Episode 602: How to Gain 100k Instagram Followers in 4 Months with Petranka Atanasova

EBT602 – Petranka Atanasova

Supercut  00:00

Hey, food bloggers, check out our new SEO supercut, a bonus 15 minute episode capturing highlights from SEO episodes we have recorded recently. Go to eatblogtalk.com/SEOsupercut to get access today. 

Intro 00:16

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported.

Megan Porta  00:53

We have another Instagram success story to share with you today in this episode that I really hope you’ll be inspired by Petra Atanasova from Sunglow Kitchen, joins me to talk about her huge success, her fast success on Instagram. Within four months, she gained over 100,000 followers. She tells us everything about her strategy when posting reels and getting views. She talks about starting a successful series that people really want to watch, and what the components of that are. She also talks about the mindset shift that she had to make in order to see the growth that she saw. Pretty much everything you need to know about her strategy she talks about in the episode. I hope you really enjoy this. It’s episode number 602 sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:41

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Megan Porta  03:12

Petra is an ex-professional chef turned food blogger and content creator. She shares easy vegan and vegetarian recipes for busy people who are beginners at plant based cooking. Good morning. Petra, how are you today?

Petranka Atanasova  03:25

Good morning. Megan, I’m feeling really great. Really excited to chat with you today. How are you? 

Megan Porta  03:31

I’m good too. This is my first interview of the day. Super excited to chat about Instagram. Sounds like you’re crushing it over there. Before we get into that topic, though, do you have a fun fact to share with us?

Petranka Atanasova  03:44

Yes, I do, and I hope that people will find it fun, but I haven’t finished high school, and I don’t know I feel like it’s not a common thing for people to share, and it’s kind of funny to me, because everyone was like, freaking out when I decided to drop out because of some personal reasons, and everyone around me was like, Oh my God, what’s going on with you? And turns out no one has asked for it since I dropped out restaurants. I’ve had my blog, I’ve worked as a social media manager. I’ve done so many jobs, and it was never a problem. So it’s kind of funny.

Megan Porta  04:27

Yeah, it’s crazy that like, when I feel like, when I went to college, it was just something everyone did, like, you graduated from high school, you graduated from college, and now it’s not like that anymore. I feel like, if my boys were like, I want to, I don’t know, do some unconventional thing and go this crazy path, that would be fine. I wouldn’t care, because I feel like, yeah, it’s just what makes you happy, what’s going to obviously make you money, but what is ultimately going to bring you that joy too, right?

Petranka Atanasova 04:59

Yes, exactly. I don’t know. I just feel like nowadays the possibilities are endless. You can do whatever you want to do. So yeah.

Megan Porta  05:02

I totally agree with that. Well, I love it. Thank you for sharing that. Would you mind also, just giving us a little bit of a background on your food blog?

Petranka Atanasova 05:20

Yes, of course, my blog is in the vegan, vegetarian niche. I started in 2020 when the pandemic hit. I was working as a I was actually working as a chef, then as a baker in a local bakery, and the bakery closed, and I had no job and a little bit of savings, and I was like, You know what? I’ve been wanting to start a blog for so long. I have so much time. I’m gonna start now, and from there, I just kind of didn’t really knew what was doing. Did not know about SEO and keyword research, and I took a few courses and started learning, and eventually, after a few years, I turned it into an income for myself. 

Megan Porta  06:10

So you’re one of those awesome people who really use the pandemic as a launching pad for your blog and business?

Petranka Atanasova 06:18

Yes, yes, exactly. It was, actually, I don’t know, a life changing, I’m sure for all of us, it was life changing, but especially when you start your own business, it was kind of that push I needed to finally start my blog, or otherwise I would have just been like, yeah, maybe someday. But yeah, that’s how I started. And then one year ago, so in September of 2023 my blog was hit by an algorithm update from Google, and I lost, I don’t know, like, 50% of my traffic, or something like that. Yes, it was crazy, and everything I’ve worked so hard for was just gone, and that’s when I decided that I needed another source of income, and that’s when I decided I was going to get serious with Instagram, because I’ve had a few people around me that have had some great results by being consistent and having a strategy. And I was just like, you know, that’s what I’m gonna focus on. And I’m really grateful that with the right strategy and the right mindset, I can now say that it’s a source of income for me.

