I have officially gone over to the dark side. Okay, I know I’m being a tad dramatic, but here’s the thing: I am relatively new to Instagram, as in I-got-it-three-months-ago new. My friends begged me to get Instagram, and I kept shooting them down until, eventually, it became the principle of the thing. I wasn’t interested in today’s world of social media, where the ratio of followers you have and the number of likes you gets determines your worth. But after finally getting Instagram, that all changed. I realized there’s a whole other world out there. Now, I’ll post a photo and eagerly await the response. While I may be new, I have picked up a few tricks – from my friends and from the Kardashians – along the way.
Lighting. It’s all the rave. You have a picture with good lighting and you are set. Ideally, perfect lighting will cast an ethereal glow on the subject. Plus, if you swipe a dust of highlighter from your brow bone to just below your temples, the light will catch your skin just right, and you’ll be sparkling like Edward Cullen.
With my newfound expertise on Instagram, I have learned that: you + animal = likes. While it may hurt that the only reason you get a ton of likes is because your pet is way cuter than you’ll ever be, at least the numbers are satisfying.
I found out the hard way – that the time of day matters. When people are finally sitting down to do homework, they are more likely to take a break every now and again to scroll through Instagram. For those who were uneducated, like myself, the key posting time is 6:00pm. When the sun goes down, the likes go up.
*Cover image from Lauren’s Lyst