So far i got the best results with Facebook groups and Reddit.
cpclemens
I was JUST having this chat today with someone.

I have a travel/local interest blog that is specific to a region. I was concentrating on Instagram, because so many other influencers in my region have high follower counts. I'm just under 7,800 followers and I can tell you that my blog gets about 1-2 hits a MONTH from people clicking in my profile link.

I was told today by another local social media manager whose account just hit 10k, that when she posts a link in an Instastory, she gets about 5 website views.

I personally know of someone working full time as an influencer (and getting paid a solid income) and her IG follower count is around 1,500. I know of another guy who works a topic specific to mine, and he's got a full time income, and his IG is almost embarrassingly bad.

IMHO opinion, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are the drivers of webtraffic. Instagram is great, but it doesn't bring web traffic like the others.

bacon
I was really frustrated when I first started Instagram. It took me forever to get to 1K. I had a major account share my photo and recipe twice and that brought in over 5K followers for me. I took a class on how to use it and make my feed look super nice. Your profile page is the first thing people look at and if it doesn't look nice then you won't get any followers. When I choose a picture for my feed I make sure that it matches with my color scheme. I have 13.4K followers now and they're all great. I think its bogus how you can't post links in your caption and people can't click on them. The only way to get traffic is if you have it posted in your profile and you tell people to go there.

If Instagram is making you feel shitty about yourself start unfollowing the accounts that make you feel that way. I get sick and tired of looking at pictures of food all day so I started following home interior and nature photography accounts.
Simba
the best blogs are completely privately owned and operated, such as with WordPress or other open source solutions. None of the best blogs rely upon corporate owned "social media" apps.

Instagram is garbage.

passionateintrovert
Recently started using Instagram to try and drive traffic to my blog. I'm in the food, travel, culture space so I thought it might be useful but it's been virtually useless for getting website clicks so far. Admittedly my following isn't large at all (1.7k), but I get a decent amount of likes and legit comments per post but almost no follow through.

In comparison, I started using Pinterest heavily in the last couple of weeks and am already seeing good quality traffic hitting my site and it's increasing every day. I'm going to persist at least for the next few months with Instagram, but I think I'll put most of my efforts into Pinterest and Twitter moving forward.

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Ereandrill
I don't see Instagram as a platform that drives traffic but rather as a platform that complements my blog. I used to work as a marketing exec (and I also did Public Relations (PR)) for a beauty brand (I know they are highly picture focused, but hear me out!) when I was still living in London. Although we had tools to check (organic) traffic, we focused on Instagram as it was a barometer for how popular the blog was. Your loyal Instagram followers might not always read your blog, but your loyal readers will 80% of the time follow your Insta. Also (and this might be the most important one): if all else fails and the publicity on the blog is a bust – at least there's still a picture on a highly followed and engaged on Instagram.

I currently have a travel blog and a book blog. I noticed that with my book blog insta (22k followers) I get a lot more done (aka get a lot better books and I got invited – when I was still living in London, to cooler events), once I started mentioning my Instagram follower count. Now for my travel blog as well: I am part of FB groups where brands post blogger ops – and although every single person in that group has a great blog – some even with amazing amounts of visitors, more than 80% still asks for a link to your Insta as well as your blog link. The other 20% asks for a blogkit – which will include your insta stats.

So imho – Insta is not about driving traffic, it is about showcasing who you and your blog are. Make your insta attractive and keep in mind that it is all about the scroll (aka keep to a theme) and seeming professional, and you will notice it is easier to attract cool, exciting or paid ops in your niche.

gentwithin
I'm with you. I have such a love hate with IG. It's fake AF, all about vanity and getting that hit of dopamine with every like, follow and comment praising you. What's worse is that those who are genuinely trying to grow in no way can compete with those who are cheating their way to the top by buying followers, playing the despicable follow/unfollow game, bot commenting and most annoying of all, engaging in massive comment pods of hundreds of other influencers. It's the illusion of influence that these 'influencers' are buying into. But I mean, are you really an influencer if all of your engagement comes from other influencers?

