This is my first guest blog and I have a very special guest – Keelie from @keelies.journey. I’ve followed Keelie since the early days of her account and absolutely love her content.

Keelie is a 27-year old, Science Teacher but still manages to find the time to take photos, post and engage on social alongside her full-time job. Want to know her tips? Read my interview with Keelie below.

ABBIE J CREATIVE X KEELIES.JOURNEY

A: Firstly, I absolutely LOVE your feed, it is so beautiful and I’ve loved seeing your house glow up! How and when did you first start your @keelies.journey account?

K: I first started my account whilst at uni to log my weight loss with WW (weight watchers)! However over the years I have shared more and more of my life with instagram and now my favourite thing to do is share the renovation of mine and my partners first home!

A: What was your niche when you first started?

K: When I first started all I posted was food!

A: How would you describe your account now?

K: I shared so much over the years and it really has transformed into my personal blog, I love sharing all things travel, style and my fav at the minute home decor.

A: You’ve got a really impressive 64k followers that has been rapidly growing! When did you feel your account really grew?

K:I think it really started to grow a year after having the account, people would follow me to feel inspired with all things WW and food. However since I’ve started sharing updates on my first home my engagement has gone up! I’ve found during lockdown my account grew as well, maybe because people were spending lots more time doing up their homes?

A: Consistently posting, engaging and going back to your comments and DMs can be very time consuming, how do you manage your time with a full-time job?

K: I fit in the time whenever I can! In the mornings before work and in the evenings. It is so important to make sure you are engaging with similar accounts too – that really helps with your engagement. I have found it a lot easier whilst in lockdown just because of the increase in spare time.

A: Yes 100%! Do you use any scheduling tools to help with posting?

K: As I post lots of home content I always take a bank of pictures when the rooms are clean haha! Just different angles and a few things moved around – trust me my house isn’t always that tidy haha! I do also use Planoly which is fab to plan out your content and to know what pictures look good where.

A: Such a good tip on batching content by taking lots of photos! Your feed has such a beautiful colour palette! How do you edit your photos?

K: I edit my photos with Lightroom! It’s such a fab app and it’s free. I started off by buying some presets online to make sure my photos looked consistent but I’ve actually created my own home preset now which I use on the majority of my posts!

A: I absolutely LOVE Lightroom, can’t believe it’s free! What are the 3 apps you would recommend for people to use with Instagram?

K: Planoly, Lightroom and caption writer! Especially Lightroom!

A: They are great! When looking at the type of accounts you interact with, what are your favourite types of accounts? What makes you hit that follow button?

K: I love accounts that have a great feed! I’m a sucker for a cute colour palette and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I tend to follow a mixture of home and lifestyle accounts.

A: Me too, I love a beautiful feed. I speak to a lot of people on building a brand online, but what would you recommend to anyone who is wanting to build a following on Instagram?

K: Figure out what you want to post, take clear photos, use a preset so your feed looks consistent and ENGAGE with similar accounts. It doesn’t cost to like/comment on others Also share the accounts you love on your stories as sometimes they will share you back!

A: Such great tips, engagement is so so key. What would you say is your favourite thing about Instagram?

K: I love the positivity on instagram, the encouragement and the online friends you can make!

A: Love this, and in the name of sharing the love, let us know 3 of your favourite accounts at the moment!

K: So hard to pick 3 as I love so so many but it’s going to have to be my bestie @lifebyjoanna we’ve been posting together for years!

I love @all_things_interior_ – her house is GORGEOUS and @the.home.affair Katie is so fab and so supportive! Her home is boho/scandi heaven.

A: Great! And finally, what’s next for @keelies.journey?

K: More home inspo and hopefully some travel in the future!

A: Thank you so much!

If you’d like to hear more from Keelie or lust over her beautiful interiors head over to her Instagram @keelies.journey.

Until next time…

Abbie

xxx