Megan Porta  07:36

I can’t wait to learn about this, and I just want to say so I hear so many stories of people who were just crushed by either covid or the HCU or another Google algorithm or update or whatever. But so many good stories have come out of that too. People are inspired to do new things and pivot and try totally new ventures in their businesses, and it’s super inspiring. So I love that you were just like, Okay, I lost my traffic, but I’m going to find something else to work. And you made it work. So we’re super happy to learn from you today. So it was September 2023, when you just decided to dig into Instagram on a whole new level, right? 

Petranka Atanasova  08:22

It was actually the beginning of this year, 2024 it was in January. I had less than 2000 followers, and my goal was to have 100,000 followers by the end of the year, and I actually reached that in just four months, because that’s how powerful having the right strategy is and being consistent with it.

Megan Porta  08:45

That is so great. Congratulations. That’s such a huge accomplishment. So tell us what you did. What was your strategy, 

Petranka Atanasova  08:52

Of course. So just to say that first, your strategy will depend on a lot of things, on your target audience, on your niche, but I found something that works for me, and I’m not saying that it’s gonna work for you, because everyone is different, but what worked for me was to have a consistent posting schedule that I was gonna stick with. I know everyone is saying you need to post five times a day, you need to post every day. But I’ve actually tried that and it didn’t work. It was just burning me out. And so I was like, Okay, I’m gonna find something that works for me, for me, that was three times a week, and I’m gonna stick with it no matter what. Of course, I took a few breaks here and there. I even now drop to two times a week, because I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed. I’m also working on, hopefully a cookbook, yeah, but I feel like it’s so common to hear that you need to post every single day. That’s just not true anymore, because there is so much content, people are overwhelmed with everything. What you need is just high quality content posted consistently. Okay, that was the first part of my strategy. And then what I did, something very smart, was have a really successful recipe series that combined three really important things. I had a strong hook. It was visually appealing, and I provided value for people. And I’m gonna go and break them down even further, but that’s pretty much these three things, combined with posting consistently, combined with having a recipe series, is what made my account blow up.

Megan Porta  10:40

Oh, that’s awesome. So with your series, is, is it something that you do just on repeat? So you’ll do a series, complete it, and then start another you do you post anything outside of series? 

Petranka Atanasova  10:52

Yes, I actually it’s kind of like a never ending series, because I don’t really have episodes. I don’t really keep track of it, and I it’s just so successful for me that I don’t really see the need to ever end it honestly. But I do post other things outside of that. I try to post at least once a week from my series, because it’s usually the one thing that goes viral, and I that’s what I would recommend, is to start a series and then try to post at least once a week. That would be like three to four videos a month. And so what I did with my series, this wasn’t, I have to say, an original idea. I feel like nothing is original nowadays. I was seeing all of these people marketing themselves. So because they worked as chefs, they were doing videos like, what is as a chef, or what I cook for my clients, or things I learned as a chef. And I was like, Okay, I’m gonna take this and make give it my own spin and start a series about what you eat as a professional chef after work. Because people really I feel like people are not that interested about what elaborate meal I’ve made my specific audience, in my niche, they want quick, easy meals they can cook after work that are accessible and don’t require just a ton of dishes. And something very smart that I decided to do, I was seeing other comments on other people’s videos, and everyone in the comments was saying, How can you say that you cook this after work, but you start chopping an onion, right? And people are saying, I cannot chop 10 veggies if I am tired after work. And so I was like, Okay, people hate chopping so no chop recipe series, and I’m gonna tie it with my professional chef background, and I’m gonna make so it was like these combined series where it was like professional chef worried after work, and no chopping. Okay, it had these two I feel like very powerful things to draw the viewers in. And that was pretty much the beginning.

