It's the post that many of my followers have been asking for so long, "How do I start a Disney Instagram?". After two and a half years of growing my Instagram, @happilyeverdanielle, I've created a list of 5 things I feel were the most beneficial for me when starting my account. More and more Disney-lovers are joining the Disney community on Instagram full of Disney bloggers, small shops, Disney College Program participants and alumni, Cast Members, Annual Passholders, avid Disney-goers... the list goes on! It's such a fun community to be a part of and has really impacted my life for the better.
It can be really intimidating though to start your Instagram account at first. It can also be super stressful to to want to share the things you're passionate about and have no idea what to do or how to do that. These five things helped me start my account and turn into what it is today so I hope this post gives you a clearer understanding and direction for starting your Instagram.
1. Pick an area of Disney you want to focus on. Parks? Food? Photography? Style? Sharing your adventures in Disney? The biggest problem I see in Disney Instagram's (with people starting out), is that they don't have a focus. When I started mine, I really focused on sharing pictures of my in the parks. It then transitioned into more lifestyle pictures in Disney because I was living in Disney for my Disney College Program. I've never been a foodie, so I wasn't going to try to be someone I'm not and share my reviews of Disney snacks and restaurants.
2. Have some Disney pictures to post! It's very hard to have a Disney-focused Instagram account if you don't have Disney-focused pictures. Whatever you want your focus to be, like I mentioned above, make sure you have enough content to get you started! So if you want to share your Disney style, take some pictures of some Disney outfits you've put together. A huge misconception is that you need to live in Orlando, FL or Anaheim, CA to be a Disney Instagrammer. False. False. False. You need to have creativity and passion for Disney to be a Disney Instagrammer. I started my account in 2017 with no clue when my next Disney trip would be. Thankfully, I had lots of pictures from my past trips to get me started but I also got creative and showed my Disney side at home.
3. Follow/become friends with other people in the Disney community. This is one of my favorite parts of Instagram. I love talking to people, finding new accounts, interacting with others. It's so much fun for me. It can be hard though if you're just starting out though and is kind of a weird phenomenon to "find people" to be friends with on the internet. When I started my account, I started by first following @waltdisneyworld, @mickeymouse, @disneyparksblog. I had no idea Disney Instagrammers were a thing so I was just looking to follow the Disney-specific accounts to get my fix of Disney from on my new account. Accounts started getting suggested to me, @magicalifestyle, @styledbymagic, @thepixietraveller. When I started following them, I realized there was a MASSIVE Disney community that I had no idea about! I followed more people and started commenting on their posts, messaging them, etc. I noticed there were some people who never responded to comments on messages but other people always responded and would even comment on my posts and message me. The people who gave the love back were the people I started being friends with like @magicallymads and @lillydarlingxo.
Moral of the story, if you want love on your page, you have to send love, of course!
4. Show how much you love the Disney parks, culture, people, etc. Because I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have made one if you didn't love it! Whatever picture you decide to post, say something about it! Share why you love that picture you decided to post, what makes you happy about it, if there's a special memory attached to it, give a deeper meaning to it that helps people feel connected to you. On my posts, I would never just caption a picture of me in front of the castle "sunshine emoji, pink heart emoji, mouse emoji". That gives you no detail about me or my life so instead I would tell you what I did that day in Magic Kingdom, what was going on in while I was taking that picture, why I love the castle. Bring your picture to life!
5. Show your followers what's different from you than other accounts. Do you have a different style than most accounts? Is there something you are totally obsessed with? Make that part of your "brand". I know people have kinda learned to hate that word but embrace it because you are creating a brand for yourself! On my account, I try to share as much positivity and happiness as I can. I usually relate it to Disney because that literally makes me so happy but I've used the Disney values I've been taught and learned to bring that into other areas of my life like currently being so happy that it's finally summertime.
I hope this helps you if you've been struggling with your Instagram or are needing some encouragement! And don't forget to check out my post on how I gained 10K followers on Instagram. I share even more tips on what I specifically did to grow my account like posting consistently, editing my pictures, responded to DM's, etc. Please let me know if you have any questions and I would be more than happy to answer them!!
See ya real soon,
Danielle
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