Achieving success on Instagram is probably not as easy as you expect. While it would be nice to idle away the hours in a coffee shop after posting another amazing photo, drinking fancy lattes with intricately designed foam and cinnamon garnishes and watch your follower count go up effortlessly, that’s just not the reality for most photographers trying to break through on social media. After 4 years on Instagram, I accrued a dismal 2,400 followers. Less than a year later, after moderating on photo hubs (IG accounts that feature other artists) and trying tips given to me by IGers with large followings, I am at 12,900. Now that’s a huge jump compared to the previous four years – and full disclosure – I put in a minimal amount of effort compared to what I have seen other IGers go through. Some people work on Instagram accounts for the majority of their day.
Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The first thing you should focus on is your content.
CONTENT
Image Quality: This is a big deal from the perspective of a moderator. Grainy, low-resolution images are usually ignored. A crisp, sharp, detailed photo will get a lot more comments, likes, and features than a low-quality image. I usually post images that are Instagram’s maximum size. (Tip for iPhone users: do not import your photos via iTunes. They are terribly compressed. Use Dropbox to get images on your phone to upload to Instagram)
Content: Whenever it comes to photography, you’ll hear the phrase “Content is king” a lot, and that’s because it’s true. Getting great content will make an image more popular. If you see a place that everyone is shooting in the same way, shoot it with a unique twist to stand out. Create a magnificent composite of something that is impossible, but almost looks like it really happened. Shoot an event for as long as you have to get that shot that couldn’t have been taken unless you had perfect timing. Depending on the content, the photo doesn’t have to be that good! Right now, rooftop and aerial photos are huge on Instagram. Search for them and you’ll probably notice that they get a lot of likes, comments and features. You’ll probably also notice that a lot of them aren’t really good, but since they provide a point of view not seen every day, they are widely liked.
Orientation: This is relatively new but surprisingly very important factor. When Instagram was updated to allow portrait orientation, users realized that their images were displayed bigger than if they were posted in landscape orientation. The result: more likes, comments, and features go to photos in landscape orientation. Some hubs even post tips on how to get featured and one of the tips are to post in portrait orientation at the 4×5 ratio allowed by Instagram.
Now to be perfectly honest with you, my opinion is that for someone starting in Instagram right now, your image quality counts for about 20% of your success on Instagram. (What? That’s crazy. Isn’t Instagram a platform based on photos? Those are really great questions.) Yes, Instagram is based on photos but there are two other enormously important factors that affect your success on Instagram.
GETTING NOTICED
Having phenomenal content is great for Instagram, but what good is great content of no one sees it? The next part of achieving success on Instagram is increasing your visibility and engagement.
Hash Tagging: Hash tagging alone can dramatically increase your visibility on Instagram. Now by this, I do not mean just put a bunch of random hash tags and people will flock to you like seagulls to a beach picnic. (Damn scavengers) There’s a method to the hash tagging. 1: You’ve got to look for tags that a lot of people are using. Searching a hash tag on Instagram will let you know how many photos have used the tag. A lot of these will be hash tags for hubs that feature other people’s photos that they like. Using these hash tags will allow hub moderators to see and feature your photo, as well as other who use and search this hash tag. 2. Make sure the hash tag is relevant to the photo. I cannot tell you the frustration that courses through my veins when looking for a photo to feature on @bnw_captures (a hub for black and white photography), and finding a ton of bathroom selfies….in color. You may think that it’s increasing your visibility, but you’re using a hash tag for a hub that will never feature your photo when you could have used a tag that is actually entertained by your bathroom pictures. (I mean there’s a hub for everything. There’s gotta be one for selfies. I refuse to look though. I don’t want to find it.) However, use portrait hash tags for portraits. Use urban hash tags for urban photography and use hash tags from hubs that feature your type of photo. This will get your photo shared to a much larger audience.