Megan Porta  13:20

Wow. So really, it just took you tuning in to what people were saying to you in the comments and otherwise, and just piecing those things together?

Petranka Atanasova 13:20

Exactly. It wasn’t even my comment section, but I was looking at people who were in the same in the similar niche, and what people were commenting on their posts, and I realized no one really was doing no chopping. And for me, it was a like, like, a no brainer, because, of course, I don’t want to chop so many things if I’m super tired, I just want to throw everything together and call it a night. But let’s talk about the three things that I did, that I mentioned earlier, that are part of the strategy. The first was a strong hook. Okay, so why this hook works so well? I’m a professional chef. When people hear that, I’m immediately establishing authority and telling them why they should listen to me. And you can put your own spin on that. You don’t even need to be a chef to do it, but think about something that you’re really good at. Maybe you’ve been a recipe tester for 10 years. Maybe you have a cookbook. Maybe you work as, I don’t know, personal chef. You don’t need to work in a kitchen. Some people work by cooking for other people, and they market themselves as personal chefs. So think about what quality that you have that is gonna establish authority. And I feel like when you start your video this way, of course, it isn’t magic formula, but it works for me. Every single time. And actually, my least watched video from the series has 100,000 views, so I feel like it works pretty well.

Megan Porta  15:12

Yeah, that’s really great that that one line pulls people in. So for food bloggers, it could be, I mean, I’ve created 2000 recipes, or I’ve developed 2000 recipe or, you know, like something, just to establish that they know what they’re doing, they know what they’re talking about, they know their food well. And just to maybe experiment with that and see what works for a hook.

Petranka Atanasova  15:33

Yes, exactly. And I feel like you can even lead with this recipe has that many five star reviews. So you’re again establishing some kind of authority. But I feel like even if you can think of something that will establish authority, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. The other thing is to start with some kind of story. Okay, there is this really, really cool food blogger on Instagram. I’ve got, I forgot her name, but she was an ex-nun, and she did a series all about what it was like being an ex-nun, and the series went viral. And it was so interesting first, because it was something unexpected, second, because she was providing some kind of personality. All right, people love personality. That’s what’s gonna drive them to follow you. I feel like lately, especially with some of my videos going viral, I’ve learned how important that is, because I have a video that has over 20 million views, but it had no personality in it. It was just the recipe. I wasn’t even in it. And people did not really follow me for from that video, which I mean 20 million views is a lot of views, and a lot of people should follow you from that, but because it had no personality, people didn’t know who they were following. So the best way to make people engage with you, to make people later want to buy your cookbook, buy your product, is to show your personality as much as you can, and do it in a fun way, even if you don’t have followers, just fake it till you make it. Another thing about the hook is, if you can’t really think of anything, is to think of what are the strengths of a recipe? So maybe it was made with three ingredients, or maybe it requires 10 minutes to prep, or maybe it’s great for meal prep, and it will save someone tons of time. I feel like thinking in that in that way, what are the strengths of the recipe? And something else that I’ve noticed that is getting really popular is starting with the hook. Did you know so especially if you can make something that people can’t predict? So I had this video where it was like, did you know that if you beat the liquid from a can of chickpeas, it turns into this fluffy mixture, and at the end, I was making chocolate mousse. But people had no idea that beating a can of chick the liquid from a can of chickpeas will result in a chocolate mousse. And so that had, I think, like half a million views. So yeah, I just said a lot of things there. 

Megan Porta  18:26

Yeah, no, that’s so good. It gives us so many things to think about. The hook. I think we’re learning as we get more and more into Instagram this year, is that you need a really good hook. So thank you for helping us think through a few different ways to do that. Anything else about the hook before we move on to your next point?

