Instagram Tips

Now you have produced a fabulous image, what are you going to do with it?

Well post it on Instagram, of course!!

What is Instagram?
Instagram is an on-line photo-sharing and social networking media site, with over 100 million users.  So potentially 100 million people can view your image, thats BIG coverage!!
But as you might have guessed it's not that easy.  You need to make your image visable and for this you need followers and you need good tags

Followers
The more followers you have then the more people see your image, there are quite a few steps you can take to gain followers.  Search for photographers to follow by looking at who other people follow, some follow back automatically, but just following and liking their images is sometimes not enough for you to be visible to them.  A way around this problem is to have personality, try and comment on as many images as you can, not with 'Great' or 'Super' but try and think why you like their image.  Add comments such as 'I love the way the light is hitting the water' or 'What an evocative style you have' or 'The shapes on this are amazing'  give your comments personality, the artist WILL comment back and most likely look at your images and if they are good enough the artist will follow.

Tags
Good tags are a way of advertising your image, if you use good tags then a lot of people will see your image.  A similar system is used on Twitter. When you tag your image #flower and then do a search under the category #flower then you will see that many thousands of images are also tagged to this and so your image soon gets lost in the numbers.  Therefore it is better to find tags that are more specialized.  I have found that the best way to tag an image is to find accounts that run daily features and challenges.  So not only do you get other instagram users looking at the tag to see what the competition is but also you have a chance of your image being featured by the account and therefore all the accounts followers will have the opportunity of viewing your image and you get that lovely warm fuzzy feeling of your picture being featured.  Being featured by a big account is not only exciting but it will gain you a lot of followers, don't forget to thank all those lovely people who congratulate you and why not look at their galleries and see if they are worth a follow.

Here are some great featuring account to follow;

@Rainbow_Wall
@Rainbow_Wall_BW
@Rainbow_Wall_Splash
@Youmustsee
@Photowall
@Marvelshots
@Phototerminal
@Photolocker
@IG_snapshots
@Picsta
@Eclectic_photos
@Igdaily
@Most_Deserving
@jaw_dropping_shots
@gang_family
@joshjohnson


Commenting on Features
Another great way to obtain visibility to many other Instagram users is to comment on feature accounts.  If you look at the account @Rainbow_Wall you will see that they have a daily collage, a solo feature and a weekly challenge.  Make sure that you congratulate each one of the artists and tell them how good their image  is .  They will more than likely wonder who you are and then take a look in your gallery and see how good your photos are and undoubtedly follow you.

Enjoy
Instagram is a great fun place to meet fellow-minded artists, you are in the same place for the same reason.  Have a chat, ask questions but most of all enjoy the experience of being part of the coolest App!!!