How to Have a Good Instagram

Co-authored by Ramin Ahmari

Last Updated: June 12, 2022 References

This wikiHow will teach you how to make a great Instagram that gets the most number of likes and follows as possible. There are actually proven ways to make your Instagram more successful, and we'll cover the best strategies below. From upping your picture game and using hashtags strategically to posting at the right time of day and finding your Instagram niche, we've got you covered!

1

Edit your pictures before posting them.

A good Instagram account needs polished, high-quality pictures. Thankfully, the app has a variety of editing options, depending on what version you have and what kind of camera you have. It's always important to spend a little bit of time tweaking your pictures to make sure they're visually appealing and the best representation of your page.^{[1]
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Research source}
- Crop pictures to emphasize their symmetry and the most important parts of the picture. Leave out the borders and the other silly stuff.^{[2]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Annie Tao
  Professional Photographer
  Expert Interview. 3 March 2021.}
- Sample the different pre-set filters to find out which makes your picture look best. If it looks best untouched, leave it alone.
- Shift the levels manually, adjusting brightness, tint, and other features. You can always switch it back if you liked the way it looked originally.
- Use other photo editors along with Instagram. Snapped, Camera+, VSCO Cam, Photoshop Touch, and other filter apps are all great ways to crop, filter, and touch-up your pictures before putting them on Instagram.^{[3]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Annie Tao
  Professional Photographer
  Expert Interview. 3 March 2021.}

2

Keep your pictures simple.

Good photos on Instagram should be uncluttered and simple, not blurry and vague.^{[4]
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Expert Source

Annie Tao
Professional Photographer
Expert Interview. 3 March 2021.} If you want to take a picture of your hamburger, take a picture of your hamburger, not yourself holding your hamburger up to your face while you're making a duck-face with your friends.

3

Take lots of different kinds of pictures.

People won’t want to see the same type of photo over and over again. Think of creative ways to vary your theme so you don't have to take the same picture on repeat.
- If you take cooking pictures, you don't always have to take the picture of the food on the plate after you've made it. Consider taking a picture of all the ingredients laid out before you get started, or take a picture of your boyfriend's face after he sees what you're making. Take a picture of the empty plates when you’re done with the meal.^{[5]
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- Spend time digging around on Instagram to see how popular accounts post pictures to get ideas if you're feeling stuck. Research is always a good idea.

4

Space out your uploads.

You don’t want to clump up your feed with a ton of pictures. If you upload a bunch at once, it might turn people off, or they'll miss a bunch of your content entirely and you'll have wasted it.
- When you're on vacation, don't wait until you get back to post vacation pics. Post them in real-time so people can stay up to date on what you're doing.
- If you just took seven pictures of your cat, don't just dump them all onto Instagram unless they help to tell a story of some sort. Wait until you need some pictures later, if you've got too many good ones to use right now.

5

Update your camera.

High-quality pictures will make your Instagram stand out. Keep in mind that newer phones have better cameras. So, if your pictures don't look as good as some of the pictures you notice on your feed, it might be time to update your phone so you can take pictures in higher definition. If you can afford it, it's always a good idea to update if you want a good Instagram page.^{[6]
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Expert Source

Annie Tao
Professional Photographer
Expert Interview. 3 March 2021.}
- You don't have to take pictures on your phone to upload them to Instagram. You can access Instagram from your computer as well, and upload pictures taken from a more professional digital camera, if you have one.^{[7]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Annie Tao
  Professional Photographer
  Expert Interview. 3 March 2021.}

6

Post at the right time.

Early morning and early evening are the best times to post. In fact, some studies show that most people are checking Instagram between 6 and 8 am, and between 5 and 8 pm. If you want to get more likes, it's important to post when the most people will be looking. If you've got pictures to post, wait until those times to post them.

7

Use popular hashtags.

Hashtags make it easier for people to find your content. Anything you post in the caption following a "#" can be searched via Instagram. You can use as many different hashtags as are appropriate for the picture to get your photos to as large an audience as possible. There are lots of trendy hashtags that you can latch your pictures onto, including the following:
- #love
- #instagood
- #follow
- #tbt
- #cute
- #happy
- #girl
- #fun
- #summer
- #instadaily
- #food
- #picoftheday

8

Choose the right hashtags.

It's good to use hashtags, but you don't want to overdo it. Make sure that you're using appropriate descriptions that match the pictures that you're taking.
- Do a little research to make sure that you find the most popular hashtag for a given subject. The difference between the number of photos that use #dog and #dogs and #collie is huge, for example.
- It's usually better to use specific hashtags since there will be less competition—people will have an easier time discovering you.^{[8]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Ramin Ahmari
  Social Media Expert
  Expert Interview. 5 April 2019.}

9

Use hashtags to attract followers.

Follow-for-follow tags can help boost your Instagram presence. Scroll through the pictures tagged #follow4follow or #f4f and follow a bunch of people with that posted. Then, post a couple of pictures with the same hashtags. Several people should follow you back, based on the use of that hashtag. It's an easy way to gain followers quickly.
- Always follow back the people who follow you. Lots of people want to gain followers and will just unfollow people who don't follow them back. If you want to keep people subscribed to your channel, follow them as well.

10

Pick relevant hashtags.