Petranka Atanasova 18:45

Something else that I often do is to try to steal other people’s hooks. Of course, you always have to put your own spin in it and just copy without steal, without copying, I won’t say so just giving getting this idea from someone and then putting your own spin on it. I’m always on the lookout of what my competition is doing, and if I notice that something is going viral for someone, I will try to analyze the video. Okay, I can give this example where a colleague of mine. Her name on Instagram is @avocadoskillet. She started doing these cottage cheese ice cream recipes, and I just realized that they were going viral for her. And I was like, Okay, I’m gonna put my own spin in it, and, of course, tag her in the description, give her the credit that she deserves, but yeah, it ended up going viral for me, and I feel like you’re should always be on the lookout of what a competition is doing, and always giving credit where it’s appropriate, of course, not directly copying, but getting what you can. Putting your personality behind it.

Megan Porta  20:02

I feel like it’s the same as when you’re inspired by somebody’s blog post or recipe, and you just give them a nod, like, Okay, I was inspired by this. Here’s what I created based on that. It’s kind of the same thing. Yes, exactly. Okay, awesome. And then you mentioned too that one of your points that you made sure to cover in each reel was that it was visually appealing. Can you talk about that?

Petranka Atanasova 20:23

Yes. So I always start my videos with some kind of movement. Usually my go to is twirling the dish or the pot into the scene. So it’s kind of hard to explain, but if you go to my videos and scroll, you can see that this is a potter. So I have this Dutch oven that people really like, and it’s very esthetic, and I would just twirl it, twirl it into the frame, and it just creates some kind of movement without really having to show myself if I don’t want to be shown at that exact moment. Or another thing you can do is to maybe start from the beginning of the recipe and start by, let’s say, chopping a big head of cauliflower. I feel like that always works so well. I don’t really start my videos with me talking to the camera, because I find it kind of boring. And even if I started talking, I would put like an overlay over me talking. So for example, I would talk for two seconds, and then I would put like something. I had this video for crispy tofu, and I was talking, and over that, I put the tofu into a bowl, and I dipped it into some barbecue sauce. So always thinking of how to add movement to your videos, and I feel like one of the hardest things for people, what keeps them from not making videos is that they don’t have an esthetic kitchen. But I actually heard this from another podcast, and really took it to heart that whatever you think is your biggest setback, make that part of your personality. And I’ve really just taken that to heart that you don’t really need to have an esthetic home, esthetic kitchen, because I feel like nowadays people just want to relate to you, especially on TikTok. I feel like TikTok is less curated. Things are not really esthetic there at all, and if you can just show them inside your home and like invite them, I feel like that’s another great thing to do when we talk about visual appeal.

Megan Porta  22:41

I was gonna say the thing that seems to be trending right now is just that kind of, I don’t know something that just provokes curiosity or like something kind of weird. I don’t know just something really different with food that is immediately put in your face, like a cheese pull or a spoon bringing a cheesy bite of something out of a dish, or something like that. But I think, do you agree that it has to happen immediately just to pull people in? 

Petranka Atanasova  23:07

I think so, yeah. I mean, even if it’s like, not big, not that big of a movement, something needs to be happening. And you don’t want to just stay there and talk to the camera, you know, because the moment I see someone standing and talking and being like, Hi, my name is Petra today, we’re making a double chocolate. I’m just crawling away. 

Megan Porta  23:32

Yeah, I totally hear you. I think it used to be different, but now you’ve got just a few seconds to pull people in. So do your best.

Petranka Atanasova  23:41

Actually, you’ve got, I think Instagram said it’s three seconds to pull people, people in. And so for that, you need to combine all of these three things that I just said, strong hook, visual and some kind of value. And if you combine them, people are just going to watch your videos.

Megan Porta  23:59

Yep, totally agree. And then do you recommend people just like, if something isn’t working, if people are like, Okay, this is whatever I’m doing with my reels is not working right now. How do you recommend they find what works? Just keep experimenting over and over and over.

