How much time do I spend on my blog and Instagram?

How much time should you spend creating content for your blog and Instagram? How much time should you spend on your blog and social media channels?

How much time do I spend on my blog and Instagram?

Question by @andreafcannon via Instagram stories

Would you be surprised if I told you I spent 20+ hours a week on my blog, podcast, and Instagram? Even though I’m still working full time in aerospace, I do dedicate quite a bit of time to my blog and social media channels. I eventually want to make a career out of my blog/content creation so I’m doing everything I can now to set myself up to make this leap in the next year and a half.

If you’re wondering how much time do I spend on my blog and Instagram, here are the three major places I spend most of my time:

A. Photo shoots:

Preparing for photo shoots: 1-3 hours a week

I usually spend a few hours a week looking for new photo
shoot locations or deciding to re-visit photo shoot locations.

I also spend at least one hour a week laying out which outfits I want to shoot that weekend. I try on almost all of my outfits beforehand so I can see what shoes, bags, or accessories I want to style with the outfit. Trying on all my outfits beforehand also gives me a chance to practice posing in the mirror.

Shooting with Maddy, Holly, or Karya: 1-2 hours a week

On average, I’m shooting at least once a week. I used to
shoot once a month, then every three weeks, then every other week. Now that I’m
done with my master’s program, I have time to shoot almost every weekend.

I typically shoot 3 outfits an hour. Sometimes Maddy and I will reserve half a day (up to 6 hours) to shoot either a Saturday or Sunday. If we do that, I’ll usually wait another two weeks to shoot content.

If Maddy and I have a blog trip, we’ll typically pick one day to shoot all out content. We recently traveled to Create & Cultivate LA and we spent our Sunday shooting on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. We probably shot over 10 locations that day!

B. Blog posts:
Brainstorming: 1 hour a month

I try to brainstorm an entire month’s worth of blog topics
at the beginning of each month. I usually will post on Instagram stories asking
what topics people want me to cover on my blog. I love turning those questions
into blog posts. I also make sure I brainstorm fashion and travel related posts.

Creating a list of topics at the very beginning of the month
gives me direction the rest of the month. I don’t feel like I’m scrambling for
topics. I visit my list at the beginning of each week and decide which topics I
want to share that week. I usually publish 2 blog posts a week so I try to have
at least 8-10 blog post topics at the beginning of the month.

Outlining/typing out blog posts: 2-3 hours a week

Since I have a list of blog topics to pull from, I usually
spend 2-3 hours a week outlining the blog posts and then typing them up. My
outlines are really simple (I use the same outline format I learned in AP
English Junior Year of high school)

Blog topic: XXX

Introduction paragraph

Point 1

Point 2

Point 3….

Closing paragraph

Related blog posts linked at the end of the blog post

Outlining/typing out future episodes for the Content Creatives Podcast: 1- 1/2 hours

I outline every episode either Sunday or Mondays because on Wednesday, Maddy and I meet up after work to record the podcast episode in her office. I usually select a topic from our list of topics, select which question of the day we’re going to answer, and lay out the major points we need to cover during the episode.

SEO: 30 min – 1 hour a week

After I write each posts, I usually spend 30 min making sure
the blog is SEO friendly. I have the free version of the Yoast plugin on
wordpress. I make sure that I have a green status on my SEO Yoast Plug in. That’s
all I do for SEO.

C. Instagram:

Planning my feed: 1 hour a week

I use @planoly to upload my photos and plan my feed. I
usually try to plan out what I’m going to post for the week on Sundays/Mondays.
There are a few major drivers that help me plan my Instagram feed:

• Sponsored content that needs to go live that
  week
• Holidays (like Valentine’s Day or Christmas)
• Blog posts that I want to direct my audience to

Writing Captions: 1 hour a week

I write all my captions either on Sundays or Mondays. Since I have an idea of what photos I need to share that week, I usually take an hour at the very beginning of the week to write all my captions. This has saved me SO MUCH TIME. I used to sit and look at my phone and question what I should write.

Engaging: 7-10 hours a week

Engaging on Instagram for me looks like:

• Responding back on people’s comments and DMs
• Going to other people’s IG pages to like/comment
• Replying to people’s stories

I usually spend an hour a day on Instagram. I usually publish
one photo a day and then spend the next 30 min-1 hour engaging on the platform.

A few weeks ago, I did an IG series sharing the deliverables
of my top 2 brand campaigns of 2019. I probably spent close to 3 hours a day on
the app replying back to direct messages and comments.

There you have it friends! A behind the scenes look of how much time I spend working on my blog and Instagram. Did I surprise you? Or did you already have an idea of how much time I spent on my blog and Instagram?

Now its your turn: how much time do you spend on your blog and Instagram?

For more blogging tips, you can also check out:

It’s okay to say NO to a brand collaboration

7 Tips for New Bloggers & Influencers in 2020

5 Lessons I’ve Learned from my Top Brand Collaborations of 2019

How to Respond to a Brand when they “don’t have budget” for an influencer campaign

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Emma