STEPS TO INSTAGRAM FAME
The Very Beginning
Since its inception as the photo/short video sharing tool, instagram has been fairly successful in drawing people out. Giving a unique touch to the concept of photo sharing, and rolling out tons of editing options, instagram has indeed become a hub for the audience. Since the line between professional and amateur has been blurred by the edits, it is a playground for all alike. People are going an extra mile to fill out their accounts with artistically sound and pleasing visuals. Basically instagram from the very beginning is all about the visuals.
The number of followers you find is not by how much you put on the platter, but how beautifully you can arrange them to make it visually appealing. You have tough competitors out there, ranging from professionals who have studied about them to the prodigies who are doing them from birth. You have to wade through celebrities, personalities, politicians and the cute dog and cat posts if you want to make your mark. Instagram no longer remains as solely the platform for befriending people but has also extended to promotions and advertising platforms.
Hence, to make your profile stand out among the crowd you must take the right steps.
Attractive Profile a.k.a. first step to get followers.
Profile Photo –
The first and foremost step is to have an eye-catching profile photo. The profile photo gives an insight of who you really are. So post a photo that best defines you. It can be funny, goofy, beautiful or elegant. It’s your pick on how you want to define yourself. It’s not about restricting yourself to a particular emotion, but to put out the image that resembles what your feed is mostly about. A profile picture is the first thing that attracts attention and is one of the two things that are displayed while searching the handle/account.
Hence avoid putting up blurry or vague photographs as it deters the viewers. If your account is for business purposes, then having the company logo as the profile photo is best. Since in the long term, it helps in the recognition of the brand. If your brand logo is pretty long and does not fit into the standard size without avoiding blurring out, shift to another high end version of it or a symbol.
Since the profile photo cannot be zoomed in, it’s better to fill it up with your logo so that viewers don’t have to strain themselves. In addition to it, keep in mind that instagram cuts off the photograph to make it circular. Hence anything outside the circle will be cropped off. Therefore it is mandatory to look for photographs of the right size.
The background color should be attractive, but at the same time should not garner much attention from the scene since it’s you who must stand out. Hence, you can opt for bold or pastel colors depending on your choice so that it compliments you and your feed. You can also add props to highlight what the account is all about.
For example, if you are a traveler, you can put up a photograph of yourself amidst a breathtaking view and if you are a photographer, you can use your camera as your prop. Keep in mind your photograph should look professional enough to pique people’s interest about you. It must not by any means pass on a negative view about you.
Username And Display Name –
While searching for a handle, the other thing that comes up along with your profile photo is your username along with your display name. So go for quirky handles so that you may not be in the shadow of popular brands or personalities.
However, quirkiness does not mean you go off the grid. Your username may give a direct reference to your work, for example photographers can go with user names such as crazy, creative, photographer, retro photographer etc. as these all give a direct inference that you mean photography through your handle. Or you can use offshoot names that can trigger a sense of curiosity. Say for the same example, you can also go with the handle names like –through lense, captured…etc. Each name adds a distinct aura and may draw people to your page.
Your display name should not necessarily be an expansion of your username. You have creative liberty of taking up names and pseudo names. Generally people use lingoes or their real name to increase the visibility of their account.
Since username is not something you might wish to change over many times, it’s important to give enough time and thought while deciding the names for your handle. Since your username or handle also directly indicates the target audience, it is important to come up with names that can help you with being easily recognizable.
There are dedicated sites online which can help you with a wide range of options ranging from cool to cute names.
BIO –
Now that you have successfully managed to guide the viewers to your profile, you can use your bio to make your account look appealing. Be straight and pinpoint the facts about what it means to follow you. You can personally or superficially mention the person you are. Since it is the first impression that you give about yourself, you must not be sloppy. If it’s just your personal account and you have no idea about how to start, just think about two to three words that pop up in your mind when you think about yourself. Then weave your bio around it and add emojis to your likings. You can also top up with inspirational quotes or badass one liner to make your point stand apart.