Petranka Atanasova 24:15

So I would say to look at your competitors and what they’re doing. And as I said before, don’t copy them, but take what you can and make it your own. As I said, the professional chef series, it wasn’t really my original idea. I got it from a few other people who are doing something similar, but I feel like it’s really important to keep an eye on, what are the trends. You don’t want to just do trends, of course, but keep an eye on, what are the trends? What are other people doing? How are they starting their videos? What are they saying? What is the lighting even? We’re gonna talk about captions later. But where are the captions positioned? Stuff like that, just, I feel like everything is in the details that. Send the details right? And it’s kind of like a combination of things. Of course, you don’t, you don’t only need you can have the best hook in the world, but if the visual sucks, no one’s gonna watch it. And the opposite. So of course, keep experimenting. That’s actually one of my points, but you brought it up, so I’m gonna talk about it. I feel like how I approached this year was like, I am gonna just experiment with with, like, different cooks, different style videos, and then I’m gonna see what sticks, and I’m gonna duplicate that and do it again and again and again. So yeah, those are my tips. 

Megan Porta  25:41

Okay, that’s great. And then you also mentioned you have to add value, right? That’s a huge piece of it as well?

Petranka Atanasova 25:48

Yes, but I feel like a common misconception that is that as long as you provide value, people are gonna watch it. But that’s not the case anymore. You need to provide value in a way that’s fun, that’s digestible, that’s easy to understand, because you need to remember that people are there to just scroll and have fun. They kind of look for escape. They don’t want to just have this heavy information that they have to remember. You need to do it in a way that you know, like a six year old can understand you honestly and just simplify as much as you can, even if you’re showing something more difficult to make, I don’t know, some kind of baked good. It’s good even if you you don’t have to, like, say, all of the ingredients and all of the steps you can just skip and show the fun parts. Show the part, the parts that are more important and that are esthetically pleasing, that would draw the viewer in, because I’ve had videos where I would say, and then we had the flower and the cornstarch and the salt sugar, and it’s just, it just gets overwhelming at some point, and people, they won’t really remember that. So, yes, digestible value. I feel like it’s one of the biggest things. And if you can add some humor into it, I’ve actually noticed that one of the biggest account, accounts always have some kind of, I don’t know, like, maybe they say a phrase in a certain way that is funny, or they have something that that just is unique to them, and kind of breaks the ice so it’s not as dry and only like informative.

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Megan Porta  27:39

If somebody is intrigued by starting a series but they don’t know what topic to focus on at first, what do you recommend for them? 

Petranka Atanasova  29:17

Oh, yeah, that’s a great question. So I would actually recommend to this will really depend on your strategy, and that’s where I can come to help, but I’m gonna talk about that later. What you can do is look at your most popular posts on your blog and try to get a pattern like, Do people really like tofu recipes from you? Or do they like baked goods? Or maybe they like more quick and simple meals? I’ve had a client of mine that I did I developed a strategy for and she was like, she’s in the Italian food niche. She was like, I my most popular blog posts are the ones. Where it’s kind of time consuming and people want to make things from scratch. And for her, I recommended that she has a recipe series around that. So I feel like that’s a really great place to start. Another thing is, as I said, if you have some kind of authority, you’ve been a chef, a baker, make a series about your what you eat, about your life, about how you maybe, how you approach developing recipes, or maybe show people behind the scenes of what it’s like being a recipe creator. So it really depends on your strategy, but I would say that you can start there.

Megan Porta  30:39

Okay, I like that. So it doesn’t have to be the long, complicated recipe. You can really simplify, actually, like, pull yourself back a little bit and just, you know, talk about, like, the bigger concepts that you believe in, or the prepping, or some other element of making food,

Petranka Atanasova 30:57

yes, and I feel like always you have to keep it seasonal. So if it’s summer, maybe start a recipe series around that. Because, I mean, that’s obvious. I don’t even need to explain it, but yeah, I feel like it also depends on your niche and your target audience, and just putting yourself in their shoes and what they want to see from you. That’s kind of how I approached my strategy. 

Megan Porta  31:25

Okay, and you mentioned captions earlier. Do you have any recommendations about how to put captions together?

