Instafamous

 

 

So, are you Insta-famous?

Instagram currently boasts of having over 400 million subscribers right now. How many of these are currently following you?

If your answer, like most people, is “very few” then read along and find out what you can do to grab the attention of other Instagrammers and make them like your photos and follow you, thus becoming as the current trend says, “Instafamous”

 

1 Make sure your Instagram name is catchy and easy to remember. Take your time with this, as it will be something people will associate you with in the long run.

 

2 If possible, try to relate your Instagram name to the theme that you have in mind for your account. Examples of account theme are: food related account, fashion and style related account, travel account, health and fitness account or simply a personal account with a mix of everything.

 

3 Make sure your Instagram profile picture grabs eyeballs right away. If they look at an attractive profile picture, chances are they will scroll through the rest of your Instagram account and maybe even follow you. (That is what we all want, to become Instafamous, right?)

 

4 Learn how to use the application well! Before you jump head first into uploading all the possible pictures from your phone onto the app, make sure you are well aware of all the functions and feature on the Instagram application. Get used to it, check out all the filters, editing options, personal settings, etc.

 

5 You might want to consider investing in a photo editing app. Although the editing features on the Instagram application are excellent, I personally have a few photo editing apps on my phone that I love to use before uploading the pics. Some of the ones I swear by are VSCO cam, Snapseed and After Light. There are tons of similar apps available on the Apple and Android app store so feel free to try them out and see which one suits you best.

 

6 Learn to take good photos and many photos! Yes, you cannot just upload any random picture on Instagram.

Let’s face it, have you seen the competition out there? (Hellooooo, remember the 400 million plus subscribers!!) I’m not saying that you need to invest in the most expensive phone or camera available in order to take great pictures, but do try to take several pictures because not every picture will make the cut and if you take the same picture a couple of times, I’m sure there will be one in particular that you like more than the rest and that picture is for Instagram. Feel free to play around with different angles, lighting etc and find out what works best for you.

 

7 Caption Alert: Make sure your caption compliments the picture and chose the right words for the description. You can be serious, funny, sarcastic or whatever it is that works for you but make sure it is genuine and feels right with the picture. There are many Instagrammers out there who don’t even need to add any hashtags to their photos, their caption does the job. (Yes, they do exist)

 

8 Hashtags, Duh! That’s like the most important thing, ever! Remember, hashtags exist to help you promote your pictures. Your caption should never just be a hashtag. Always take the effort to write something about the picture first and then add the relevant hashtags. This will help attract the right kind of audience to your picture and get you all those likes.

 

9 Check out trending hashtags and try to incorporate them in your pictures. You can look these up online or even find them on Instagram itself. Trending hashtags such as #instalike #instagood #photooftheday, etc will get you those extra likes and followers.

 

10 Personalize your account as much as possible. Show those emotions, the more real and genuine your account seems, the more followers and likes it will attract. It’s really that simple folks.

 

11 Link and share your Instagram posts on other social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter, etc. This will help your post reach a much larger audience and thus result in more likes and followers.

 

12 Just because you have put in the effort to take a photo, edit it and share it on Instagram with the best possible caption and hashtags, does not mean your job is done. You will certainly get a few likes here and there, but your audience and likes will stop growing after a certain limit.

You have to take the effort to like back, follow back, say thank you and also leave comments on other people Instagram posts. Give more to get more!

 

13 Follow other Instagram accounts with similar interests to yours. Like photos that interest you and bring a smile to your face. Leave genuine comments (nice ones only please) and let the other person know what you think about their pictures.

 

14 Engage in Instagram contests. There are tons of Instagram contests going on at any given point of time. Find the ones happening near you so you can participate in them and interact with other Instagrammers as well and thus become part of the Instagram community.

 

15 Once you’ve reached a decent audience size, make sure your posts are more about quality and not just the quantity. You will need to post interesting material to keep your current audience engaged and also continue building on that followers list. If you keep dishing out the same stuff over and over again, chances are people will start to unfollow you and those likes will start to go down.

 

16 There are several Instagram clients out there, example: Iconosquare, which will help you to get a better understanding about your audience type and give you information about your profile and how your account has been performing. Use them! Find the right one for you and let it help you to grow on Instagram.

 

17 Consider doing a “shoutout for shoutout”, only if it is your thing and you know that it works for you. S4S means when you post a picture from another person’s profile on your page and ask your audience to go follow that person and the other person does the same on their profile for you. I have personally never done one on my page simply because I find it annoying and I would not want my audience to feel the same way too. (Read: Spam)

 

18 Post as often as possible! Once you’ve got the basics right, I would recommend posting between 1 or 2 photos a day. Once you have a decent sized audience, you can take the liberty to post once every other day, but make sure to keep in touch with your audience daily by liking, sharing and commenting on their photos! Remember, with great audience size comes great responsibility.

 

19 Selfies!! They do work!! Take them and post them. Simple.

 

20 Last but not least, BE REAL, BE YOU!! Keeping everything else aside, you are unique, you are different, you are special in your own way and that quality alone will attract the right kind of people to you and your Instagram profile. There are tons of people on Instagram who have thousands and thousands of followers and get a lot of likes, just because they are simply being themselves and sharing with the world and showing them what they are all about.

 

There you go, these are some tips, which from my personal experience, have helped me with my Instagram account. I’m sure there will be so many other things which could work for you.

 

If you find this post useful or have anything else to add, please let me know below as I would love to hear your opinions. It’s always good to know what others are doing to become Instafamous.

Also, share this post if you feel this could help someone else too. Finally, feel free to check out my Instagram account Rolly Time to know more about me!

Until the next time folks!