Columnist Lauren Bacho talks about how, when and what to post on Instagram to get the most follower attention.
If you’re not on social media, you don’t exist in today’s world. But being on social media isn’t enough. You have to know when to post.
Being an avid Instagram user, I have mastered the perfect time to post based on when my followers are going to be online. When I took over The Post’s Instagram, @ThePostVisuals, account this summer for a week, I made sure to apply some tricks I learned from using my own account.
There are two times when most of my followers are online: 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. If you’re going to double-post, you have to time it so the posts are far enough apart that people don’t get annoyed. However, when I was using The Post’s account, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland and had to deal with the five-hour time difference between Athens and Edinburgh. Instead of posting at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., I was posting at 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. in an attempt to still get the largest audience.
The second most critical thing involving Instagram is, of course, the content. I had to make sure my photos were well composed in squares as well as making it obvious I was in Scotland. Sometimes you will see people put borders on their photos to avoid the square crop but I see it as a challenge. Creating good photos in squares is something people aren’t used to because cameras are formatted in rectangles. I use my iPhone 6 to shoot and I take my pictures in the “square” mode so they’re Instagram ready.
I try my best to only post one photo from each event or scene to keep variety in the posts. People get more excited about your photos if they don’t know what’s coming next. Being in Scotland during my Instagram week made it very easy for me to keep my photos exciting and different.
My specific style is usually very graphic with bold colors. I like my photos to pop and grab people’s attention, and, of course, all shot in square. When shooting in square, I rely heavily on photo constructs to make my pictures more exciting. My favorites are rule of thirds; color in a monochromic scene; lines; repetition; and truncation. Usually I use lines and rule of thirds in my photos but I try to use other photo constructs to make sure my feed doesn’t start to bore people.
There are lots of tricks to Instagram and social media is all about consistency. If you post every day for one week, people are going to expect you to post every day the next week as well. If you want people to see your photos and like them, post at prime Instagram time and make your photos interesting and eye-grabbing.
Lauren Bacho is a sophomore studying photojournalism. Have any more tips about posting pictures on Instagram? Email her at lb986213@ohio.edu.