Petranka Atanasova 31:30

Yes, I do them in CapCut. I think that’s the best way to do them. I don’t really recommend doing them on the Instagram, because for me, I live in Europe, so they’re not available. But even if they are, I feel like you have more control and more versatility on CapCut, and I would always suggest if your captions can move in some way, or maybe they can, if you can show them one word at a time, so it’s not like you know, the whole sentence is is revealed before you say it, but just as you’re speaking the words, the words are revealing itself themselves on the video. So if they can be, if they can have some kind of movement, that would be best. I would also recommend that they need to be small and preferably in the middle of your screen, and you don’t want your captions to take the whole video, right? You want people to be able to see clearly. I actually make mine pretty small. I used to make them bigger because that was something that I was experimenting with, and I feel like since I started making them smaller, I’ve gotten better results. 

Megan Porta  32:42

Okay, interesting. And then do you experiment with fonts too? Is there a certain font that works well for you? I found that that definitely is the case for me. People just like certain fonts from your account. Do you find that too?

Petranka Atanasova  32:56

Actually, I’ve tried. I decided to stick with a simpler font. You want it to be easy to read, and I feel like it really doesn’t matter that much, as long as it’s, yeah, as I said, easy to read. It’s fine, whatever you choose. And

Megan Porta  33:10

then descriptions. Do you have thoughts on descriptions? And maybe hashtags?

33:16

Yes, hashtags are dead, and I haven’t used a single hashtag like since I started this new strategy. You don’t really need them because no no nowadays is searching for hashtags and clicking on hashtags. So just don’t waste your time with them and for descriptions, I would try to this is where the SEO kind of comes in. You kind of wanna put some keywords in there. So, like, think of what are the most common words that, let’s say you’re making a lasagna recipe, you would need to have like lasagna sheets and bolognese sauce and bechamel. It’s like a very basic SEO, but I really do recommend putting some keywords in there, and even better, if you can put some additional value in the description, so that people would want to read it, not just paragraphs of you explaining about the recipe, but maybe a certain tip that you didn’t mention in your video because you wanted to keep it short. So I feel like always trying to bring value and keeping keywords in mind. 

Megan Porta  34:31

Okay, that’s a great recommendation. And then I was gonna ask you so mindset wise, because you grew really fast, is there anything you had to do with your mindset to just kind of align with this growth?

34:45

Yeah, I feel like a lot of a lot of things happened with my mindset over the past couple of months. I would say that at first I really was focused on finding what worked and duplicating it. And so I would just look for patterns in my videos. And I was always, like, kind of very oriented towards views and how much views this is getting and how, how many likes. But lately, I’ve kind of switched my mindset around that, and it’s how many people are, how many people I have provided value for, and how many people have said that they have made the recipe or gave me some feedback, and just I feel like it’s really easy to get caught up in the views, right? And being did this being the biggest determinator whether you’re doing good, but I feel like you need to have some personality in your videos and to engage with people in a more like to show them that you’re human and you’re just like them. And I feel like where my mindset has shift is going from being views oriented to being personality oriented and just trying to connect with people. And even if I have a video that doesn’t do as well, I can still find, if I can still find a way that it improved someone’s life. Maybe someone made the recipe. I consider that a win. 

Megan Porta  36:25

I love this so much. It also gives you permission to take your mind off the numbers, and that can be such an obsessive thing, at least for me. So when you do that, you’re just focusing on what value have I added? And that is a whole different perspective than how many people, how many followers, followers do I have, or how many people did this real reach? Etc.

Petranka Atanasova  36:49

Yes, exactly. And I feel like with my mind before, which was all about views, I was kind of burning out, because I was always chasing, like, what will get me? 10 million views, 5 million views, but after a few of my videos went viral, as I mentioned, I realized that I can make a viral video, but that doesn’t mean that people will be engaged with me, and I feel like that’s way more important than just your follower count is how many people are making a recipe? How many people, when your website goes down, how many people will come and ask you, like, Hey, is everything okay? Because that happened to me, and that’s how I knew that some people were really engaged with what I I’m doing. So yeah, definitely I feel I was close to burnout when I was always thinking about views. And if you’re starring right now, I would suggest to Yes, look at the views, because that’s that’s kind of will be your marker for how things are going. But once you have a formula, and once you have established series and unestablished strategy, just try to switch our focus from views to personality and value and how people are engaging with you.

