To learn more about Anna, check out The Styled Fox spotlight.
When Anna Fox, creator of The Styled Fox, started her blog it primarily covered fashion and beauty. However, Anna recently began incorporating travel and home decor topics into her content. As her subject matter broadened, Anna found Instagram’s new Highlights to be a great tool for showcasing her newest work to her audience.
Read on for her tips on how to use this new feature in a way that engages and educates your audience!
We love the topics you chose to share with your audience and how they are organized in your Instagram Highlights. How do you think the Highlights section helps your audience get to know you?
The highlights provides a place to “save” important information that can be easily accessed at any time. With the Instagram algorithm changes and Stories expiring after 24 hours, I always think of how many people might have “missed” my content. This new feature allows me to save the ‘highlights’ so that my audience can play catch up!
Did you set up your Instagram Highlights as soon as the feature came out or did another source inspire you?
Yes! I’m OCD about organization and loved that this was a feature I could use to streamline my content into certain categories, while giving my audience the opportunity to reference it at any time!
What tools did you use to create the icons for your Highlights?
I struggle with the ‘design’ aspects of my job. So it was important for me to learn how to ask others for help early on. Luckily I’m a part of a really great blogging community where we feel comfortable enough to share resources, provide feedback, give insight etc. So I enlisted the help of another blogger to create the fun little graphics!
What has been the greatest benefit of using Instagram Highlights?
For me, it’s a great way to stay organized, which is crucial to my brand and success as a blogger. When used correctly, I think you can definitely capitalize on the “swipe up” feature to drive more traffic to your site, links, etc, which ultimately gives your content a larger reach and shelf life. I try to remind my audience of their presence, while including a quick how-to video, at least once a week!
How did you decide which topics to highlight on Instagram?
I included sections for each of the topics that are covered on TheStyledFox.com. It’s fairly easy to add or remove, so if my blog topics ever change, I can make simple edits!
Have you played around and found that one topic is more engaging to your audience than another?
With the purchase of our new home last October, home design content has been a huge hit. I’ve had SO much content in this new vertical on TheStyledFox.com and social channels, and it seems like my audience is really responding well to it. When I feature a new post on the blog, I try to ‘walk through’ the room on Instagram Stories to give my audience a behind the scenes look, chatting about key aspects of the room while answering any questions and providing direct links to products I use. Then I save the stories to my home highlights section for them to reference at any time!
Your Instagram content is beautiful and you consistently receive great engagements on your posts. How to you inspire and foster this engagement with your audience?
I truly feel that engaging with your audience is the best way to remain authentic and real. I try to respond to every comment within 24 hours, and if I notice a new follower or commenter, I will reciprocate on their page! It’s so simple and takes little to no time, yet the impression it leaves lasts forever. Responding directly to DMs and questions is always crucial too.
You seamlessly blend sponsored products in your photos so that your Instagram aesthetic remains cohesive. What advice do you have for our influencers on how to achieve this?
That’s a huge compliment and something I’ve spent a lot of time working on over the last year. The best piece of advice I can give is to lean into discomfort and try to be less staged and more real. I only promote products that I use and love, so when I’m curating content, I try to think of how I incorporate that product in my daily life, and try to capture it as it is! The photos become more organic that way, and are less likely to appear as “spammy” or an “ad.”
How would you like to branch out with your content in the future? What other topics are you passionate about that might not be captured in your blog or social posts at the moment?
I love to cook and bake in our new kitchen, so I have been playing around with adding more lifestyle content in 2018. I’d also like to continue to document my fitness journey over 30.
What was your favorite Linqia program? Why?
Ah! There’s been so many, it’s hard to choose! I would have to say Absolut Elyx (I worked with them twice) and Milk-Bone – both are more lifestyle, which allowed me the opportunity to share a more behind the scenes look at my life! My two pups, Becks and Ripken made an appearance in the Milk-Bone campaign, and I loved how it turned out!
