Embracing social media, but just for fun

1/19/2025

I've been having fun with social media lately. It is not my intention to be an influencer or to monetize my social media, but I do take satisfaction in reaching people interested in hiking.

Facebook

For a few years, my Facebook feed has been filled with hiking posts. I'll occasionally post other things going on in my life, but most of my friends and family think that all I do is hike, which isn't a bad message to send. Facebook is a good place to include a modest amount of pictures with some storytelling targeting friends and family. I like to caption each picture. I do not intent to add strangers as Facebook friends, so I've taken to other venues to reach a broader audience.

Wix Blog

For over a year, I've been building out my blog, but since you are here, you already know that it exists. I use my blog for the more detailed textual description of my hikes, but pictures always play a key role in storytelling.

I have not publicized my blog very well, mostly because I have only been using the free version of Wix. I have a few work friends that read my blog, which I prefer over being Facebook friends with the "boss" from work. I may invest in the Wix premium version to leverage the marketing features, but that is not a priority at this time. I occasionally drop a link to my blog in my Facebook feed, but the subset of Facebook friends that are also hikers is quite small. A nice feature of Wix is that I get an alert when someone visits the site. It is anonymous, but it gives the location of the visitor.

Instagram

A couple months ago, a few of my hiking friends encouraged me to post on Instagram. I've opted to use Reels, since this format lends well to videos, and it can reach a wider audience, particularly when tags are used. I started out with the handful of videos that I took during previous hikes. However, now that I know that I'll be making videos, I have been shooting short clips to document the hike. Rather than posting just the "money shoot", which is the best view of the hike, I have been trying to use the video to tell the story of the hike. Many of the clips are taken while moving to convey the hiking element, but I'll still include the big views too.

I've taken to cross-posting my Instagram reels to Facebook, which reaches both audiences simultaneously.

I've included a link to my Wix blog in the bio section of my Instagram page, which has generated visits from unexpected places, like European countries like Ireland and Sweden.

Here is the link: https://www.instagram.com/tony_washington_hiker/

Feedback

I very much appreciate when friends and family tell me they enjoy my Facebook posts. I know that many of my friends, who are old like me, don't have the physical ability to get to these beautiful locations, so I take pride in sharing the beauty of Washington state, especially when they are locations that are hard to reach.

It's fun to see strangers liking my Instagram Reels and following me. It supports my ultimate goal to promote hiking and share the beauty of Washington.

If you are a follower of my Instagram or my blog, please drop a note to say who you are and what you like. This blog has a feedback page, and comments in Instagram are always welcome. If you made it this far in my blog post without any hike pictures, thanks!