Instagram

5 Things to Help You with Instagram by Oliver Asis

Instagram today is the most active photography community online.  Many photographers are using that platform to share their work, build community, and make friends.  With the popularity of Instagram today it may be difficult to get your work seen.  But by doing some things consistently and dedicating some time you can have your work seen.  In the following post I will share with you 5 ways to help get you

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1.  Focus on your Instagram photos

Instagram is all about photos.  Select and share your best work.  Keep your photos consistent to a central theme or genre, like nature or food photography.  Don't mix.  Focusing on the certain genre of photography makes your Instagram account more attractive to your intended audience.

2.  Fill out Your Profile Completely

Your Instagram profile is very important.  This gives your audience a quick way to get to know you.  Fill it out completely.  Fill out your name, your handle, your website, write a 150 character long bio about you and your photography, and select a user profile picture of you, not your logo.  With this completely filled out it will make your profile look complete and give a better impression.  It only takes a couple of seconds for people to determine if they want to look at your Instagram or not.  Make a profile that makes them want to see more and get to you know.

3.  Follow Accounts in the same genre of your photos

Instagram is about community.  Find your community by following people you know, and take the same types or style of photographs as you.  Doing this you will get to know your follow photographers and they will get to know you.  Don't follow accounts for just to follow.  Follow them because you genuinely like their photographs.

4.  Engage

After following an account.  Engage with that account.  Look through their feed.  Like their photos.  Leave a them a genuine comment on their photographs, if you like it.  Let them know why.  And just don't do this once, check out their feed every so often and repeat the previously mentioned engagement method.  Do this enough with the account and they will return the favor by doing the same and even a follow you back.  And if you build a good rapport with each other, you could start a great friendship.

5.  Be consistent with your posting

To get some traction with activity on Instagram you need to engage with it daily.  Doing it once a day is great start.  However I have found doing it 2 to 3 times through the day, results with more activity.  Doing this helps to build your reputation and portfolio.  You audience is more likely to engage with you if you post daily than if you did it sporadically.  I suggest set aside a time to post and repeat it daily.  Over time you can lessen your post as your audience has grow accustom to you. 

Bonus:  Use Hashtags

One of the quickest ways to have your photo seen is by using hashtags.  Hashtags (#....) is a way to classify your work and have your work seen in different Instagram communities.  Some accounts or events will have "official" hashtags that you can use, so they can find your photo.  Use appropriate hashtags.  Do not hashtag your photo as #dog if it is a photo of a cat.  The audience searching #dog will see a cat photo and possibly get annoyed that you did this.  So keep things relevant.  And know you can have up to 30 hashtags per photo.

Continue the mention methods above and you have set yourself up for success.  Remember it will take some time to get a good quality following.  But with persistence, great work, and good quality engagement, you will have amassed a great audience for your work.

What other methods have you found work to get your Instagram photos seen?  Leave your response in the comments.