Get Popular on Instagram

Instagram is a fun way to connect with family and friends, sharing pictures and funny videos instantly. But if you want to reach out to a bigger crowd, you can learn some tips and techniques for gaining more followers and getting more likes. Learn to use the app properly and take interesting pictures that people will enjoy.

Steps

Getting More Followers

1. Set your profile to public. It's difficult to get popular if you have to approve every person who follows your account. People also tend to want to see what kind of photos you are sharing before they decide to follow you. If you want to gain as many followers as possible, you need to have a public account.
   • Link your Instagram profile to your other social networking as well. You might as well get all your existing friends connected to your Instagram account, after all they are more likely to interact with your posts. You can also link Instagram to simultaneously update with Facebook and Twitter.
   • If you're concerned about your privacy, take control of it by not posting anything you'd regret. Don't put anything personal or embarrassing on your Instagram page. Make sure you don't geo tag your home address and Stay Safe on the Internet (for Kids)
2. Follow lots of people. One of the easiest ways to start reaching out and gain followers is to follow lots of accounts. You can't expect people to find yours if you don't reach out and interact with the Instagram community. Follow lots of accounts, even if you plan on unfollowing them later. Instagram will allow you to follow about 160 people per hour.
   • Follow your friends. Link your profile to your other social networking pages and invite everyone to like your page.
   • Follow accounts that are related to interests you have. Into sports? Cooking? Knitting? Find pages devoted to these hobbies and follow lots of them. Look up the follow lists on these pages and start following people.
   • Follow celebs. Look up your favorite athletes, musicians, actresses, and other celebs to follow on Instagram. Comment regularly on their popular posts to get your page some exposure.
   • Always follow your followers. If someone is following you, you'll gain a long-term follower if you follow them back.
3. Follow and comment on other very popular accounts. Pick out some celebrities and other popular Instagram accounts to follow and engage. Comment regularly on their posts to get other followers to check out your page and follow it.
   • While Instagram frowns on this practice, following and unfollowing some very popular accounts (Bieber, One Direction, Kim Kardashian) repeatedly can gain you several followers very quickly. However this can also get your account suspended.
   • Don't spam popular pages. Lots of people like to comment, "Hey follow me!" on really popular pages, but this will earn you negative comments and it will rarely work. It also looks tacky.
4. Try out some get-follower apps or websites. There are a variety of apps and sites designed to make the follower-chasing a little easier. They all essentially allow you to build capital or "coins" by liking pictures and doing other tasks, which will earn you followers in return. All these apps work slightly differently, and some require that you pay for them.

Keeping Your Followers

1. Pick a theme for your page and stick to it. People are more likely to follow a page with a specific and clear theme. When you're crafting yours, try to think about what you're likely to include in your photo feed. What are you passionate about? What are your interests?
   • Eating, cooking, or drinking
   • Animals
   • Nature photography
   • Memes or humor
   • Partying
   • Yoga or exercise
   • Home decorating and lifestyle
   • Fashion or style
   • Sports
2. Have a clear and specific bio filled out. When someone looks at your page, they need to be able to tell what you're about immediately. Connect your bio to your theme in a short and clear way. Most bios should be no more than a few sentences.
   • You mostly take pictures of your food at your dog? Make that obvious in your bio: "Kitchen creations and the hijinks of Moofus, the wonder-dog."
   • Don't share private information. Your bio doesn't need to list where you live and your full name, if you want to attract strangers to follow your page. Only include private info if your page is private.
   • You can use multiple lines and emojis in your bio to make it stand out and attract followers. Be creative!
3. Take a good profile pic. Pick a profile picture that matches the theme of your Instagram feed. If you're taking pictures of your own life, include a selfie profile pic. If you're taking pictures of your animals, you better include a picture of your animals in the profile. Craft beer enthusiast? Show us the suds.
   • Pictures show up pretty small on Instagram. Pick a very focused and close-up picture, not something with a lot of clutter.
4. Comment positively on lots of pictures. If you want to attract followers, you need to create a positive presence on Instagram. People are always thankful of positive comments and many will visit your profile to learn more about the person who just flattered them.
   • A community posts with the hashtag #jj, which includes a series of rules that get people more involved. For every picture tagged #jj, you have to comment on two pictures and like three more.
5. Post regularly. Following lots of people and being friendly on Instagram may get you a fair number of followers, but you also need to have the content there to back it up. Keeping your followers is just as important as gaining new ones. If you want to keep followers, you have to post every day at least.
   • Recent studies show that 2-3 posts a day are optimal. The life of Tweets is typically pretty short, so Twitter operators will Tweet a lot more often than you should for Instagram.
   • Thursdays are the most popular day to post on Instagram, and Sunday is the least popular day. That means you should post on both days, so you catch people when they're using on Thursday, and so your posts stand out on Sunday.
   • Post no more than one or two pictures at a time. Don't flood the feed. If you've got a bunch of good ones, that's great! But space them out over the course of the day or a week.
6. Do shoutouts, sometimes. Shoutouts involve posting the names of some of your followers in the comment stream or tagged in your photos. This promotes their pages to get your followers to follow them, and will give people a reason to do it in return. It's a good way to spread the followers around.
   • Some accounts like @shoutzz or @Pretty.GirlShoutz exist, which will exchange shoutouts for money. This practice is discouraged from Instagram and these typically don't last very long, usually paid shoutouts last for an hour but permanent shoutouts can also be purchased at a higher price.
   • As with anything on Instagram, if you overdo it, you'll lose followers. Shoutouts can look a little tacky or crass, and a lot of people don't like them.
7. Engage with your followers. People like to be entertained. If you want to be popular on Instagram, you need to provide entertainment for people. Don't just put up pictures and expect that people will like your page. Engage with people who express interest and stay social on Instagram.
   • Hold contests. Give away something fun to the "best comment" or to a particular follower for doing something. Make your prize somehow related to the theme of your page.
   • Ask questions of your followers and respond to questions from your followers. Have actual conversations and express an interest in their lives and their pictures. Be there for your followers.
   • Make a funny comment that people will want to share. If they share your post that will make your account visible to many more users.