Hashtags are very effective if used properly. Choose hashtags that will attract your niche; for example, if you want to attract people from your city, use the hashtags that are used most in the city.

11

Use geotags.

Geotags make it easier for people to find your pictures and like them. With geotags, you can tag your photos, which your phone can read based on your GPS. Often, you can do this at a particular restaurant or other specific location to give some love to the business that you're patronizing, or you can just connect your picture to a particular city.

12

Choose hashtags designed for getting likes.

Like-for-like tags can help your posts get a little extra traffic. If you're just looking to pad your stats with some quick likes, try posting pictures with #like4like or #l4l. Scroll through the pictures and like lots of them very quickly, then post your own pictures with the same hashtags. You should attract a number of likes fairly quickly.

13

Follow current Instagram trends when posting.

It's a good idea to stay current on what's popular in your Instagram feed. See all your friends posting under a similar hashtag? Figure out what it's all about and post your own pictures under that hashtag. Here are a few popular Insta-trends:
- Throwback Thursday (#tbt)
- Woman-crush Wednesday (#wcw)
- Pictures without filters (#nofilter)
- Selfies (#selfie)
- Old pictures (#latergram)

14

Follow lots of people.

Following lots of people is a surefire way to get followers. Even though it might seem "cool" to follow fewer people than follow you, it's almost impossible unless you're already famous or put some serious work into it. The way to start? Follow lots of people. You can always unfollow them later.
- Link your Instagram to your other social networking accounts and follow all your friends who are on Instagram. Then search popular hashtags and hashtags for subjects you're interested in. Follow a couple dozen accounts there as well.
- Follow very popular accounts, like One Direction, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian. This often gains a fair number of followers immediately.

15

Comment on lots of people's pictures.

Engaging with other people is a key part of a good Instagram. Look through hashtags that you like and like pictures that you find, randomly. Then comment with positive little messages like, "Great shot!" or "Love this!" Like the pictures and follow the accounts. If you do, people will be much more likely to follow you back.
- Always be positive and real. Don't just copy and paste the same message onto a couple hundred pictures. Try to tailor it to the specific pictures that you find. You'll be more likely to gain followers if people think you're not a robot.

16

Interact with your followers.

Interacting with your followers proves that you’re worth following.^{[9]
X
Expert Source

Ramin Ahmari
Social Media Expert
Expert Interview. 5 April 2019.} If someone comments on your picture, like their comment and comment back. If someone likes your picture, like one of their pictures and follow them back. Be a good friend on Instagram and keep things positive.
- Don't spam. It's common for people to scroll through and bomb popular pictures with things like, "Hey follow me!" This is extremely unpopular and will lose you followers.
- Do shoutouts. If you like someone's picture, post a picture and shout out their account in the comments and encourage your followers to follow them. This is a good way to spread goodwill.

17

Post regularly to avoid losing followers.

Post 1-3 times per day to attract and maintain your follower count. If you post sporadically, some people will stop following you because you seem inactive. Aim to post at least every day.^{[10]
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- Save a few photos back to post tomorrow, if you have them. Spread it out instead of wasting them all today.
- At the same time, you want to avoid posting too often. If you regularly bomb someone's feed with fifty pictures from your vacation, you may lose some followers over it.

18

Shout someone out.

Shoutouts are a great way to boost your Instagram content. Start by finding a stunning photo on the explore page that compliments your account. Then, post it and shoutout the individual you got the photo from.

19

Pick a theme for your page.

Good, popular, Instagram pages usually have a common unifying theme. This is also called a "niche," and it can attract a lot of followers. If you want to have a good page, think about what you want that theme to be before you start loading pictures onto it. What do you like to take pictures of? What do you enjoy? What do others enjoy?^{[11]
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Expert Source

Ramin Ahmari
Social Media Expert
Expert Interview. 5 April 2019.}
- Popular theme pages for Instagram include yoga, cooking, inspirational quotes, restaurants or bars, humor, fashion and pet pictures.
- Unless you're already super popular, you're not going to attract thousands of followers by only posting selfies.
- Consider making a tribute page. If you love comic books, pro wrestling, or a particular fictional figure or athlete, it's sometimes common to start a tribute page to your favorites. Instead of posting your own pictures, post pictures of your particular tribute subject from around the web instead.

20

Pick a good username and profile pic.

A good Instagram account requires a good foundation. The first and easiest way to start designing your Instagram page is to pick a catchy username and profile pic for yourself. A lot of this will depend on what you've chosen as your theme for your page, so you want to pick something that will reflect the theme and a picture that will match.
- Fill in the bio as well with something short and sweet. If you're taking pictures of your food and your cat Mortimer, make your handle MortimerBakes, include a picture of him peering over a pile of muffins, and have your bio read: "My tabby and our gluten-free adventures."

Community Q&A

Question

How can I take good photos for Instagram?

Community Answer

Your imagination is the only limit you have on taking and making great photos for Instagram. Having a variety of subjects along with experimenting with taking photos at different angles and editing your photos (cropping, filters, exposure, brightness, etc) is a great place to start.
Question

How can I get a good profile picture on Instagram?

Community Answer

Choose a nice quality photo that shows your character.
Question

How can I take artsy photos?

Community Answer

Use editing apps that teens and photographers prefer, like: Afterlight, Litely, VSCO, etc. They usually help to brighten and sharpen your pictures.