An Attitude of Gratitude on Instagram

Gratitude is infectious so today I am sharing six ways you can show an attitude of gratitude on Instagram.

When you are grateful, you are focused on the positives in your life and not the negatives. Focusing on the positives in life allows you to embrace simple happiness, which is something we all need more of!  

Let’s face it. Social media can be brutal. Sadly it is pretty cutthroat in some communities. But what about the home decor community? Not even close. The home decor community does an incredible job showing gratitude on Instagram every day. And there a few things you can do every day to help make it even better.

I have only been on Instagram in this community for sixteen months, yet the entire time I have been here the people have been amazing. They are kind, helpful and very willing to help one another. How great is that?

Today I wanted to share what I think are six of the best ways you can show more gratitude on Instagram. They are all easy things you can do and hopefully if you do them all of the time they can become a habit!

Like the Posts You See

This may sound basic but if you are looking at a post, why not take one second to click the LIKES button? It takes no time at all and sometimes I think we underestimate how important LIKES are to the person that wrote the post. It takes time to create a post, and by liking it you are showing the person they did a good job! If it happens to be a sponsored post, you are helping them even more.

Currently, I LIKE about 99% of the posts I see. It is such a nice gesture and why shouldn’t I? The only ones I don’t like are political posts. I am not a fan of political posts on Instagram. Sorry!

Comment on as Many Posts as You Can

Just as in likes, comments are huge! There are so many women on Instagram that I consider really close friends. (And of course, we haven’t even met.) In almost every case, these relationships started with just one comment. When I first started out, I found so many home decor accounts that I loved and gave me daily inspiration. I followed them all and started commenting a lot. Every picture they posted was amazing! In no time, I got to know these ladies and I still smile every day when I see their daily posts!

Turn on Post Notifications

If you aren’t using the Turn on Posts Notifications then you need to start today. With the algorithm that Instagram started about a year ago, you never know which posts you are going to see. With the Turn on Posts Notification, you can make sure you see the posts you want! 

If you turn on a post and/or story notification you will receive a notification when that person adds a post and/or story to their Instagram account. To set this up, just open up their profile page and click on the three buttons at the top right.

Next, from the menu click on Turn on Post Notifications and/or Turn on Story Notifications.

I already have both notifications turned on for my friend Sarah @dreamingofhomemaking, but you get the idea! If you have any accounts that you don’t want to miss then be sure to Turn on your Notifications. (And feel free to do this to mine. Haha.) Here is a blog post I wrote earlier this year with more information on turning on Post Notifications.

Share Others (including new accounts)

I love sharing other Instagram accounts. And just so you know, they often do better than my own photos. How awesome is that! There are so many talented people on Instagram and why not share a few people on your account every week? Early on I shared other accounts not only on Instagram but on my blog every week. Check out when I shared Cottonstem on my blog over a year ago! So many people shared my feed when I first started on Instagram that I want to return the favor.

So why can’t you do this every week? It’s fun to do and it is the perfect thing to do to help your friends grow. 

I am going to start sharing newer accounts because that’s what really gave me a boost. So watch out for those weekly posts on my Instagram stories!

Answer Comments

Last summer my youngest son gave me a hard time about spending so much time on my phone and Instagram. When he found out that I was spending all of my time answering comments he told me I was crazy. I think this might be the only time we strongly disagreed on something! I honestly believe that if someone is going to take the time to comment on my account then the least I can do is comment back! As my account has grown it is almost impossible for me to respond on every comment. But I try hard to respond to at least the comments that come in on the first day of a post.

I think responding to comments is one of my favorite things to do on Instagram. There are so many nice people who have so many insights and I love having conversations with them. I think we all need to respond to as many comments as we can. Of course, I don’t have young kids at home so I definitely have more available time. Just do the best you can.

Support Collaborations

Many of you have already read my post “Can We Talk About the Elephant in the Room?“. I explained why I work with brands and how these partnerships allow me to be a full-time blogger and Instagrammer. 

When you see a post marked #ad or #sponsored it means the author is getting compensated for endorsing a brand. This is not a bad thing. It’s an amazing opportunity for that blogger to share something they believe in! Sponsored ads are a way for bloggers to be compensated for all of the time they spend on their blog and Instagram. You may not be aware that when you like and comment on these posts, the engagement is closely watched by the brands. And engagement has a huge bearing on whether or not future collaborations are booked.

I didn’t write this post so you can get more followers. I wrote it because I love the decor community on Instagram and I think we all can help it grow. Showing gratitude in this community will only make it better. But you should know that if start to do all of these things regularly, you will actually grow your account. Any time you interact with an account they notice you. And in a lot of cases, they will click on your account to see who you are. This kind of interaction builds our community in a really wonderful way!