I don't understand Instagram

[tirediron]

What's a hash tag?

 

[table1349]

What's a hash tag?

 

[Derrel]

Get those butter knives ready...

 

[jcdeboever]

What's a hash tag?

I got 4 lobbed off my neck last week.

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[nerwin]

So I all I need to do is post cats, sunset, healthy food, sunglasses, feet and I'll be famous?

 

[Derrel]

So I all I need to do is post cats, sunset, healthy food, sunglasses, feet and I'll be famous?

Throw in a healthy dose of tig biddies, curvy tushies, and exotic locales and you'll be golden...

 

[nerwin]

You guys are killing it today haha.

 

[denada]

while the the best social media marketing guides are written by teenagers, this forbes article isn't a terrible start. i'm new to instagram and haven't quite figured out how to rack up the followers like i can on the platforms i use for my day job, but i intend to figure it out and will share once i do. so far i can tell you ...

there's never a reason to post with less than 30 tags. if you add those tags while making the original post, instead of clicking edit, it will show you how many times that tag has been used and also present options, allowing you to identify and use popular tags.

don't always use the same tags for every photo. you don't want to always fish from the same pond.

you should be using something like crowdfire and/or unfollowers/statusbrew.

unlike twitter, you cannot do the classic follow and then a week later dump all those who didn't follow back. because instagram limits your unfollow per hour rate. and you do not want to have a follower/following ratio that leans heavily on the following side, because everyone is a digital marketer today and they know that, if you do not have a balanced or positive ratio, they don't need to follow back to keep you as a follower. or that your follow isn't genuine.

different than "likes" that become just a number after 10, comments create a link to your profile and are much more meaningful to the account receiving them.

if instagram is like most other social media platforms -- and it most likely is in this regard -- then a steady stream of content will beat a sudden flood followed by periods of inactivity.

like all image sharing social media platforms, a good strategy is to like and/or comment on a few of photos from an account in your target audience and then follow, instead of just mass clicking follow. again, everyone is a social media marketer and, if you just follow, they know you're fishing.

while following like crazy is a bad idea because of instagram's unfollow limit, sometimes liking like crazy in a relevant hashtag is a good way to spend a few idle minutes. you'll get more likes and comments than follows in return, but you'll still get some follows. and maybe some of those likes are genuine. again, don't always fish from the same pond. and don't only chose photographer hashtags like "butfilmnotmegapixels," or you'll just be bumping a bunch of users like yourself who are looking for followers over followable content.

there are "feature accounts," which i imagine are of immense value as there is not otherwise much of a reblog culture on instagram. i'm not even sure you can reblog without a 3rd party app. i'm yet to explore the potential of these accounts, which will selectively post photos with credit and a link to original account, because i always forget about them when choosing my hashtags.

of course don't be too conceited. instagram does not exist for one user. like the forbes article mentions, genuine interaction is still of value -- despite all the guerrilla tactics at your disposal. in addition to quality followers, genuine interaction is the idea behind sharing on the platform.

oh yeah, and plug your account on other social media platforms and websites in a respectable, non-spamming manner. looks like you can include it in a signature here.

 

[robbins.photo]

Kittens and girls? Is that your subject matter? If not, you know Why!.

Girls wearing kittens?

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[table1349]

The soul purpose for instagram....

 

[bhop]

You guys can make fun of instagram all you like, but I know people that make money using it. It's a form of exposure with millions of users. To dismiss it so easily because you "think" it's just about food and cats is a bad move.

 

[table1349]

 

[gckless]

Instagram is definitely another valuable social media platform. There are plenty of photogs on there, and plenty of people (mostly women, granted) making money selling various items. I see it a lot with gym supplements. Or cleansing teas. Or teeth whitening. Again, all women advertising for them. But maybe that's just what I'm seeing.

There are a ton of people on IG. A ton of potential, and past clients. And all those people are eager to share awesome photos, getting your name out there in the process. Kinda laughable the people making fun of IG in here, showing their age and disconnection with some of the references. There is a niche for everyone there; just as you choose to follow certain people on Facebook or Flickr or the like and fill your news feed with that content, you can do the same with IG.

I'm with you though, I have just under 200 right now and just started being more active about a half a year ago. Remember, be consistent with what you post. People are fickle, and if you deviate too much or too long with your content subject, your niche, then you will probably lose the interest you thought you had.

According to an on-line IG guru whose three-video blast I watched last week, HASHTAGGING your images, in the comments, NOT directly in your caption, is the understood way to draw followers. You upload an image and them immediately hashtag it with the maximum allowable number of tags, 30, and then wait for the followers to come rolling in. ( lol )

GO to TagsForLikes, and get an idea of the most-popular hashtags. THey have them in copy and paste format. Pick some tags, and paste them to the clipboard or Notes in your phone...upload image...make comment and in that comment, paste in your 30 tags,

TagsForLikes

see the #followforfollow tag???? Whoring is the world's oldest profession. Instagram whoring is much newer, and more trendy.

Whores have always know what their customers were really,really looking for. Today, people search by hashtags, and ones in the comments are more easily searched, as I understand it, according to whatzhisname's video series. If you are not using the most-popular hashtags, your stuff will simply be buried under the digital avalanche that IG has become. There are also tons of like-for-like people.

You also need REGULAR, fairly predictable new content uploads, or so everybody says. Of course, IG can also be kept small, and personal, and private, or friend- and family-centric.

Was that video filmed recently? Instagram changed their rules, now the photo doesn't get bumped, it gets added to the hashtag pool based on the time the photo was originally uploaded, not the time the hashtag was added. So, being as many of those hashtags have photos being posted literally every couple seconds, it's best to add them as quickly as you can after the photo is uploaded so it doesn't get buried in the muck. And you can't get quicker than the description. But on the other hand, if you're sharing that photo out to other platforms, all those hashtags look ridiculous in the description and would be better off in the comments. No end-all-be-all answer, just like many things.

IG Update! How to Use Hashtags on Instagram Now



Edit: this is just my opinion. Thought that was worth reiterating lol.

 

[robbins.photo]

You guys can make fun of instagram all you like, but I know people that make money using it. It's a form of exposure with millions of users. To dismiss it so easily because you "think" it's just about food and cats is a bad move.

Well, not if I'm not trying to sell my services as a photographer.. which, I'm not, since.. well, I'm not a professional photographer.

So for me and a lot of others, Instagram would be nothing but a huge waste of time.

 

[table1349]