Instagram Reels are a new video format offered by the platform. You can showcase your poetry via video, which Instagram’s algorithm seems to favor. Videos are also highly shareable, which will encourage your readers and followers to share them with their audiences as well. Plus, depending on the video software you use to edit the video, you can repurpose Reels for TikTok or YouTube.

You can also use hashtags in Reel captions!

Use Stories and Highlights

Stories and highlights are Instagram features that poets can use to engage with their audience beyond regular static posts. Try using stories to share quick snippets of your poetry or your writing process. Stories and highlights disappear in 24 hours, making it ideal if you’re experimenting with new ideas.

Also consider organizing your Instagram highlights into categories, such as “Favorite Poems” or “Writing Tips,” so your followers can easily revisit poems that inspire them.

To deepen engagement, create stories with polls or host Q&A sessions on Instagram live to involve your audience and build a more personal connection.

Find Prompt Accounts

Engaging in poetry communities on Instagram will help you grow your community. There are many poetry prompt accounts on Instagram that release prompts daily, weekly, or monthly. Responding to these prompts with a poem is a way to interact with new folks.

Be sure to pay attention to any hashtags related to these prompts because it will make it easier for the prompt account owners to find your poems if you use the corresponding hashtag.

Prompt accounts are also a great place to find other creatives to support as well!

Network With Other Poets

It takes a village to grow a poetry account on Instagram. If you support other poets on the platform, they will support you! Commenting on poems (thoughtfully, not with just an emoji) and sharing other’s work on your stories can help you network. Genuine interactions via commenting and sharing can lead to organic growth.

Sometimes, poets will even create DM groups to help boost one another. Additionally, you can “go live” with other poets and do readings for your followers.

Find Poetry Feature Accounts

Quality is the key phrase here. There are free and paid poetry feature accounts on Instagram.

Vetting quality for free accounts is less important because you aren’t paying to get in front of new readers.

How do You Know if a Paid Poetry Feature is Worth it?

Ask accounts to see the insights for their latest post. This will show you how many people saw, liked, commented on, saved, and shared the post with someone else. If the saved and shared amount is higher, in general, the account is probably better quality.

If a post received 5,000 likes, and only had 1-5 saves or shares, avoid it – this is a sign the account could be buying likes or has followers that aren’t very engaged with the content. In this case, it’s not worth the financial investment.

Who Should Invest in a Paid Poetry Feature?

We get it. Maybe paying for a feature on Instagram was not on your radar whatsoever.

If you’re lucky enough to have a budget for something like this, and find a feature account, paying for a poetry feature can get you more followers.

This leads to a few questions: What is a follower actually worth? What are your ultimate goals?

If you just want followers, it’s probably a good time to re-evaluate. Followers don’t necessarily equal success, more engagement with the poems you post, or a book deal. Keep yourself grounded and stay realistic.

Growing Your Poetry Account FAQs

What are the best poetry hashtags for Instagram in 2024?

The best poetry hashtags for Instagram in 2024 are: #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetrylovers #instawriters #instapoets #poetrysociety #poetryisnotdead #poetryrise #poemsforher #poemsforhim

We also recommend searching for topical hashtags. For example, if your poem is about the sun, add sun-related hashtags to your post.

What is the best time to post poetry on Instagram?

The best time to post poetry on your Instagram account depends on two things:

1. Where you live
2. Where your followers live

Explore your account insights to see when your followers are most active on the platform and post your poetry at those times.

Ready to Grow Your Poetry Account?

Growing your poetry Instagram account is a long game. You won’t see results in a week or even a month, but following our eight tips will help get you started.

Ready to submit your poetry to a magazine? Submit to From Whispers to Roars.