Like/Comment/Repost: Now this is one of the most time consuming parts of getting noticed on Instagram. Some people don’t search hash tags. Some people don’t look for new artists to follow. Some people don’t scroll through specific genres of photography hoping to find new photographers to follow. So how do you reach out to these people? Easy: like their photos, comment on their photos and if you really like it, share or repost it. Plenty of people will take a look at the profile of someone who liked a few of their photos, posted a meaningful comment on their photo or reposted it. That’s when they will see your work and decide whether or not to follow you. WARNING: Be very careful when reposting someone else’s photo and NEVER EVER do so without giving proper photo credit to the photographer. There are a ton of people who steal others photos and post it as their own work to gain popularity on Instagram. These are Photo Thieves. I have not only seen, but participating in campaigns aimed to report and block photo thieves. And trust me, if you steal the wrong persons photo, you’ll have enough repeat and blocks against you to get booted off of Instagram. There are pages dedicated to outing photo thieves.
Now this is a large chunk of the work that you’ll put into expanding your audience on Instagram, but I honestly believe this will account for 35% of what you need to do to increase your following. (Only 35%???) Yes, only 35%. Now I may sound crazy, but the last part of increasing your audience is the reason why what should really matter on Instagram kind of doesn’t. That part is……
NETWORKING
Everyone says it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. As simple as that sounds, it is unfortunately more complicated than some might know and I’ll tell you why: Instagram has been turned into EVERYTHING YOU HATED ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL. (Yeah, I said it and I was even one of the cool funny guys in high school. No really, I was!) All of the cliques, the drama, the sneakiness and pettiness of high school has been reborn for the digital age via Instagram. Don’t believe me? Check this out:
- Pods: Pods are groups of people that communicate through messaging apps outside of Instagram. The purpose of these groups in to coordinate when they all post so they can all like each other’s posts and comment on them. The purpose is to give the appearance of popularity and receive enough comments and likes in order to trick Instagram’s algorithm into thinking their content is good enough to gain attention so quickly, resulting in Instagram making the image visibly to more viewers
- F2U: This is an abbreviation for Followers to Unfollowers. These are people that spend a large amount of time liking people’s pictures and following them. The intent is to have the people follow you back, wait for a certain amount of time then go and unfollow the people you followed. The hope is that the unfollow will go unnoticed and the F2Uer will have a large following without following a lot of people. (Tip: there are plenty of free apps that will tell you when people follow or unfollow.)
- Comp-Stompers: This is one I recently learned the “proper” name for. This refers to people who lack the creativity to compose interesting photos, so they don’t look for inspiration: they copy others photos in two ways. Some people actually scour Instagram for photos in their area that have accrued a lot of likes and comments. The intent is to use Google Maps to find the vantage point and copy the shot so they can post it as their own. Others like to have photo walks with photographers that take really good pictures. This way, they can see the shot they took (some event ask for your settings) and take the same one. The intent is to get to a phone or computer first, in order to edit and post the image as your own. Not sure if this is detrimental or just downright petty.
- Saboteurs: Now this is one that I am seeing more and more lately. Some people use Instagram as a marketing platform. Getting enough engagement results in companies paying you to photograph and post their products, mention them in your stories, give away their products during photo walks or attend special events. Now remember the words of the great Uncle Ben to Peter Parker: “With great opportunity, comes great drama” (or something like that. I’m gonna get quote right one day, I hope). Unfortunately, the quote is wrong but extremely relevant. I am sad to actually say I have seen people go out of their way to contacts companies sponsoring other people in order to take their place, copy their editing style and use their hash tags, attempt to get other Instagrammers ousted from special events in order to replace them, harass hub founders to get featured more than other Instagrammers and even try to get others blocked from hubs so they won’t get featured. The pettiness is real on IG, my friends.
- Cliques: Yes, that part of high school is on IG as well. There are those that have followings and only share cool restricted vantage points with their friends, post only their friends’ images on their hubs and use their following to push images for their friends. Now this isn’t so bad. We all have given a friend a hookup now and then. The problem is that it makes Instagram more of a popularity contest, making being social more important that quality photos on a platform based on photos. This is what makes the networking part so important, consisting of 45% of your success on Instagram.
Now before you go, just know that there are always exceptions. Some people will have such creativity that they will not need much to gain a following. Some photos will be so beautiful the cliques will take notice and put their friends aside for a second to feature someone else. But also give these tips a try and see if it works for you.