If your account is about business, then you can always mention the establishment year, as older the brand, more trust people show. If you are relatively new to business outing, highlight your goals and ideals. For example #healthylife. You can also add links that officially direct them to your website or facebook page. An official address further adds the credibility to your page. If you don’t have an official address yet or you work from home, add the area/ city of your work. In addition to it you can choose a business category as it provides you with more opportunities than having a common account.
Option Between Private And Public –
So basically if your account is private this is the limit till where your account can be viewed. Only a person following you can see your posts. Hence, if you plan to remain private, either you must impress the person with your bio, or you must be some phenomenally popular personality that your name itself draws people. Having a private account often sends a mysterious outlook for the account. So if you mean business or you want to increase your visibility make it private.
By default when you open an account in instagram, your account is public. So if you are using the account for personal preference and do not want to show the world, switch to private mode. In public mode, people can view posts even if they are not following. In this way, you are actually promoting your page by presenting whatever you want onto the platter. People can browse through them and if it caters to them they will follow you to have updates for your content. It’s a common site where various personalities and big brands have made their account public to gain much larger access to the people. However, is being public the only way out?
The answer is no. A new trend is being observed where people ( i.e. brands and memes pages ) are turning their accounts private so as to have large followers. They are aiming to provide exclusive contents, since only people who follow them will have exclusive access to it. The key here is to establish a good and loyal fan base, through your public account. Then change the settings to private. The loyal fans wouldn’t mind following you to get the contents. But the catch is that, for your tactic to work, you must have a sufficiently large base so that you avoid the risk of being private.
Hence, it’s your choice to pick. There are enough strategies to gain followers with both private as well as public accounts. But for the starting, it’s better to keep your accounts public as it increases your chance of engaging with the viewers.
Feeds
What sticks the gaze of people and make them follow you is absolutely the post. How engaging and aesthetic a treat is your feed, has a large role to play to get followers. And this basically depends on your content. Say for example if you are a photographer, you can put together photos which are mesmerizing to catch the attention of people. But if your page rolls out memes then aesthetic beauty is not your priority. It’s the quality and content of memes.
Some people create mesh or grid views to keep their feeds interesting. That is they break up photos in such a way that when viewed in feed it gives off a unique look. Since the photos are arranged in columns of three per row, photographs can be cut in various ways to bring out a refreshing feel. Though the individual post may not add any meaning, creativity has no limits. Another fun way is experimenting with colors and different hues of the same color.
Fill your feeds with different photographs, but with background in similar hue. This gives off an eye pleasing effect and vibes. You can experiment with contrasting colors or monotones. You can also experiment by changing the ratio of photographs, by simply adding white borders to the photograph of your choice. The choices are innumerable. But you must choose according to what fits your style and content the best. One fit does not fit all. Most importantly, your content must be for the audience, not to be just pleasing to eyes.
Posts –
The photos you update must be of good quality. Remember you are fighting against people who are professional. So if your photos are either blurry/ not focused or fails to convey the desired message, you are at great loss. So you must not compromise on quality. Instagram provides a range of editing options. Otherwise also there are tons of apps that can modify your images. Hence it’s advisable to avail the benefits of the filters and to bring out the best in each photograph.
There are a whole lot of effects and angles. A single photograph taken from different angles gives off different looks. You can experiment with shadows, flaring effects, shimmers … etc. Do not use unnecessary props that may shift the impact from the main topic. Adhere to the topic of your account until and unless it is a blog.
It’s important to maintain connection with the followers so that they may be engaged and hence do not unfollow you. If you are a blogger, come up with out of the box or surprise the followers with small yet meaningful things about yourself. If you are not able to post for some time, keep an update with the followers through stories. Still there are times where you cannot post things easily, like when it comes to business marketing. Then it’s advisable to present older products in a new light or spice things up by collaborating or fusion. Because if you are not able to engage, the followers won’t really want to keep following you.
Content And Target Audience –
A huge credit for the number of followers obviously goes to the content you plan to give out and the target audience. The youth belonging to the age group of 18 to 24 fills up to 75%of the audience on instagram. Though the numbers may vary, the percent populations of people beyond 65, who are on instagram, do not go more than 8. So if your target audience is the senior citizen, maybe instagram is not your go to online advertisement site.
