Instagram is a well-known social networking platform used by users all over the world that allows you to share the most beautiful and incredible photos with friends. If you want to know how to refine your Instagram profile page to have as many followers and "likes" as possible, you can spend some time reading this article: you will learn how to choose the best images and publish them in clever way to obtain the best possible result.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Taking Better Pictures
Step 1. Choose the theme of your Instagram page
- Before you start posting any type of image, take a few minutes to think about what you would like to share via your Instagram page. Normally, what unites the best and most followed accounts is the fact that they focus on a single theme that can attract the attention of many users. If your desire is to have an interesting and engaging Instagram page, before you start posting images, focus on finding a specific theme. What kind of photographs do you like to take? What's your favorite subject? What do you enjoy most in life?
- The most visited and liked Instagram pages are based on topics like yoga, cooking, motivating and inspiring phrases, restaurants and bars around the world, a sense of humor, fashion and pets.
- Unless you are Kim Kardashian or Justin Bibier, two already established and super famous public figures, you can't think of attracting thousands of followers simply by posting selfies.
- Consider creating a tribute page for someone or something. If you are a fan of comics, wrestling, a star character from a popular TV series, or a sports athlete, it might be a great idea to dedicate a page to it. Instead of posting your photos, you can publish those related to the subject of the page, which you can easily find on the web.
Step 2. Choose an interesting and catchy username along with a nice profile picture
- The first and easiest step to start designing an Instagram page is to choose a username and profile photo. This choice depends a lot on the theme you have selected for the page, so you will need to focus on something that reflects and recalls what you intend to publish next.
- Enter short but interesting content in the "Bio" field of the profile. For example, if you like images related to the world of cooking and your cat Mortimer inspired you with the name "MortimerBakes", as a profile picture you can choose a photo of your brave helper lying on a stack of muffins, while as "Bio "you can enter a witty message like" Me, my cat and our gluten-free adventures ".
Step 3. Retouch your photos before publishing them
- Depending on the version and type of camera you are using, Instagram allows you to take advantage of different editing options. It's always very important to spend some time retouching your images to make sure they look eye-catching and can represent your page in the best possible way.
- Properly crop images to emphasize symmetry and the most important parts of the subject. Omit the fringe elements and things that appear silly or ridiculous.
- Try using the different pre-configured filters to find out which one best suits your images and enhances their visual impact. If the best version turns out to be the original one, don't hesitate to leave it as it is.
- Manually change the levels of brightness, color and all other features. At any time you have the possibility to revert to the original version of the image if it is the one you prefer.
- Use other image editors. Snapped, Camera +, VSCO Cam, Photoshop Touch and many other applications of this kind are ideal for cropping, editing and retouching images before posting them on Instagram.
Step 4. Remember that simplicity always pays off
The best images to post on Instagram should be crisp and simple rather than complex to interpret, blurry and cluttered. If you have a desire to photograph the burger you are about to eat, just photograph the sandwich; do not take a selfie while holding it a few centimeters from your face assuming the classic "duck face" with your friends
Step 5. Take a large amount of different photographs
- Even if the goal is to take photographs that pertain to the theme of your Instagram page, it's unlikely anyone would be interested in looking at 30 burger photographs. Find a creative way to vary the theme so you avoid taking the same photos over and over.
- Even if you have a fondness for images related to food and cooking, you don't just have to always take pictures of the dishes you just cooked. Consider also capturing all the ingredients while they are still in their original state, or take a photo of your partner's face while he or she looks at your creation. It also captures an image of the empty plates after you have enjoyed the result of your efforts in the kitchen.
- Take the time to explore the pages already on Instagram to get an idea of how the most followed accounts are structured and how they use images. They will become excellent ideas to start from when you feel uninspired. Searching the web can also be very useful.
Step 6. Space publications
- The advice is to let some time pass between one post and another. This way, the images will not be grouped into large blocks within your board. By uploading your photos all at once, you could turn off the interest of the people who follow you. Also, in some cases, your followers may not have time to look at a whole bunch of images, as a result you would have wasted some great material.
- When you go on vacation, don't wait until you get home to post your photos. Post them in real time when you shoot them, so people who follow you can stay up to date on your activities.
- If you took 7 photos of him while observing or playing with your cat, don't post them all on Instagram unless they serve to tell some kind of anecdote or event. If you have a lot of excellent photographs available, don't post them all at once, just wait until you need them in the future.
Step 7. Buy a new camera
- The new smartphones are equipped with superior cameras. If the photos you take don't look as good as the ones posted by the people you follow, it means it's most likely time to buy a new phone that can take high-resolution photos. If you can afford it, buying a latest generation smartphone is definitely a smart move to have an eye-catching Instagram page.
- You don't have to take a photo with your smartphone to be able to upload it to Instagram. If you wish, you can also access the social network platform from your computer and upload the images captured with a professional camera.
Part 2 of 3: Getting More Likes
Step 1. Post the images at the right time
Studies have shown that most people have a habit of checking their Instagram page from 6am to 8am and 5pm to 8pm. If you want to get a higher number of likes from your followers, it is very important to publish your posts in the times when the most people are connected. If you have some fabulous images to post, wait for the right moment to do so
Step 2. Use the most popular hashtags
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Hashtags are used by many social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, and allow you to search for a specific post through the use of tags. Any word or phrase published in the title of the post preceded by the symbol "#" can be searched directly through Instagram. Provided they are relevant to the subject, you can characterize your posts using many different hashtags; in this way you will make them available for viewing by a much wider catchment area. There are tons of trending hashtags that you can use to tag your images; below you can consult a short list:
- love;
- instagood;
- follow;
- tbt;
- skin;
- happy;
- girl;
- fun;
- summer;
- instadaily;
- food;
- picoftheday.
