- Choose a style
Continuity in style is very important in any aesthetic project. If you are going to take your Instagram game seriously, you need to be intentional about what you post. What are your followers getting from your account? Do they get health tips? Recipes? Workout routines? A mix of the three? Or do you lean more towards beauty and fashion? You might also want to simply have a lifestyle account, but even when making that decision you need to wonder what lifestyle you want to promote: the everyday college woman, the young and activist leader, society’s black sheep. I know, I know. These sound very cliché, but people love clichés. Most importantly, they want to know what kind of posts to expect so they refer to your account in particular when they need inspiration for one of the topics suggested.
- Clever use of hashtags
Hashtags are a good way to kick-start your account if you are lacking visibility. The hashtags you use can be very broad or very specific if you are looking for a certain group to latch on to your posts. For example, you can write #motd (makeup of the day) as a tag for a beauty tutorial which will make your video researchable and you can also combine it with #MAClipsticktutorial. Because you see, if you only have generic hashtags, you will be a post throughout so many others (I don’t know if any of you have ever tried to find a specific post by writing one name and ended up scrolling for two decades before finding it. You don’t want to be one the posts that won’t catch attention). Adding numerous hashtags to make your post appear in numerous researches will increase your viewing rate. Although it may be annoying to use many tags at first, they become pretty important in your humble beginnings.
Sub-tip: using trending hashtags may be a cheat way to accumulate visibility.
- Choose a specific style or filter and stick to it
To add onto point number one – continuity in style is very important. Have you ever found someone’s Instagram account very satisfying and not understood why? Like the pictures just matched with each other without necessarily haven’t been taken in the same location? That’s the power of matching filters. Instagram professionals use different methods of editing in order to have the same “appearance” on all the photos to create this satisfying form. If you have never edited photos before, start with choosing a filter you like and sticking to it for all your photos. You will see a tremendous change in the way your account looks! As you get more comfortable, you can start playing with saturation, color tints, and exposures.
Extra-tip: VSCOcam is a very popular app used to edit photos beyond what Instagram has to offer for those who want to further push the editing game.
- Post regularly
“I am so glad I follow this girl’s account. She posted like one photo last month and pretty much hasn’t shown any signs of life since,” said no one ever. No one follows the accounts who are likely to never or barely post pictures. What’s the point of that? Instagram is about pictures so if you don’t have any or rarely post them, you are pretty much useless. Your content could be very good, but you won’t be engaging with your followers much. Posting regularly creates loyal followers and will attract future ones (especially if you are doing an “advice-based” account!). Posting regularly means from three to five times a week in general. Some pages publish every single day! It’s not witchcraft; you can pre-shoot and pre-edit photos in order to never have a blank day if that’s the goal you are hoping to reach.
- Engage with other similar accounts.
Like any other social media, Instagram is a community. Naturally, we are attracted to accounts that cater to our style or give us some kind of insight. We draw from each other’s content. Engaging with similar accounts will provide you support. Other Instagramers will be more likely to like your posts first to support your content and/or give you shoutouts when relevant. They might also give you ideas and tips on how to make your account more interesting!
- Be original
There are so many accounts out there. I mean soooooo many. I swear sometimes I feel like I follow the same girl on ten different accounts. You want to bring something new to the game. Something the other nine girls don’t have and will make your followers crave more. You want to do makeup videos? Good. Now what is going to be different from your tips and videos than all the other beauty Instagramers? Do you have special techniques? Do you only use unknown brands? Do you do $10 makeup makeovers? What is your special thing? Being good is what makes people look at your content, being original is what makes them stay.
All in all, being famous is not everything. Make sure before entering the arena of Instagram that your intentions are ethical and that your goal is realistic. You might become famous overnight, or most likely you will have to work very hard at it. You must be passionate about either social media or the content you showcase to not stop going when things get disappointing.