Four Ways to Gain Followers & Likes on Instagram

Everyone likes to be liked right?  We all want that gratification of the little heart that shows up when someone has liked your Instagram photo while you were not looking.  A little self promotion here - follow me on Instagram if you're not already here.

Now, you don't really need the approval of others to use Instagram.  I struggle between the notion of documenting real life and making my life seem perfect.  I feel like that is the duality of Instagram - you're only taking the best, most composed photos but then you take that random picture of your dog sleeping.  At least that is what I do.  But if you're thinking you want to grow your Instagram base for your blog or business here are some tips to gain likes and follows:

Focus on photography - If you want to have a perfect feed for your blog or business consider setting some limits on what you post.  Will you post that dark, grainy image of your dog being a fool?  Or will you only post perfectly curated photos that reflect your blog/business?  Thats up to you but if you want to appeal to others focus on the principles of photography to take well lit, well composed photos.  Here are some posts to help you learn more about photographing with your phone - 5 Pictures to Improve Blog Photography,  iPhoneography Tips + Tricks,  Phone Photos Become Blog Worthy

Participate in Photo-a-Day Challenges - Currently I'm doing a Planner Photo-a-Day challenge (search the hashtag #PCAPE to find it) that is helping me get back into my planner & being creative with it.  By participating in a photo challenge you're guaranteeing that others will participate as well.  This gives you a base of people to gain likes from.  If you tag your photo with the appropriate challenge hashtag you'll have eyes pouring over your photos in no time.  Participate in the challenge to meet people & follow others but you'll gain likes too.

Pay if Forward - If you want to have people like your photos you'll need to like some.  I know when someone likes one of my photos I go over to their page and flip through their feed.  If I find one I like....I like it.  To me, it lets them know I appreciate their like.  Also, sometimes I just flip through different hashtags.  When I like a photo sometimes that IGer comes to my page & likes something in my feed.  Sometimes we'll follow each other.  I try not to follow a zillion people on Instagram so I understand trying to tone down your own feed - but likes will equal likes.

Hashtag the Hashtag - Hashtags can get annoying, I know.  But a tip I read on a blog a long time ago (and I can't remember which one now) was to comment on your own picture with all the hashtags you want to include after you post it with your caption.  Then you can go back later and clean up your feed by deleting your comment.  That way all the relevant hashtags show up on IG when others may search for it, but if you're posting to Twitter or Facebook the hashtags won't show up in your original post.  Just keeps your social media cleaner - unless you want all those hashtags.

So there are just a few tips to get those likes going on Instagram.  Instagram has to be my first choice social media platform.  I can't remember the last tweet I posted that wasn't from inside Instagram.  

What are your tips for gaining followers & likes?

xoxo, Moe