Finding Your Style and Growing as an Instagram Board Game Content Creator

I’ve been using Instagram for a few years now, mostly to talk about games I’m playing (and occasionally about Stonemaier Games, cats, food, and other topics). However, after 1000 daily posts, I’ve never used the “story” feature. It just seemed odd to spend time posting something that would disappear a day later–I’m all about permanently discoverable content.

But a few days ago, fellow Instagrammer Carley (@gnarlycarleygaming) told me that people often use the story feature as a way of sharing posts from other creators that they want others to know about. She described this as “a low-stakes (but high-impact) way of sharing content you love,” which really hit home for me. It’s like a retweet, but way more visible and way less permanent.

For example, if someone posts a review of Wingspan, I can share it on Instagram by clicking the little paper airplane icon on their post (which I previously thought was a direct message) and then selecting “add post to your story.” To ensure the original poster can see it and that others can easily follow that person, you can click the smiley face at the top of the editing screen, choose @mention, and type in their username. All of this only works on mobile devices.

This eye-opening experience made me realize that there’s so much about Instagram I don’t know, so I asked Carley if she would share some of her Insta-knowledge with you. She generously agreed, and the rest of this article is from Carley.

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In December of 2019, Jamey discussed on the blog the broad approaches that various gaming publishers take on Instagram. But the vast majority of the gaming community on the platform is gamers themselves.

When I found the gaming community on Instagram about a year ago, by somehow coming across Ryan aka @themeeple_among_people, I was in awe of the breadth of the gaming community he engaged with. I messaged him for a while, geeking out about games, and having found so much joy in engaging with a fellow gamer, eventually and with Ryan’s encouragement, I took the leap into making a separate gaming account for myself, one where I could share a bit of my own nerdiness and meet more fellow nerds.

Different Profile Styles

Never wanting to bother people to take photos, I posted sporadically for almost a year, but in December of this past year, with my roommates’ encouragements and camera wielding, I started posting more consistently. On my own account, I choose to share my life alongside games. In posts I describe the day to day gaming adventures of me and my two roommates, Mike and James, but also don’t shy away from the very real happenings of my world from depression, my pets passing away, and job loss to the joy of gaming with my mother, moving into my new home, and turning up to claim what I thought was Scythe the game when a neighbor was actually giving away a very real farm tool I do not know how to wield in the slightest.

I think most of my choice to format my account this way was from a lack of confidence. As a baby insta-gamer, I didn’t feel like I had the voice to share reviews. While wrong (I strongly believe any account of any size can and should contribute to that discussion), I believe, whether consciously or unconsciously, I felt stronger in asserting my own stories and emotions regarding games into the mix, and from this my life laced gaming account was born.

But I am just one style of insta-gamer. Many, and I’d venture to say most, post proper reviews of the games they play, and what sets them apart is their style of doing so. Dan (@boardgamist) largely structures reviews over a series of six posts, highlighting game impression, instruction, interaction, immersion, and innovation individually, followed by a full “Should you buy?” write up. Our accounts are stylistically completely different and both see high engagement in the Instagram board game scheme.

What Makes a Profile Stand Out and Grow?

This got me thinking lately a lot about what makes content creators stand out and grow as names in the community. The community is incredibly welcoming, and I’ve seen so many accounts in the hundreds of followers. But I’ve seen fewer with thousands and find it relatively rare to see accounts above the six thousand or so mark. Certainly being a publisher can boost numbers substantially, but for those voices trying to build a name in the gaming community as a small content creator, what are the best practices to really build an engaged audience?

I think having your own style, first and foremost, helps a great deal. I’ve had the great fortune of running a handful of gaming giveaways on my account, and, for each, I draw eight entries and let Smash Ultimate bots at level 9 battle it out tournament style to decide who ultimately wins. My roommates and I make brackets (so we can also potentially win a mini house contest) and we stream it live on Instagram so folks can enjoy the shenanigans alongside us. Another account chose to do a giveaway in the same style recently, and I had folks messaging me and commenting that it was a very Gnarly Carley thing to do. Letting what makes you happy (like robots fighting in my case) drive your own style and sticking to a format for yourself, lets people get a sense of your individuality and better helps you make a name people think of (when they hear about Smash Ultimate in my case).

But I also think mindfully posting and utilizing various aspects of the Instagram platform can make a huge difference in growth. There are many articles online discussing how Instagram ranks and promotes content, essentially increasing the visibility of all of your content if you post frequently and include the types of content they deem most valuable.