Hence, it’s important to keep your matter/ content which is liked by the viewing population. For example, topics like humour are top picks. Hence it’s common that sites that put contents like short videos, or even memes find popularity more easily and faster than others. Other contents like cute animal videos and satisfying videos are quite popular too. The contents that are relatable and easy going are more loved and accepted than the hard hitting ones, as being on instagram or any other social media is a way to unwind oneself.
So basically if your content is not about the underlying issues of the society look and point towards the brighter side. Even if you are giving out the same things as others, try to find your own niche and area of expertise. For a simple example, even if the account is about memes, one can have different target audiences like BTS memes, memes on science, school life, sarcastic memes…etc. All may be putting out memes, but each have a separate audience group to whom they cater. Hence, ideally it’s important to choose the content you want to put up with.
You must not run dry of the idea, hence something you are passionate about is the best option. But if it is about business, and you get stuck, relax. Dead-end is what most of the people feel. So if you reach a dead-end, remember it’s time to revive or renew. Try other alternatives to keep yourself and followers engaged.
When You Can’t Find Success, Make It –
Ideally, it would be great if you are successful in finding followers by following the above points. But it’s a sad story that not every person has a fairy tale ending. Even if you spend day in and out to make contents that are praiseworthy or are working hard to promote your brand, getting followers on Instagram is not as easy it seems.
One of the main reasons is that instagram is supersaturated with content creators. With 26.9 million users and almost half of them content creators, it’s hard to make your stand and to get noticed. Moreover, availability of similar contents or being a brand with little or no face value doesn’t help at all. So even if you create authentic content, it does not have a market value because people are not getting exposure to it. So how can you increase or give a boost to your account?
The answer simply lies in buying the instagram likes and followers. There are service providers who provide these quick and rather cheap services to increase your numbers. Please note that availing benefits of these services do not entirely fall under the principles of instagram’s guide and regulation. Instagram too just like other media platforms have an internal algorithm/ analytic that scans over fake and real profiles. And these followers that we usually get are AI bots or fake accounts which usually do not add any percent increase in engagement.
In addition to it there also runs a high chances of risk of being found out and the resultant loss of credibility that you’ve gained over.
But still why do we find this as a common practice for many beginner wannabes? The answer is to increase their visibility. Online is just as ruthless as the real world is. If you are not cut above, you’ll soon have to pack your bags. These cheap services provide the easiest opportunity for the first step. Whatever the people might say numbers do matter. If any company would want to invest in you it is probably only because of your number of followers. Starting from scratch is a really difficult and tiresome process.
Many bloggers and influencers do admit to buying these followers during the initial days of their career. These services provide you with instant rise in the followers within the time span. It’s an obvious point that accounts with large numbers of followers find more visibility in other’s explore tabs. A large number of followers also pique the interest of people and it draws people to your page. It is worth taking a risk if it’s between choosing survival of your account or taking it down. If their contents are worth it, it may draw some followers who might keep the business running.
There are providers who provide organic likes and followers. But the credibility is uncertain. Because of the stricter policies by instagram against the fraudsters, the transactions have become secretive.
However, you can still find tons of providers online. So was the effort worth it? Do you get your money’s worth? It is difficult to answer as many factors are involved in being famous. You cannot be assured of success just by getting a few hundred followers.
This buying phenomenon is seen as a vicious cycle, where a buyer is seen as a potential regular customer. They periodically buy to increase the followers, a step by step strategy to avoid suspicion. There are many ways your fakeness can be unmasked by just going through your followers list. Often these service providers also follow famous personalities to increase their reach. But the most important is not to become a regular pawn for these operators, as this simply means your content is not ringing the right chord with the audience.Since the brands are paying you for endorsements based on your appeal, you are cheating others of money and trust.
The Conclusion
Being instagram famous is as difficult and painstaking as the other jobs. If you don’t have the right guide and opportunity you might not make it. Though there are numerous examples where people have indeed grown their accounts organically, the numbers are few. If your reach is limited at the growth, you might not be able to spread your wings far apart. Hence buying followers and likes seems the most tempting and easy method. Though it may not guarantee you success or the satisfaction, it provides you opportunity for your account to grow over time.
