The Do's and Don'ts of Instagram (2)
That's the best way to build a community. The best Instagram profiles have some kind of niche, theme or style, be sure to find yours whatever it is.
7. Don't – abuse hashtags In my opinion your goal should be to have real followers, create a real loyal community of people who are interested in what you're posting. I always think about if I were to not use any hashtags at all, I would still get the same amount of likes on my pictures. And it does happen, I've left off hashtags on purpose before to see. I've tried a lot of things over the years and I've found that specific, very relevant hashtags work the best. I tend to use the place where I am, the country, and really relevant hashtags around it or ones from bigger profiles that feature other users.
Do not waste your time with using the most popular hashtags out there because it's usually not real people who are engaging on it. I know some “top bloggers” who use the copy, paste, delete, copy, paste method of going through mass hashtags, 30 at a time to build the number of likes on each photo, but that's just another way to trick the system and can get you in trouble. For example #IGTravelThursday was created by my friend Katja at Skimbaco and that is a great, specific one you can use for travel. It's way more effective than using #travel. Same goes for Iceland. My friend Inga at Tiny Iceland created #TripInIceland that has been really successful.
8. Do – try and get featured by bigger profiles
This one is tricky and difficult to manage, but it works. If you can get yourself featured by bigger profiles, it will get you a lot of followers quickly. That being said, you need to get featured by RELEVANT big profiles so it matches.
Maybe it's a country's page that reshares the best photos, or it's a clothing brand you like or an airline. Maybe it's one of those big travel ones that just share amazing travel photos by other people. Whatever, try and get featured by them by participating on their hashtags and interacting with them. Tag them in your photo as a picture of themselves as well, don't tag them in a comment as they likely won't see that. They will see pictures they are tagged in.
That's a great way to get a brand's attention, again, as long as it's very relevant to what you're posting. 9. Don't – be afraid to be creative Instagram rewards creativity. If you come up with a creative idea or project, most likely it will be successful. Remember that Follow Me To guy? Murad Osman? He's huge now. His idea of being led around the world by his (super hot russian model) girlfriend was brilliant. And he went viral.
That happens a lot on Instagram, often on a much smaller but still successful scale. These are the types of profiles that Instagram loves to feature on their main page.
I remember years ago when I started following @Tianapix who takes the most beautiful iPhone shots around Florence. She then started a second account called Not My Nonni -featuring adorable street shots of grandparents around Italy which went on to be featured by Instagram.
This also works because oftentimes the best accounts are ones where the pictures tell a story.
It's really important to know your voice and know your brand when your trying to build a following on Instagram. Like Melissa says, this is YOUR platform after all. It's YOUR voice. But, DO NOT copy others.
Inspiration is totally acceptable, we all use it in our own ways but try not to copy what other people are doing. It pays to think outside the box and be creative, and that can lead to a serious bump in followers.
In the meantime it's really important to stay true to your voice and your brand and not take on jobs that do not match up with your core ideas. Same goes for blogging.
10. Do – keep at and don't give up Finally keep at it and don't give up. Don't expect a change overnight. It takes a lot of time to build a following on Instagram, so be patient.
Your profile will grow if you keep at it and don't give up and stop posting for a week. In the grand scheme of things, I am pretty lazy and I really don't put that much time into all of this. Once you figure out a system, it's very very easy. Like all things that are worth it, you have to work for it. Success and Instagram fame isn't going to just fall into your lap.
