Writer Friends Challenge

What is Writer Friends Challenge?

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Writer Friends Challenge started as a seed of an idea at the end of 2020. The plan all came together quickly and first launched on Instagram in February 2021. We had two goals for the challenge. The first goal was to help writers create engaging content which helped them grow and shine on Instagram. The second goal was to help writers connect and find friendship. It has been many months since then and the goals remain the same.

Without a doubt, Instagram is a leading social media platform and it is the place to be for writers. According to recent stats from Instagram, they have over 2 billion monthly users. But it doesn’t have to be scary! You just need to find your place. You need a community.

Meet your hosts

Writer Friends Challenge has been our way of giving back to the amazing writing community on Instagram. Sarah and I share a passion for Middle-Grade books and are lucky to have found such a wonderful family as members of the #MGWaves. We are also lucky to be in a critique group together and have been fortunate to work with such amazing writers who are kind, smart, and very thoughtful. We want the same things for you. Let’s be real - the more friends the better!!

We know it can be difficult to find your community. It can be hard to know where to start, who to follow, and what to post. But you don’t have to attempt Instagram alone.

Having support of your Writer Friends can make the adventure so much more rewarding. This is where Writer Friends Challenge can help!

All about the hashtag #WriterFriendsChallenge

On Instagram, communities form around hashtags. Follow the hashtag #writerfriendschallenge (with 1 ‘s’) to see everyone particpating in the challenge and to recieve challenge news and updates. Each month we will post the new calendar with a new prompt for each day of the week. Save that post. Share that post on your account. And take a screenshot of the calendar to include whenever your upload a new daily post with the hashtag.

The Basics:

𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 the hosts on Instagram: @susanleighneedham & @thatsarahelynn

𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 the monthly calendar. 𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒆 it and 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 it to your profile and/or story. 𝑻𝒂𝒈 some fellow writers in the comments you think might like to join!⁣

Don't forget to 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒕𝒂𝒈 #WriterFriendsChallenge (with only 1 ‘S’) so your posts can be seen by everyone participating!⁣ Follow the hashtag to connect with other writers and comment on their posts. (No need to tag us in your posts - we'll see them if you've used the hashtag!)

Interpret the prompts any way you want and do as many or as few as you want. You can make traditional grid posts, carousel posts, or reels posts. Most of all — 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒏!!

Challenge Etiquette

Branded hashtags have been around as long as social media. They are a way to establish communities within the vast ocean of social media users. People find commonality with others when they use a specific branded hashtag on their posts. Challenge hashtags are one kind of branded hashtag. They are researched and uniquely created for a specific group of people. #WriterFriendsChallenge is a hashtag created for writers to find and make new friends on social media.

Some of the things you will find on our hashtag: daily prompts, motivation, writing tips and advice, book reviews, writer life, works in progress, creativity, originality, current reads, snippets, and book aesthetics.

Things that our hashtag is not for: any post from an account that is not participating in the monthly prompts.

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THANK YOU

Within 15 months, our hashtag has grown to have over 16K posts and 300+ followers!!

Updated: Within 22 months, our hashtag has grown to have over 27K posts and 450+ followers!!

Updated: Within 33 months, our hashtag has grown to have over 48K posts and 500+ followers!! AND the @writer.friends.challenge account has over 400+ followers!

We could not have gotten this far without such a WONDERFUL community of writers particiapting each and every month. With very full hearts we want to say -THANK YOU!!

If you want to learn more about growing on Instagram: Check out the step-by-step Guide to creating the best Instagram Profile that will explode your growth in this blog post.

Things to know:

WIP = Work in Progress

MC = Main Character

Writer’s Rest = Post or take a social media break

*Check each monthly post for special events, unique prompts, and all the details you need to know to have a great Writer Friends Challenge experience.

Look for the monthly calendar on Instagram to join!

Don’t forget the hashtags and keywords on your posts!

Add up to 30 hashtags per post but don’t forget to spell them correctly to show up in the right way! The Keywords are just as important as the hashtags to help your post find your audience.

*A Note about Hashtags - Some say they are less important than they used to be. But Instagram still uses them to determine if your post should be shown to new followers. Even this past month, hashtags have gotten as much as 1000+ Impressions for my posts — that’s a lot of reach! Also people follow hashtags, so keep using them to show up in those groups. Just make sure your hashtags are relevant to your post. Random tags won’t help you. You can use up to 30 but be sure they are genuinely related to the content in your post. That’s why I published the Hashtag Handbook. Get it while it’s free.

Now, none of your posting efforts makes a bit of difference if you don't have a goal for Instagram in mind. If you have read this far then I would say your #1 goal is -- real growth, from real people that you can engage with.

It is important to have a calendar of posts that you can keep up with which doesn’t overhelm your writing schedule. Take a little time at the beginning of the month to plan. Decide if you are posting pictures or graphics. Take some time each week to be thoughtful with your captions. Ask questions in your posts. Tell people what you want them to do when they see your content.

If growing on Instagram is what you are all about then you need to optimize your Instagram Profile for Growth!

What can I do to improve my growth on Instagram?

Remember: You most likely have only one chance at grabbing someone's attention and getting them to follow you! So your Instagram Profile/Bio needs to be in top shape!

That is why I have created the Instagram Bio Checklist For Growth. And you luck ducks can download my pdf for free right here.

Subscribe to my Newsletter Here - for the latest Instagram updates, tips, and strategies to help all writers shine on social media. The launch for my newsletter is coming soon. I have much to share with you.

Let’s connect! Leave me a comment or ask your burning questions about Instagram below. And if you want to get social, come find me at all the links below. Happy writing friends!

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