Megan Porta  38:09

I love that a lot. Do you have any tips for people who just have a hard time staying consistent on social media? You mentioned earlier that consistency was one of your kind of key, key components to success. How do we stay consistent with it?

Petranka Atanasova  38:26

Yes, that’s a great question. Actually, I feel like one of the biggest reasons why I stayed consistent was because my schedule worked for me, not against me, and before, I would just plan my content and now just do just an amount of content that wasn’t really realistic for me. And I feel like you have to be really honest with yourself with what you can stick to. And for me, that was three times a week. I actually I mentioned that I’m now going down to two times a week. I feel like two times a week is kind of the minimum you need to be doing. Because, you know, posting one video a week is kind of a bit too little, but just having something that works with you and all, of course, that’s not something new, but filming your content in batches, so batch filming, I actually have one day of the week right now. It’s Friday where I film all of my content, and I will try to pick recipes that don’t take, like, hours and hours to make that I know I can get down. I can get down within a few hours, and I feel like just being realistic with yourself. And if you can do some elaborate recipe that has 100 steps, that’s fine. I really, I feel like one of the rest the recipes that do best for me are the simplest ones that have fewer ingredients. So yeah, just finding what works for you. And even if that’s posting two times a week, that’s fine. And

Megan Porta  40:04

when you say posting two times a week, can you post any time during the week, or do you try to stay consistent with the day and the time?

Petranka Atanasova  40:13

So you can go into Instagram and in your analytics, I think I’m not exactly sure where it was, but somewhere in your Analytics, you can check what’s the best time to post based on your niche and your target audience. And so for me, it’s 6pm which is not surprising, because that’s when people finish work, and everyone’s on their phone, maybe on the metro, on the bus, or, like, driving somewhere, of course, for driving, you’re not on your phone, but you get what I mean, you’re having your commute. And I feel like going into your own analytics, you can learn a lot, and that’s pretty much how I decided on which time to post. I feel like that’s not really that important. If you take one thing from this, if you take away one thing, let it be that it’s all about the quality of your content. If your content isn’t good and isn’t resonating with people whatever time you post, even if you post five times a day at this precise, exact time, it’s not gonna stick. And so it’s good to be consistent with your time. But even if I sometimes get busy and can post at a certain hour, I post it later, and it’s still fine. So yeah.

Megan Porta  41:35

I so strongly believe that network, your network, is so important in finding any success, whether it’s on Instagram or somewhere else in your blogging world. Do you agree with that, and do you have any experience with just having the right people in your world that kind of helps you to find success?

Petranka Atanasova  41:54

Yes, I absolutely agree. One of my best friends actually is the reason why I started my account, because she grew her account in a matter of months, and she was kind of showing me that it was possible. And I feel like surrounding yourself with the right people is so important, even if it’s keeping things purely like business wise, if you can find someone who can give you feedback on your content, who kind of knows what they’re doing in terms of like marketing and video content, and someone who will help offer you feedback or advice. I’m actually open to if anyone wants to send me a video and wants me to give them feedback, I would love to do that, but I feel like for me, the key things, the key thing in my success was having that group of people that I can always send my videos to, and being like, Hey guys, I just made this video. Let me know what they think, and almost always, they’ll give me some kind of suggestion on how to improve it, that I’m like, How did I not think of that? And also, I feel like mindset wise, it’s so important, because I feel like it’s easy when you’re doing something and you’re not seeing results. It’s easy to get caught up in your head, but it’s super important to have someone to remind you why you’re doing it, and help offer you some courage, encouraging words and some feedback. So yeah, I feel like I would have not be what I’m what I am right now without my group of friends.

