SOCIAL MEDIA SERIES: 5 TIPS FOR AN ON-POINT INSTAGRAM GALLERY
- Karina Rodegeb
- May 12, 2015
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 18, 2020
It’s vain. It’s vapid. But we all love it, and we all spend way too much time on it-- Instagram. Some galleries look insanely cool, while others seem haphazardly thrown together without any sort of curation. Regardless of which of these veins your IG gallery is in, you are obviously sharing your photos with the public for a reason so we’re going to give you vain and vapid tips to ensure you maximize likeage and you’ll be well on your way to life as a semi-insta famous hometown hero. But seriously, these tips have been tried and proven to work well for me and my friends (who all spend a ridiculous amount of time deliberating before putting up just one photo). And I know how pinpointedly “our generation” this article is and how lame it is to talk about social media so in depth, but that’s our world these days and that’s the article you’re gonna get… so sit back, relax, and double tap!
1.Choose the RIGHT photo in the first place.
Okay so you just click click clicked away and now you have about 50 of the same type of picture. Choose the right one. It may seem silly considering you held your phone in the same place for 15 seconds and just went to town on the shutter button, but there are probably slight variations in lighting/sharpness/composition/etc. Pick the one you like the best instead of just choosing one from the bunch at random, otherwise it’s like blindly reaching into a bag of Sour Patch Kids and ending up with a yellow one.
2. Invest in a good editing app.
Afterlight? VSCO? Picfx? The list is endless. Which one are you going to use? Listen, I’m not saying you have to edit every photo into oblivion and disguise its natural beauty behind a sepia filter (because plz don’t do that). In fact, lately I’ve been posting a lot of photos in my gallery where I haven’t put any filters on at all, but at the very least, I like to assess and fix lighting/contrast/saturation where necessary. This may not be applicable to everyone, and sometimes I curse editing as a photographer myself, but sometimes a little tinkering does go a long way. Are you going to apply a border on your photos? This could be a good way to keep ratio of your composition in order!
3. You think you’re ready to post that photo, right?
Wrong.
4. But I just followed those other tips and my photo looks great!
Of course your picture looks great, that’s why you can’t screw it up here. You gotta *say it with me* MAXIMIZE LIKEAGE (ML). I can’t stress this insanely ridiculous and arbitrary phrase enough. Okay head down to the next tip.
5. There are certain times you should be posting your photo to ML.
We get it, you were bored and editing your photo at 3:23 AM when you should’ve been finishing up cramming for your test instead. Instead of squandering your distraction, make the most of it. There are certain times of the day when you will make the most of your followers’ generous double taps. Here are the rules of my friends and I as follows:
First thing in the morning. Optimal time: 8-10 AM.
Your followers will just be waking up and reaching for what means most to them in this world that’s laying on the pillow next to them-- their phone. But seriously, a lot of people (including me) check their phones right when they wake up. Maybe they’re catching up on emails, reading the news, or madly scrolling through all forms of social media to avoid inevitable FOMO. This means your photo won’t be caught in all of the clutter of last night’s stale news feed. It’ll be the first thing they see in the morning and you’re more likely to get a “like” or “comment” at this time.
In the afternoon (use sparingly). Optimal time: 2-3 PM.
We’re sitting in class or work desperately trying to save ourselves from the boredom of our responsibilities. Instagram is usually pretty slow during the middle of the day which means congrats, your photo will basically be the savior of midday distraction, also meaning you will… that’s right… ML.
After dinner-time-fine. Optimal time: 8-11 PM.
This is it, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. The biggest window of them all. The best way to ML. Now, you will have some competition in the news feed clutter, but no worries, there are enough double taps to go around for everyone (especially if your picture looks on point because you followed the first few tips). This is the window where everyone is super active on social media. Maybe they’re zoning out on a date and virtually connecting instead, or they’re avoiding an essay due the next day at all costs. Whatever their downfall may be, you reap the benefits. Post your photo and bask in the glorious “likes” that come your way!
BONUS TIPS:
Selfies do better at night.
Try not to post an obvious daytime and fun in-the-moment photo too late at night.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT kill all this beautiful progress you’ve made by looking like the dweeb with waaay too many irrelevant hashtags on their photo (you may get more likes on that photo, but we’re looking for longevity here).
People are more likely to double tap on a picture that has a solid caption. Make sure your caption speaks to your personality, we don't want to feel like we're getting caption catfished.
Post your photo and go through and like all the photos that come before yours on the news feed-- that person is more likely to go on and scroll and see your picture, returning the favor.
Okay that’s it on an unnecessarily long article on an equally ridiculous topic. But let’s not front and pretend we don’t slightly care. We can poke all the fun we want but these tips could also work for bloggers and small businesses trying to get their insta game in check. Let us know what your tips are and follow us on IG (maybe we’ll follow back?!):
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