Getting More Likes

1. Post at the right time of day. Research studies show that the optimal time to post on Instagram is on Wednesday at about 5 pm. If you want to get more likes, you need to post when people are looking at their phones. That means you usually need to avoid working hours, between 8 and 5 pm, and post who people are still awake and looking at their phones. So, evenings and early mornings are the best times to post to Instagram.
   • Don't clump up too many pictures at once. If you've got three or four great ones, don't put them all up in a series, or you'll get fewer likes. Unless they specifically go together, wait and space out your posts.
   • Make sure you are posting at the right time for your target audience. If a big part of your audience come from overseas then they could be living in a different timezone.
2. Always include captions. Pictures need to have context. Captions are an opportunity to add a little joke to your post, or give people some other way of reading into it. Use captions ironically so you can give people multiple ways to appreciate your picture.
   • Most people use captions for their hashtags. This is important, but it's also good to include regular captions as well. Throw some emojis and some text in there as well.
   • Use a caption ironically. If you take a really pretty picture of a sunset in your neighborhood, that's ok, but if it's captioned with, "Too bad my neighborhood smells like dead fish tonight."
3. Use popular hashtags. Hashtags give you a great opportunity to get your pictures out to people who aren't your followers. When people search hashtags for particular themes, your picture will come up. Use a variety of accurate hashtags and trending hashtags to hook your pictures to as many different search terms as possible.
   • Some of the most popular hashtags include: cute, love, smile, swag, popular, instagood, photooftheday, instamood, picoftheday, and nofilter.
   • Use accurate hashtags. If you take a selfie, hashtag it #selfie. If you take a picture of your bff, hashtag it #bff. Don't overthink it.
   • Geotag your pictures as well. If your picture is tied to a particular place, set your Instagram so that it can tag your location. This lets other people in your area find local pictures to like.
   • Studies show that using 11 hashtags is the optimum number. You can use too many, which can turn off a lot of users and make your page look desperate, but it's good to use enough that a variety of people will be able to see it.
   • Find relevant and popular hashtags using sites and apps like TagsForLikes.
4. Follow people who like your pictures. When you use hashtags, you'll get some strangers liking your pictures. When you do, follow them back. If someone expresses an interest in your pictures and your profile, it's good to reach out and connect. Comment on one of their pictures or like a few in return. It only takes a minute or two and it helps to get a new follower.
   • It's good to show that you're a real person, and not just a follower-gathering machine. Reach out and make a little comment, even if it's just, "Thanks!"
5. Dig around on the app and see what's trending. Click on popular hashtags and browse around the pictures you find. Even a relatively straightforward hashtag, like #hamburger will have lots and lots of different kinds of pictures. What seem to be the best? Which ones would you be most willing to like? Learn from the best.
   • Click on the activity button to see what your followers are up to. What kinds of pictures are people liking? What seems to be popular?
6. Use some get-likes apps. Just like you can use some for-pay apps to get followers, you can use some apps to get likes as well. They all work differently, some with varying degrees of success, but you can do little tasks to get "coins" to earn yourself some extra likes from bot accounts. Check out the following like-apps:
   • GetLikes
   • MagicLiker
   • LikePotion

