Beginners Guide To Instagram – Top 10 tips for growing your insta account

Looking for a beginners guide to Instagram? Whether you’re new to the platform, or just looking to boost engagement on your profile, we’ve listed below our top tips to creating a successful account. If you’re not following us already, you can find us on @fresheather, @hannahdarvas and @thechocchart.

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How to grow your instagram following

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1. Memorable Username

Starting at the very beginning, one of the most influential factors to a good account is having a memorable username. If your account name is just a line of jibberish that even you struggle to remember, do you truly believe that others will buy into it too? Make an impression straight away by having an account name that will keep people talking.

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2. Good Quality Photographs

This one’s a given, but time after time we get asked by small accounts what they’re doing wrong, and the majority of the time it’s their photo quality. Pictures taken in the dark, in low light on poor quality cameras will never come out well. If followers struggle to make out what’s even in the snap, they won’t be hitting that follow button. You don’t have to break the bank for a good camera, most smartphones these days are pretty snazzy, but if you want a separate piece of kit, why not check out the camera that we use here.

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3. No filter/Consistent Filter

To keep your account aesthetically appealing and cohesive, we strongly advise making a decision. Either you use a consistent filter on your images, or you use no filter at all. Personally, we recommend ditching the filter for natural light and good quality images. If your feed is a miss-match of light and dark, black and white, highly saturated vs limited exposure, you’re going to struggle to make an impact when (and if) people find you.

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4. Tell a story

This one depends on the theme of your account. But whether you’re blogging about personal experiences, lifestyle tips or your interests, it’s really good to tell a story. Being a nameless and faceless account is good up to a certain point, but sooner or later people will get bored of your pictures of flowers with no caption. Be engaging, be witty, be kind, and let us into a snippet of your life. That’s what people want to follow.

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5. Relevant Hashtags

Once you reach a certain following, we’re not sure how affective hashtags are, but using hashtags on your posts, or even to discover other accounts that have the same interest as you is a great place to start.

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6. Follow the right people

Finding accounts with a similar following as yourself is a great place to start making friends. Realistically, if you have 100 followers and are trying to be ‘noticed’ by someone with 100,000 followers, you’re likely to be left disappointed. Fickle, I know, but incredibly true. Follow accounts with similar followers as you and slowly build up a community from there. Everyone has to start somewhere. We did the same when we were a smaller account, and over time we – along with the people that we initially followed – have grown. It’s really rewarding, and friendly too.

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7. Make friends

Following on from the previous point. What’s the point in the whole blogging malarkey if you don’t forge any relationships/friendships. Comment regularly on people’s images. Get to know the people behind the picture. Find accounts that interest you and invest time in that. Before you know it you’ll both be reaching hurdles together.

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8. Join different communities

Use hashtags to locate different communities within the site. If you’re into travel search for people that are always on the move. If you like to visit the cinema, go for brunch, take your dog for a walk or like to draw, it’s the same thing. Target people that post similar things to you and after time we’re certain that you’ll see a community forming.

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9. Post Frequently

Frequency of posts is important so that people continue visiting your page. It doesn’t have to be every day but if one week you post twice a day, and then go awol for 3 weeks people aren’t likely to be sucked into your world. Find a happy medium that suits your schedule and stick to it.

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10. Engagement

If someone comments on your post, reply to it. Maintain a high level of engagement that ideally you’d like to receive back from others. Similarly, whilst starting out, if someone complements you on a post, why not visit their profile and pay them a compliment back? Kindness is priceless.

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