At one point, I went down the rabbit hole of looking into it, and right now reels (short, TikTok-esqe videos) in particular are the most ideal to get the biggest boost in visibility. I know this fact, but I can’t do it myself. I simply don’t have the inspiration or energy to create consistent, engaging, and true to me video content. I’ve posted two whole reels when inspired to do so (based entirely on jokes that naturally came up with my roommates), and why other gamers like @lesjeuxdecece consistently make amazing reels, I just don’t want to. I tried to force myself to come up with something for one, and I felt the Instagram joy fading. Instead, what I turned to was consistent posts and stories that integrate with my personal style and happiness.

My account is my daily adventures in gaming, and so I try to post around the same time each morning about the games me and my squad played the day before, reviewing the game and talking about my life more broadly as feels right to me. When I play at night, I try to post stories of the games as I set them up. This allows for me to enjoy the play without too much distraction, but spawns loads of in the moment engagement.

A massive portion of my engagement is born of stories. With stories, viewers can easily respond with just an emoji or a full message without leaving their screen. I’ll follow up almost always in some way with these messages (even if just a like), and this exchange not only brings the community I was looking for into the picture, but keeps people engaged in the things I share more broadly. Stories additionally provide an easy avenue to share things in my life outside of gaming and to uplift content I love without having to commit a full post to the new Bernie Sanders in mittens miniature I’m obsessed with or the fact that I’m in love with someone’s homemade Everdell upgrades. Stories allow me to share in this way without bogging down followers feeds with too many posts.

But the too many stories issue can be just as big as the too many posts one, dropping engagement and follower numbers if people are bombarded with too much content. I’ve found a healthy balance in posting either a photo or reel once a day at most. Stories have a great benefit of being more easily skipped through, and less viewer draining, but still, I’ve found that limiting stories to 3-5 a day suits my engagement best. People get to share in my adventures, but I don’t overwhelm their story feed with my world, thoughts, or promotions.

In this way, stories also send a refined message of who I am on the platform through limiting content to what I most value sharing. I do make style-driven exceptions to this rule, like the nights I post twenty stories in an hour as I share my live, Blood on the Clocktower game updates, but, because it isn’t an everyday choice and I pour a lot of energy and thoughtfulness into those videos, I find that those stories gain overwhelming engagement despite excessive length.

Through it all I found what typically works for me:

• Really talking and connecting with other gamers: I wouldn’t have grown anywhere close to the account I am today without Ryan’s initial encouragement and promotion or without the ongoing support of various other people along the way like Jamey. And none of it happened by happenstance. In conversation, relationships, the best part of the platform, are born. So talk and enjoy the beautiful we have first and foremost.
• Consistent Posting: For my style, this means posting a picture about my previous day’s gaming once every day or two at around the same time and with effective hashtags to help promote visibility.
• Utilizing the Stories feature: For my style, this means posting on average 2-5 stories each day, sharing things both in my world and things I find interesting or amusing across Instagram and other platforms.
• Utilizing Reels when possible: While I recognize reels as a major platform building opportunity, I rarely use it. But I think it is something that each account trying to build should consider and also echoes my point that…
• Above all else, figure out what truly is your online personality and stick to it: I don’t force myself to make reels. If I need a day away from Instagram mentally, I take it. I keep a general flow to my page that is consistent and feels right to who I am. All of this makes content creation a joy and helps build a name for yourself in the Instagram gaming world.

I also want to recognize that my growth on Instagram was certainly expedited by me being a lady gamer who includes myself in my posts. This was a natural choice born in my profile being my own adventures in life and games. All the same, I believe whole-heartedly that points above have been essential in boosting my own growth. I hardly grew at all as an account until I shifted to this as a general framework.

I recognize that not every account will see the exact same timeline for growth from this model as I did, but I do believe that defining a style that suits you, refining consistency, and seeking meaningful engagement are some of the biggest keys to growth. I don’t feign knowing it all, however, and I’d love to hear from other insta-gamers about what has worked for them in the comments below.

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Thank you so much, Carley, for sharing these insights! I love that Instagram is so friendly to gamers who simply want to share their love of games (or their love of anything) with the world. If you’ve found any tips and tricks on Instagram that might benefit others, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Also read:

• 20 Instagram Strategies and My Recommendations
• Kickstarter Lesson #243: Instagram

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