5 Ways to Engage on Instagram Stories as a Food Blogger

Instagram Stories are one of the best ways for food bloggers to connect with their audience in an authentic, engaging, and interactive way.

With features that encourage two-way communication and real-time interaction, Stories can help build trust, strengthen your community, and drive traffic to your blog or other platforms!

'How to Engage on Instagram Stories as a Food Blogger' Text overlaid on a blue background with an image of an IG profile below

If you’ve been wondering what type of content to share on Stories… we have you covered! So, let’s dive into five ways you can engage on Instagram Stories as a food creator.

1. Share the Behind-the-Scenes of Your Kitchen

A great way to engage on Instagram Stories as a food blogger is to show beyond the finished product —chances are your followers want to see how your recipes comes together! You can share clips of yourself grocery shopping, testing recipes, prepping ingredients, styling food, or even the chaos of cleaning up after a shoot. 

Behind-the-scenes content shows the work that goes into your process and builds connection with your followers, making them feel like part of your creative process.

And don’t shy away from sharing the less-than-perfect moments! Muffins that didn’t properly rise or a dish that burnt make you relatable and human. Plus, these moments create an opportunity for lighthearted engagement.

2. Use Polls, Quizzes, and Sliders to Encourage Interaction

Instagram’s interactive stickers — polls, quizzes, and emoji sliders—are great tools for engagement. They encourage your audience to interact and share their opinions, which not only boosts engagement (which is beneficial for the algorithm) but also helps you learn more about their preferences.

Ways to Use Interactive Stickers as a Food Blogger:

  • Polls: Ask your followers to vote on recipe ideas or meal preferences (e.g., “Would you rather have a vanilla cake or chocolate cake recipe next?”).
  • Quizzes: Share fun food trivia (e.g., “How many minutes should you boil an egg for a soft yolk?”) or have them guess what recipe you’re working on.
  • Emoji Sliders: Gauge how excited your followers are about certain ingredients, dishes, or upcoming content (e.g., “How do you feel about gluten-free recipes?”).

These tools help your audience feel involved in your content creation process and provide valuable feedback that can guide your future posts.

Want to learn more about creating content for social media?

3. Share Recipe Tutorials or Tips

Stories are a great place for quick, bite-sized tutorials that your audience can easily digest. Teach them how to make quick pickled onions, explain the best way to store herbs, or demonstrate how to create the perfect whipped cream.

Examples of Tutorial Ideas for Stories:

  • How to properly season your cast-iron skillet.
  • Simple ways to elevate store-bought pasta sauce.
  • A step-by-step guide to wrapping egg rolls.
  • A rundown of your favorite equipment or tools in the kitchen (consider using affiliate links for this!).

And, make sure to save your tutorials to a “Tips” or “How-To” Highlight so they remain accessible to followers long after the Story expires. Or, save them by recipe title, as shown below!

Instagram story highlights with recipe titles

4. Host a Q&A Session

Another great way to engage on Instagram Stories? Use the question sticker to encourage your audience to ask you anything — whether it’s about food blogging, recipes, kitchen tools, or your personal life. As you answer their questions, you not only engage your followers but also showcase your personality and expertise.

How to Maximize Your Q&A Session:

  • Use captions or text so that followers can still follow along even with the sound off.
  • Use visuals in your responses — photos or videos that add to your answer.
  • Turn popular or frequently asked questions into future content, like blog posts or YouTube videos.

A Q&A is a great way to humanize your brand, strengthen your community, and inspire new content ideas!

Curious about how to use your Instagram account to boost revenue?

5. Promote Your Blog Posts and Content

One of the main goals of using Instagram Stories as a food blogger is to drive traffic to your blog or other platforms (like your newsletter), but it’s important to do this in a way that doesn’t feel overly sales-y. Instead of just sharing a static image of your latest recipe, try to make your Stories interactive and engaging.

Tips to Promote Your Content:

  • Share a short video clip or a carousel showing a step from the recipe.
  • Create a teaser that builds curiosity, like “Can you guess the secret ingredient in this cookie?”
  • Make sure to include links or tell people where to go to find the recipe so they can easily access it.

Instagram Stories are a great way to connect with your audience and showcase your personality as a food blogger. 

By focusing on quality content that is both authentic and helpful, you can foster a loyal community that looks forward to your Stories!

So, which of these strategies will you try first? Let us know in the comments!

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