It’s around a year since I started my journey into the world of food blogging and OMG what an eye opener it’s been! I wanted to share some of what I’ve learnt and give you my list of 5 Top Apps for Social Media!
Let’s start at the very Beginning!
This time last year, I thought (ignorance is bliss) that I’d just casually start writing some recipes and other things that popped into my head whenever the urge hit. I mean, how hard could it be? Put pen to paper and see what happens. Easy, right? Oh no, really not that easy – don’t make the same mistakes I did!! Plan plan plan! Once you’ve decided on a recipe here’s what you need to do:
- Work out how many process shots you want to include in your blog post and what they are, so you know when to take a photo.
- Set up the shoot area before starting, with the props needed to shoot the dish perfectly. Take some test shots, to check light, angles etc…
- Make the dish!
- Photograph it – in daylight, so the shoot area needs to be as close to the window /light source as possible. (of course you can use artificial lighting instead, but that’s a whole other ball game!)
- Make sure you take lots of different angles – 45 degrees, head on or flatlay (overhead) so you have a choice of what to use, when editing.
- Edit the images in a suitable app – more on that later.
- Upload images to your blog, making sure to use a plugin that reduces or optimises the size of the images, so that your site can run faster.
- Write up the recipe card followed by the blog post, using keywords for search engine optimisation.
- Write your blog post, including the recipe card.
- Post to social media
- Oh…eat your dish!!
Clearly this is not an exhaustive list – it’s a short summary and I will be going into much more detail in another post in the near future – watch this space and subscribe if you want to be the first to read it!
The Next Step
Now, as time goes on, you may well realise that photos taken with an iphone aren’t exactly what you want. I mean, they might be great – let’s face it, technology has moved on so much and the current phones are pretty amazing. However, maybe you want to take your photography a step further and that will mean more investment!
Ok let’s see here are a few bits and pieces you will typically need:
- Proper equipment – a tripod, diffusers, bounce boards, camera, lenses, backgrounds, more props. Yeah, quite a lot!!
- Extra tools to enhance your blog – SEO optimisation tools, Snapseed (free – editing) and then lightroom (paid – editing) Inshot (free) for videos, Canva (free and paid) for all of Social Media, Photography courses to up your game,
- Time (and lots of it) – learn about how to best use IG, Pinterest, FB and others too.
Ok, you get the point, it’s not just a case of sitting down and writing a post – to succeed you need to do so much more. Even now, after a year of posting on IG and after 4 proper months of my blog, I have around 8,000 IG followers, 70k Pinterest monthly impressions and 1,000 monthly blog views. So it’s been a fair old slog – but it doesn’t mean it can’t be done! You do have to love it though!
Again, this is not the whole list – more of this in another post coming soon! Don’t forget to click here to subscribe! 😁
Anyway, I thought I would let you know about a few of the apps that I have enlisted the help of along the way – I’m sure you’ve heard of them but if not check these 5 out now!
Ok what are the Top 5 Apps!
Canva
You don’t really need me to tell you much about this one, huh?! Canva is essentially a graphic design platform and you can use it for all sorts of things like posters, presentations, resumes, etc. Did you know that I used it for my brand logo and my media kit as well as for countless IG stories? I would say it’s really helped me on my blogging/SM journey – the free version is fine but you’ll need the paid version to get access to more of what’s on the site.
Cost – £10 per month (or free version)
Snapseed
I was so happy when I found out about this app! Snapseed is a photo editing app where you can enhance photos and also apply filters if you want. It has a lot of adjustments you can make to your photos, and this is where my editing journey started! What’s more – it’s FREE! Yep, totally free. I think I used it for the first 7 months of taking pictures with my iphone!
Cost – FREE
Layout
Well the clue is in the title here! Basically the Layout app lets you put together two or more of your photos to create a mini collage of photos. You can choose between two and nine photos and once you’ve chosen your images, the app switches them around, so you have a load of different options as to which collage you want to use. You can then post this to social media. It’s a fun way to post your pics and means you don’t have to create a carousel post. (although sometimes the carousel post is the better option!)
Cost – FREE
Inshot
Inshot is a mobile photo and video editing app and I use it mostly for editing videos for reels for Instagram. There are lots of different enhancements plus the usual ones too.
You can add music, transitions, text, emojis, filters, etc…there is a free and a paid version.
Cost £11.99 per year (free version also )
Hashtag Expert
Let’s face it, when we post on Instagram, we are trying to reach as many people as possible. Well, hashtags are one of the best ways of doing this and Hashtag Expert is fabulous. In fact they are a great way of reaching people who don’t follow you, which is what you want in order to gain followers! You can use up to 30 hashtags on a post, so if you are not already doing this, then start now!
I have a lot of tips and tricks regarding hashtags which I will be revealing via reels and stories on IG soon but in the meantime, hashtag expert is a good way of finding hashtags to use. It’s a bit pricey however.
Cost £45.99 yearly (after a 1 week free trial)
So there you have it – my top 5 apps. It was really hard to come up with just 5 apps though. There are so many good apps out there plus websites that I use currently which I haven’t listed yet. I’ll save that for another time. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments or contact me on IG – I’m at @anusha.loves.spice
I’ll be writing periodically about my journey over the last year, but until then, if you now feel like a reward after all that info, why not make my gorgeous Rose, Cardamom, Chocolate cupcakes?! Truly scrumptious!!
Until next time!