It's impossible not to play the comparison game on an app like IG where you're constantly bombarded with how well everyone is doing.

As for my use of IG. It's still very much an integral part of my overall blogging strategy. As much as I hate it for reasons listed above, I love is as a platform to engage with followers, give them a sneek peak into my life with stories whenever I feel like it. I find that there's some overlap with my IG followers, blog readers and YT viewers. Some people consume all of my content on all platforms and are on my email list as well.

Although IG doesn't drive a ton of traffic to my blog at the moment (I have near 7k followers ATM), it provides awareness of what I'm doing on my other platforms like my blog and YouTube channel since I always create micro-content for IG that's repurposed from my blog and YT videos. Plus I'm really looking forward to 10k to take advantage of the swipe up feature which I'm sure will have much more traction than "link in bio". I see potential to drive affiliate sales via the swipe up feature as well.

All in all, for me right now, IG is complementary to the blog. Definitely not to be relied on as a source of income unless you have a pretty decent, engaged following, but it surely plays an important role in my overall strategy, along side YouTube and other socials like Pinterest. I also tend to plan out my posts a good week in advance. All the captions, hashtags, etc…and I try to strike a balance between promoting my blog content, posting inspirational type captions and sharing more about my personal life. It's all a balance.
dmtelemetry
Hi there! Been lurking around r/Blogging for a while now, and just wanted to give my two cents regarding Instagram. I get around 5% of my blog traffic from Instagram. Admittedly, engagement is extremely low, but I have a small but dedicated fan base that I interact with on the platform, whether it's through comments or DMs. Instagram is definitely not for everyone – if your niche is not a highly visual one, then I would say it almost wouldn't be worth keeping up.

I write a film, television, and pop culture blog, so my Instagram is just a collection of movie stills. In about a year, I've grown my account from 0 to almost 5,000, posting once or twice a day. I'll admit that the traffic I get from it is just ok, but I just enjoy having another platform I can use to interact with my community. But I also couldn't do it without Combin, which is an automated like application. Getting Instagram followers takes time and dedication that I simply don't have. If I had to build my following manually, it 100% wouldn't be worth my time.

Combin is an app that works through search: you can search for similar accounts to your own or search by hashtags, then the app will like the images that come up on search, or if you're searching for accounts, it can like up to 5 images of each account result. You can also automate comments, but I never use this function as it seems really spammy. I don't want to end up putting a fire emoji comment on someone's photo from their grandma's funeral or something. It's something that I spend 10 minutes setting up every week or so, and then I set it and forget it. It's super painless, and I get good results from it. There's a limited free version, and also a $10 a month version that lets you search for 1000 hashtags or accounts at a time, no limit to the number of concurrent searches you can have. The app is also super safe and works within the hourly limits of Instagram's restrictions.
preshtagon
The way I think of using social media for blogging is mainly for one purpose. To build leverage and then use that leverage as an economic moat for your blog.

I think of Instagram mainly as a platform to help build a blog's brand and increase brand equity and awareness. After building a solid brand, you could choose to leverage it in turn for money. Through brand deals, sponsorships, etc.

If you recognise that at this point in your blogging journey, your blog suffers from poor branding, and you need to take it up a notch…then you can intentionally choose to invest in Instagram and put in the effort and time to get the brand status you want.

As for giving you traffic referrals, you're better of with focusing on Google and Pinterest. Contents on Instagram are designed to remain on Instagram. Even as a business profile. This structure makes Instagram perfectly suited as a branding platform first before anything else.

If using Instagram is hurting your mental health, then it's totally okay to purge your Instagram data and feed. Use it minimally and focus on other platforms for the results you want.

I do think of blogging differently. While I don't have a commercial blog, I intend to start one soon.

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