The internet is full of people and ideas and social media platforms. There are hundreds and hundreds of posting challenges happening at any time.
In September, I participated in Instawrimo. Instawrimo is a thirty day posting challenge on Instagram for getting prepared for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).
Here’s what I learned over the last 30 days.
1. Be Prepared
This may seem obvious, but if I hadn’t been prepared with some ideas before the challenge started, there would be some days that didn’t get done. For most days, I had at least a general plan, but sometimes it ended up not working out.
There were some days that I had no plan at all and got to fly by the seat of my pants to post anything.
Some days, the plan changed entirely, but it all worked out. I was able to post all 30 days on time.
2. Formatting is Huge
Because the challenge is on Instagram, and they are mainly photo based, the size of the photos played a huge part in what I could post and what I couldn’t. Thanks to Google, I have every single photo I have ever taken or downloaded since about 2014. Some of them, transfering over several devices, or due to the sheer download size, wouldn’t fit in the instagram design effectively. I had to use several back ups when the picture was too big, or it didn’t post correctly.
3. Flexibility Can Save the Day
The prompt list was very open, with several days of the prompts being interpreted different by different users. There were days that I looked at the prompts and had a brief panic and had to think outside the box. I will admit, there are several days that I waited until later in the afternoon and looked up what others had done first.
4. A Healthy Dose of Fear Helps
Before I started this challenge, I probably posted original content on my instagram like once in a blue moon. The last post before the 30 day challenge was from February of 2018. I was terrified nearly every day before I posted, some days more than others, but I did it anyway. It was a huge confidence boost to just post and then to have people respond was even better.
5. Continuous Posting (the right way) Helps You Get Seen.
I have to say, what I most enjoyed about this challenge is that it was only once a day for 30 days. It was an easy 10 to 20 minutes a day for one post, but by the end of the month, I had 30 new posts and a lot more content than I had before. It helped me get more followers, helped me make new connections and even better, there was no spamming involved.
The Bottom Line:
Participating in a 30 day challenge was fun and informative and I’m looking forward to continuing to post and continue to build my social media presence.
If you’re interested in what I posted for the prompts, you can find the first one here.