Step 3. Use the correct hashtags
Hashtags are certainly an excellent tool, but it is a must to combine them with the use of common sense in terms of quantity and quality. The secret lies in choosing the most suitable ones (and not only those that are most popular) and in a limited number, in order not to risk becoming ridiculous. Remember to always enter an appropriate description with respect to the images you have chosen to publish.
Do a little research based on the subject of your images to make sure you have chosen the most popular and sought after hashtags For example, the difference between the number of photographs that appear as a result of the search for the hashtag #dog, #dog and #collie It is huge
Step 4. Use "geotags"
Before publishing an image on Instagram, you have the option of applying a tag related to the location where you are: information that the smartphone is able to retrieve through the GPS service. This function is often useful if you are in a restaurant, in a particular city or in another characteristic place to which you want to give visibility or to simply give more information on the context in which you took the photo. Thanks to this method, all the people who look for that particular restaurant or city will be able to see your images. It's a great way to connect multiple people with each other
Step 5. Use hashtags created specifically to get "Likes"
Some hashtags help you identify users willing to reciprocate your "Like" on their photos. If you are looking for a quick way to increase your "Like" statistics, you can try posting your images with the hashtag # like4like or # l4l. Scroll through the list of images linked to these tags and start putting a large number of "likes", then post your photos using the same hashtags. You should be able to get a large amount of "Likes" in a relatively short time
Step 6. Publish your posts following current Instagram trends
- If you want people to "Like" your photos, it can be useful to know the topics currently most searched and talked about on Instagram. Do all your friends post their images using very similar hashtags? Find out what they refer to, then post your photographs using those hashtags. Here is a short list of the hottest trends on Instagram:
- Throwback Thursday (#tbt);
- Woman-crush Wednesday (#wcw);
- Pictures without filters (#nofilter);
- Selfies (#selfie);
- Old pictures (#latergram).
Part 3 of 3: Getting More Followers
Step 1. Follow a large number of users
- Do you want to have more followers? Well, the easiest way to do this is to become the follower of a large number of accounts. Having more followers than the number of users you follow might seem "cool" to you, but achieving this status is practically impossible unless you are already a public and famous figure or activate a strategy aimed at that goal. Where to start from? Simple! Start following a large number of people; in the future, you can decide to stop following them at any time.
- Connect the Instagram account to those of the other social networks you have access to, then follow all the friends you have on Instagram. At this point, look for the most popular hashtags and those related to the subjects and topics that interest you. Follow a couple of dozen accounts related to these two hashtag groups.
- Follow popular Instagram accounts like One Direction, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian. These accounts usually manage to immediately gain a large number of followers.
Step 2. Use hashtags to increase followers
- Just like in the case of "likes", hashtags can be used to attract more followers. Scroll through the list of images tagged with the tags # follow4follow or # f4f, then start following a large number of users who have posted them. At this point, post a couple of photos using the same hashtags. As a result, some of the people you've started following should return the favor and start following you. This is the main purpose of hashtags of this type. As you can imagine, this is a very simple way to quickly increase the number of followers.
- Always remember to follow all the people who follow you. There are many users who want to increase their number of followers and will not hesitate to stop following the accounts that have not returned the favor. If you want people to continue following you on Instagram, all you have to do is become their follower.
Step 3. Comment on a large number of photos posted by other users
- Scroll through the images of the hashtags you like the most and "Like" some of them at random. Comment them positively with short messages like "Great shot!" or "This is beautiful!". Put your "Like" on the photos and become a follower of the accounts. Following these simple instructions will entice people to return the favor by becoming your followers.
- Always be positive and sincere. Don't just copy and paste the same comment on hundreds of images. Try to personalize your comments and adapt them to the images displayed. If people think you're not a "bot," they'll be much more likely to follow you.
Step 4. Interact with followers
- If you want other users to follow you, you need to interact with them to prove that becoming your follower is worth it. If someone leaves a comment on your photographs, return the favor. Likewise, if a person puts a "Like", do the same thing with their image and become their follower. Be a very good friend on Instagram and try to maintain good relationships with other users.
- Don't "spam". That of scrolling through the images on Instagram bombarding people with comments like "Hi, follow me!" it is an all too common and very little appreciated behavior, which has the only result of losing a large number of followers.
- Encourage the work of others. If you like images of a particular user, post to your Instagram page by entering the owner account in the comments and encouraging your followers to follow him. This is a great way to express your gratitude.
Step 5. Publish your posts regularly to avoid losing your followers
- Ideally you should post 1-3 times a day to attract and retain the most followers. When you don't post regularly, some people may stop following you as it may appear to them that you have ditched Instagram. Try to post at least one post a day every day.
- When you have excess photos available, keep them for posting in the following days. This way you won't run the risk of wasting them by publishing them all at once.
- Remember that posting too often is just as unwelcome. If you're in the habit of regularly bombarding your followers' wall with 50 pictures from your holidays, your follower count is likely to drop very soon.
