Instagaining

Some people seem to be more technologically savvy than others. But why is that? Is it the way that their pictures are organized? Or is it more so the consistency of frequent posts, that seem to keep the likes flowing and the comments going. Instagramming is more of an art, than just having another form of social media- and believe it or not if your profile doesn’t catch an eye or seems to bounce from one topic to the other, it’s not going to feel very appealing to anyone else. We always seem to envy people that appear to have everything together in person, but what about on a screen? Initially when you search for someone, your first perception of them will be whatever you find on their accounts. Instagram is projecting that so far in 2018, there are roughly 800 million monthly active Instagram users. That’s a whole lot of people that have the ability to search you, so might as well make yourself as presentable as possible. Believe it or not there are actually a series of practices that are easy to follow, to help you gain more knowledge about graming, and to really make your pages pop!  Here’s what we know.

• Obviously the main aspect of Instagram is the quality of your pictures.
  •  It might be difficult if your camera is sub-par... but if that’s the case then you can learn how to enhance a picture’s quality by changing the filters around. If the picture seems too blurry, you can sharpen it, if it seems like it is too dark you can brighten it. Simple little things that can really go a long way, because if people can’t see the quality of the memories your capturing, what’s the point? Always keep in mind that using too many fixtures in your photos CAN distort them! There is such a thing as Too. Much. Filtering. If you turn up your saturation too high, it can screw up the pigmentation in the photo, causing it to look completely unnatural and unrealistic…and nobody wants to look like they came fresh out of a coloring book.
• PICK A THEME!
  • If you follow someone and they have an old picture from when they were a 2007 track star, and then a meme about New England weather, and then another picture with a cliché quote like “Summer 2018, please be good to me” YOU’RE GOING TO DRIVE EVERYONE INSANE!!! Do you have a color scheme? Are you just posting pictures of memes? Baby animals? Working out? If your profile is constantly all over the place and doesn’t seem to have any structure or characteristics that portray your personality, you’re going to be really disappointed with the results. You can even get really into it by making sure all your photos are shaped the same, third party apps can allow you to place a border around the edges of your picture, so that it fits the full thing. Then when you step back, and have done this for a few posts in a row- your grid will be much more satisfying.
• Hashtags are not as bad of an idea as you would think, but only will really be relevant if your profile is public.
  •  If you’re trying to get a picture out there for everyone to see, and you want your posts to be shared or liked, a hashtag is a great way to bring people together. But you can’t just do any hashtag, it has to be somewhat of a quality hashtag. #puppy #lol #shessocute, isn’t really going to be one that gets frequently clicked on, so why put it there anyway? You want your hashtag to be something that people think about on a regular basis given the topic of whatever you’re posting about. Along with hashtags, links are pretty relevant as well. If you have another form of social media that you want people to know about, throwing a link in your bio won’t hurt. That way if people want to know more about you there’s no barrier. Even if it’s a link to a site that has nothing to do with you, and is just something that you’re passionate about that you would want someone to click on. For me, in my personal Instagram bio I have a link that brings you to a petition about a matter that I am extremely passionate about.
• Make sure you’re not waiting until forever to post something, posting should be FUN not stressful!
  • It does depend on what kind of profile you’re trying to set up to viewers, so if you have a business-posting every day or at least every other day to keep your content relevant and fresh to those who follow you is important. It continues to get your brand awareness out there, it will continue to show people how you make yourself known, how passionate you are about your company, and you can even use posting as a countdown for upcoming events that your viewers can attend.

Most importantly, social media platforms help you overall to stay connected to those that really matter. Instagram is one of the best outlets for this purpose because it allows you to capture memories and revisit them whenever you want. Not only is Instagram just a spot for you to upload daily, but it also lets you share to Facebook as well if you link the two. In other words, you get to kill two birds with one stone and share all your pictures, just about everywhere! Another thing with Instagram that has become super popular is being able to share posts directly with other friends. Not only is it fun to share laughs and stories via pictures, and videos but it’s basically free advertising for who/whatever you’re sharing!
Whether you’re selling yourself or your company, put your clicks to the test and your best palm forward☺.

Xoxo📷,
Alayna Anderson
Editorial Contributor
Intern & Mini Badass in Training 
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