How To Get The Most Of Your Instagram Activity

Nowadays, everybody wants to be an influencer, but in order to become one, you first have to achieve a micro-influencer status. Here are some actionable steps on how to improve your Instagram content.

Whether you’re an amateur photographer or a professional one, a beauty/lifestyle instagrammer or a food one, a wedding photographer or a traveler who wants to share his holiday pictures, you have to realize that you should respect your followers by delivering beautiful, unique and informational content.

There’s one big rule on Instagram and in life, in general: be unique and offer top-quality content!

Photo composition - Apps & Tips

​According to a personal research, portrait crop photos create more engagement than landscape ones, so it’s better keep this in mind when creating your content. Also, know that edited photos are more likely to increase reactions than normal ones. Here are some apps that will ease your process:

• Snapseed is a simple and powerful app that is very useful for upgrading your game. You should definitely try it for its ‘Ambiance’ feature.  
• Another powerful app is Vscocam, which is highly recommended for beginner - mostly for the variety of filters that it has to offer. Its minimalistic design makes it very intuitive and user friendly.
• Lightroom is another free app that offers everything you need to edit your photos, but you need a little experience to use it. It's recommended to start off with the aforementioned apps and make the switch to Lightroom after you've gained some experience.

A good photo it’s not only a beautiful image, but it's one that also delivers an emotion. Whether you shoot with your phone or with a DSLR, Instagram users don’t care about the technique, they care about the composition. You should always focus on the composition you create and the emotion you deliver. Here are some actionable tips that you should consider:
​

• Look for the perfect symmetry. We, as human beings, are very attracted by the symmetry, so you should focus on finding the symmetry or edit the photos keeping this aspect in mind.
• When to shoot? Photography means light. A painter paints with brushes and colors, a photographer paints with light. Best times of the day are 1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before the sunset.
• Another simple tip: photos with warm tones get more traffic than the ones with cold tones.
• A feed that follows a thematic tone is more likely to attract followers than a feed that is very diverse in the editing style; in order to create a thematic feed, you should pick a filter you like in Vscocam and start using constantly when you edit the photos.
• Forget about the rule of thirds; on Instagram works better the rule of 50/50.

The Proper Use Of Hashtags

The maximum number of hashtags on Instagram is 30. Almost 20% reactions come from hashtags, so you should use them as much as you can and use only the ones that are relevant. Now, you can follow not only persons, but hashtags too. So, you should find the ones that are relevant for your content and follow them to get inspired.

Due to the latest Instagram algorithm, it’s better to use hashtags with less photos to get more chances to appear in the top searches. If you use a hashtag with 200k photos, most probably your photo will have 0 exposure; instead, if you use a hashtag with 5k-10k photos, the chance to be on top increases. Don’t forget to tag your location to be more visible for the ones who are looking for a specific place.

Photos with good captions also boost reactions. a good caption is informational, funny and it has a personal touch; a very useful application to help you out when you don’t have inspiration is Captiona. It’s better to include a little question in your caption to boost the number of comments.

As for interaction - answer every comment! Also, always mention the brands that appear in your photo, this is a good chance to be featured on their feed.

Every Friday, Instagram challenges their users by releasing a Weekend Hashtag Project, in which every user is invited to post photos from their weekend; On Monday, six of the best photos from the hashtag challenge will be featured on Instagram profile, so it’s a great opportunity to gain exposure.
​
You should also be active in offline. Twice a year, Instagram creates Instameets in every country of the world. Find the events and get involved, be active and get to know people. You’ll be able to meet some of the most creative Intagrammers and you’ll learn a lot from them.

submitted by:

Tiffany Brenning
 beautyessentials.net ​

Other useful apps: 

• ​Mextures,
• Litely,
• Filterstorm (it’s called the Photoshop of apps)
• doyouskrwt

Remember: Instagram it’s not about the likes, it’s about the comments, it’s about the impact you have on your small community. It’s not enough to post a beautiful picture. You have to be able to post beautiful pictures constantly and write relevant captions!
​
Stay motivated because Instagram users are a little bit more pretentious and it takes time to persuade them that you deserve to be followed.