9 tips that will make your Instagram account pop and standout

All the cool kids have an Insta account where they share bits of their lives, through posting photos and videos with catchy, witty captions and a myriad of hashtags. I gotta say though, it’s one thing to have an Instagram account, but it’s another to make it pop, standout and gain tones of followers, to become Insta famous. While you can buy followers, gaining real authentic followers is much better as you will get organic likes and interactions. Still, it’s no cakewalk and it takes a little bit of effort. We will show you tips on how you can be an Instagram queen.

1. First things first, you will need a phone with a high quality camera.

Obviously, Instagram is all about the photos and bad quality pics just won’t cut it. If you don’t have a good phone, you could solicit the services of a professional photographer and come up with a payment arrangement for all your photos. A lot of fashion bloggers do it. If not, you could save up and invest on a good phone or camera. Your Insta will not pop without good, high quality photos.

2. Come up with a theme.

What kind of story do you want your Instagram account to tell? If people check your timeline, what do you want them to see? Fashion posts? Travel? Beauty? A bit of everything? It’s important to think of a theme, so that your timeline doesn’t look all over the place. If you look at the Instagram accounts of top influencers, you will notice that they mix a little bit of everything – a coffee post here, selfie there, food, travel, quotes etc. If you want your IG to pop, you need to have an aesthetically pleasing timeline.

3. Polish up on your photo editing skills.

Research on photo editing apps that you can use, to make your photos look better. Remember the goal is to enhance the photo, make it look better, not to change everything. I’m not a fan of overly edited photos. A sky is light blue, not electric blue, for instance. Don’t over filter your photos.

4. Take bomb photos.

We already talked about how to take the perfect selfie. To reiterate, how you take your photos matters a lot. Find your best angles, find your light – good lighting is the make or break of a photo. Remember also that the background of the photo matters a lot. Crop what’s not necessary and look for cute backgrounds that will enhance your photo. Head over to YouTube and learn from the best in the game on how to pose for photos, how to make use of props, tricks to look taller, slender etc. You can’t just stand and expect the photo to look good. Well, technically, you can, if you’re Beyonce.

ALSO READ: Things to keep in mind when buying clothes on Instagram shops

5. Post more than just selfies.

It’s boring to check a timeline full of selfies. It also comes off as narcissistic and vain. If there’s no one around to take a photo of you, make use of the self-timer so that you mix selfies with full body pics and even pics that only capture certain details, say a watch on a hand or your hand holding a cone ice-cream.

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6. Use captions and hashtags when posting pics.

Captions help bring out your personality to your followers. Don’t overthink them though. Some people spend hours going through inspirational quotes, to use as their photo captions. It’s never that serious. Just accompany the photo with a caption about what you feel at that time. Hashtags will help other people find you on Instagram so it’s important to use them, if you’re looking to gain more followers. You could also tag relevant pages on your photo – say an outfit from a certain store. Tag the store so that your photo can appear on the store’s tagged photos and again, this can help build your audience.

7. Know the right time to post.

First of all, do not spam your followers. No one wants to see ten of your photos all at once on the timeline. Secondly, post during timings when people are free, like morning, lunchtime, early evenings and weekends. During these times, people are free and have a few minutes to spare to check their gram so the number of likes will be higher then. Also, be consistent in your posts, you could even post twice a day or three times a week. But, do not post one photo and then go MIA for three weeks. Your followers will lose interest.

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8. Engage your followers.

Respond to their comments, to help build trust. Of course, once you gain a significant number of followers, it may be hard to respond to each and everyone but while you’re still growing your following, it’s necessary to interact with your followers. You could even post engaging content like a quiz post and ask them to take part. E.g. Which is your favorite hairstyle among these? Then have them choose and interact with you.

9. Don’t be fake.

Don’t succumb to the pressure. Again, it’s just Instagram, so, chill. Don’t break your neck to show or prove to virtual followers that you live a certain life and what not. Borrow inspiration from other accounts but do not steal content or live a fake online life. You will only be hurting yourself at the end of the day. It’s important to stay on your lane and be authentically and unapologetically your true self.