Coastal Chic Founder Christine Allen Shares Her Instagram Tips

Christine Allen is the founder of Coastal Chic, a website and Instagram account dedicated to all that is chic, beautiful and delicious about the increasingly trendy Central Coast of New South Wales.

Allen has managed to grow her site very rapidly in a short amount of time. She recently chatted to Women Love Tech about her site.

What’s the idea behind Coastal Chic?

In recent years, the Coast has started to undergo a transformation, mostly thanks to an influx of city-slickers who have been priced out of Sydney’s housing market. With every trendy new cafe, restaurant, boutique and bar that opens, there’s no doubt the Coast is becoming increasingly chic and Coastal Chic’s website and Instagram is the place to go to find out what’s happening on the Coast.

How has Instagram helped the growth of Coastal Chic?

When Instagram got behind the account within six months of launch, it was like winning the social media lottery. Thanks to their pat on the back, @coastalchic_au has grown into a great community of people around the Coast, Sydney and the world, who use the feed to check out all the chic things happening in the area. As the Coast changes and evolves, there is an endless supply of inspo!

What are your favourite apps?

Instagram, of course! Photoshop Express for editing images. WordPress for the website And Podcast, Spotify and Headspace depending on whether I need to be entertained or wind down during the coastal commute.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

All I need is an iPhone. From Instagram to emails, editing images and uploading to the website, it still amazes me what I can do in the palm of my hand. Oh, and a portable charger for those times when my phone dies.

How has technology helped you highlight the beauty of the NSW central coast?

I couldn’t do it without Instagram, WordPress or my iPhone as they’re so user-friendly and easily accessible. Technology has paved the way for me to show the whole world how amazing the Central Coast is.

Christine Allen’s Top Instagram Tips:

1. Interact: comment, like and engage with instagrammers along the same vein – it’s the best way to grow an authentic audience.
2. Think about each individual image as well as the look of the overall feed.
3. Add popular hashtags (tags for likes is a good resource or iconosquare can help) to reach instagrammers with similar interests and search relevant hashtags to find new instagrammers to interact with.
4. Geotag your images to target a particular audience and search by location to reach out to others in a specific area.
5. Be positive, Instagram is a happy place!