Wednesday Whims.

Yay! Today is super exciting because this post is unlike anything I've ever really done.

Let's talk about Instagram!

As a hairstylist/makeup artist I love Instagram because it is such a great way to instantly share your work, brand yourself, and receive feedback! Thinking about it now, I suppose this is excellent for any type of career.

It's so simple to grow your following on Instagram and here are a few of my favorite tips. Now, I'm no where near as famous as other Instagrammer's, but I do happen to get a lot of compliments IRL (in real life, for all you abbreviation newbies out there) and that has to count for something.

Tip No. 1

Make sure your photos are of good quality! This one is pretty obvious, but blurry/out of focus/grainy photos do not always look as pleasing to the eye. If you're really serious about your photography, try using a digital camera with a better mega pixel camera to take your photos. I've recently picked up a little point and shoot that has better settings and a slightly higher mega pixel than my cellphone camera. It has wifi compatibility so there is no hassel of plugging the SD card into my computer, downloading software, and then transfering photos to my cell phone.

Tip No. 2

This is not always necessary, but I find having a photo editing app on your phone is super helpful! I prefer Afterlight, but another popular one tons of people use is VSCO cam. Sometimes the pictures I take really don't come to life until I mess with the contrast or brightness or add a filter. I try to be a minimalist, so layering tons of filters over one another isn't my thing. I pick one and try to use it on every photo so that my Instagram feed has an overall theme, which helps to contribute to your brand and style. This is very important to some people and they will actually end up deleting their entire account and starting fresh to re vamp their theme!

Tip No. 3

Be active in the Instagram community! You can't complain about not having lots of likes/comments if you don't extend the same support to others! Stay away from the "follow for follow" and "like for like" nonsense. Shout outs are really flattering, but make sure they are genuine! A helpful pointer that I've discovered is to take time once a day to find one picture or profile that really resonates with your creative side. When you find it, give it a like or follow and leave a personalized comment! When you put out sincere feedback it is way more likely that you will get it back!

Tip No. 4

Use hashtags! This one is tricky because a lot of people find it annoying when you over hashtag your photos. Often though, this makes it easiers for others who surf hashtags to find your images. Whatever your preference is, using a hashtag relevant to your photo is sure to get you more traffic on your feed.

Tip No. 5

Be aware of when and how much you post! Obviously, you can post however much and whenever you want, but if you were to really study the correlation of time of posting with the amount of likes/comments you get, you will notice specific trends. For me, a post made in the morning tends to get a steady stream of likes all day, whereas a post late at night may not. If you post multiple photos in a row, they could all get lots of likes or they may all get fewer likes than if you had just posted them one day at a time. This is a hard one for me because I get so excited about my photos that I want to post them all at once!

INSTAGRAM INSPO:

@gabrielleassaf @lizzie_a_brandon

#wednesdaywhims