Megan Porta  43:35

I think that is so important, and it’s something that is so underestimated. So I’m really glad that you had this point here it, you really can accelerate your success so greatly in your business and in specific projects within your business, if you have support, and just like, not just support, but people who really believe in you and can share value with you, I think This is, yeah, like I said, so underrated and so important,

44:03

yes, and I feel like even more, if, like the people who are in your circle, if they can have some kind of knowledge about what you’re trying to achieve. Because if I show my video, video to my boyfriend, he’s always like, oh my god, it’s so good. Post it my friends who kind of you know, they know about hooks, about video content, and they were like, offer me some kind of advice. And it isn’t always positive, but at least I can count on someone who will give me true feedback, and that that can be even on like Facebook group groups, if you can’t find a circle around your people around you who do the same things. Think I actually when I started my blog. So I live in Bulgaria, and no one here. I mean not no one, but I don’t know if any. People who have food blogs, and finding that community online and asking for people for feedback on my blog, on my post, was very valuable. And yeah. 

Megan Porta  45:12

That is so important. This has been so great. I think that you’ve put together such a good strategy and some mindset, things for us to think through and some tips. Is there anything we’ve forgotten Petra before we start saying goodbye?

Petranka Atanasova  45:24

Yeah, I have a few things to mention. One of them is to, I think people have said it before, but I’m gonna say it again, is to always keep the angle of your video changing so you don’t want to have the same angle for too long, because that’s gonna get people to be bored, right? Ideally, I would try to change the angle every three or so shots, just keeping the movement in. Even if you can, it’s best if you can show yourself like one angle is putting something in the bowl, and the next angle is you mixing it or something like that. I feel like showing yourself is still so important, because anyone could do videos without any personality and get them to go viral. As I said, what gets you engaged followers is how what you bring to the table. So just showing yourself, even if you don’t feel like you want to be in the entire video. Have at least a few shots where you’re tasting the food or you’re just giving it some sign of approval, that would be great. And another thing is to keep your clips short out. Usually do maximum a second, even less point five to point eight of a second is where I like to be. Like, if you’re slicing something, you need to cut the move the shot, just so that it’s the movement of the knife. Okay, you don’t want to get like, you picking up the knife and then slicing into that thing and then dropping the knife and stuff like that. You want to just get that clean movement and be as just make your videos as fast as possible. They don’t need to be like overly fast so that they’re overwhelming and people don’t know what they’re doing. But I’ve really found that that’s what keeps people attention?

Megan Porta  47:22

I love it. Thank you for all of this. We really appreciate everything you’ve shared today, and congratulations on your success again. So inspiring. Thank you for joining us on the podcast. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with? Petra, yes,

Petranka Atanasova  47:37

I do. My favorite quote is as you walk the path appears, because I feel like you don’t really need to have it all figured out from the beginning. You can figure it out along the way, and as you walk the path appears, you don’t have to overthink it.

Megan Porta  47:56

I love that. We’ll put together a show notes page for you if you want to go look at those. Head to eatblogtalk.com/sunglowkitchen Petra, tell everyone where they can find you. And then I know you have an offer you want to talk about, so go ahead and share that too. 

Petranka Atanasova  48:11

Yes, you can find me on Instagram at Sunglow Kitchen, dot Sunglow Kitchen, and my blog is Sunglowkitchen.com but you can DM me on Instagram if you need and you want to review your video or give you any tips. I’m actually doing this for clients now, so if you feel really overwhelmed, you don’t know where to start. You want to focus on your blog and don’t want to put all of the work into creating a strategy. I can do that for you. Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected], and actually, for your listeners, I want to give a 20% discount because I love your podcast so much. You like there are a lot of people who benefit from that. So yeah, if you’re looking for a strategy, send me a DM.

Megan Porta  49:02

Awesome. Well, I hope people take you up on that, and thank you for providing that discount that’s super generous. And again, thank you so much for this conversation, Petra, and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time.

Outro  49:17

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk, please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time you.