Taking Better Pictures

1. Take a variety of pictures. Diversity is key. If you want to be popular on Instagram, you need to find a variety of things to post about. Look at the pictures that you've taken and find ways to vary those themes, and repackage the same content. Learn what kind of photos are getting the most likes and evolve on them
   • If you like taking food pics, that's great. A theme is good, but if you like hamburgers, nobody wants to look at three pictures of hamburgers a day. You'll lose followers if your feed is repetitive.
   • Instead, take pictures of empty plates, food in process, the outside of restaurants you like, menus that you like. Shake it up.
   • Never re-post the same picture that you've already posted, especially not the same day. If you didn't get as many likes as you wanted the first time, don't put the same picture back up.
2. Use the filter function smartly. Instagram is notable for its filter-options that you can use on your pictures. Using them to complement the pictures that you take can help you get more followers and likes. It's good taste.
   • "#nofilter" is a popular tag for a reason. If you can find beauty that's real and not artificial, people like that. Think sunsets, or very colorful, high-contrast night scenes.
   • Filters can't make a bad or boring picture good. Experiment with different ones, but make sure the picture is interesting to begin with.
   • Try to upgrade your camera if you can. HD pictures always look a lot better.
   • Willow is said to be the filter that gets the most amount of likes, but experiment for yourself and find out which filters are most effective for your followers.
3. Tell stories with your pictures. It's possible to combine pictures together to make interesting combinations or even collages that can tell an entertaining story. Take before and after pictures and post them spaced out a little, according to what kinds of photos were included.
   • Take a picture of the burger you're about to eat, with some kind of comment about how you're hungry enough to eat a horse. Half an hour later, take another picture of your empty plate with the caption, "#winning."
4. Use other photo editing apps. There are a tons of other photo editing apps made specifically to work along with Instagram. You can add additional filters and frames for your pictures, you can add funny visual tricks, and you can split pictures or combine them with other pictures. It gives you a bit more creativity to share on Instagram with your followers. Here are some popular editing apps:
   • Snapseed
   • Camera+
   • VSCO Cam
   • Photoshop Express and Photoshop Touch
   • Noir Photo
   • ColorSplash
   • Afterlight
5. Keep it relatively clean. Keep it classy, or you risk getting your Instagram account cancelled. When you're trying to get popular on Instagram, keep it hovering around PG-13 at the most. In some cases, it's true that sex sells, but no nudity or crudity on your Instagram feed.

Tips

• Comment on popular people's pictures. That way, your name will be seen by many people who may want to follow you.
• Don't force people to follow you or give you a shout out.
• Don't post more than three pictures a day because your followers will get annoyed by all your photos!
• Keep away from bullies and don't follow them.
• Be kind and don't annoy your followers, that may cause them to report or block you.
• Consider the most optimal times to post, when your photos or videos will likely receive maximum visibility. An example would be around lunchtime or late evening.
• Instagram is a community. Treat everyone with respect and get involved. That way others will do the same for you.

Warnings

• Do not be mean and/or post mean comments because you will be known as a bully.
• Do not post inappropriate, racist, or rude pictures.
• Do not follow inappropriate pages.

Related Articles

• Get Followers on Instagram
• Get More Likes on Your Instagram Photos
• Comment and Delete Comments on Instagram Photos
• Find Out Who Unfollowed You on Instagram

Sources and Citations

See also

• Log in to Instagram on iPhone or iPad
• Report Someone on Instagram on iPhone or iPad
• Save Instagram Posts on Android
• Adjust the Filter Strength on Instagram on iPhone or iPad
• Adjust the Filter Strength on Instagram on Android
• Turn Off Instagram Comments on Android
• View Instagram Stories on iPhone or iPad
• Delete Your Story on Instagram on iPhone or iPad
• Hide Hashtags on Instagram on Android
• Download Videos on Instagram on Android

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• Become Instagram Famous
• Find People on Instagram
• Get Instagram on Your Android Phone
• Have a Good Instagram