Optimize Instagram Posts

As you might know, Instagram is a fairly new photo sharing application on the iPhone. It launched only one year ago and has already accumulated 5 million users and has a photo database of over 200 million which is growing by the million each month according to reports.

If you're on Instagram, you might have noticed that you can use a variety of tricks like the hashtag, #beach for example, in your comment section and your photo caption to access the entire Instagram audience that searches for that precise keyword. The hashtag that was invented by Twitter has been integrated into this application which makes it very easy to network with other like-minded users. For example, I posted a crisp photo of San Francisco's Embarcadero something like 13 weeks ago and it hadn't gotten any likes, maybe my followers didn't find it interesting. For whatever reason - why not hashtag and share your photography with all of those who will like it? I hashtagged it today, using keywords: #embarcadero, #sf, #sanfrancisco, #financialdistrict, etc. and have already received 10 likes.

You can use the @ replies tool, @ginichavez for example, to address a user directly in any comment section or caption as well. Let's say you see a photo that, @user2 might like - mention @user2 in the comment section of the photo and that user will be alerted of the mention, creating a little dialogue triangle. It's just an easy way to share content.

The best way to add more followers, besides adding amazing photos, is to like others' photos. The more likes you click on, the more users will see your uploads. It's like social media karma: the more you give, the more you get back. You can also follow more users - sure not all of them will follow back but it will increase your follow numbers versus not doing so. Again the more you give, the more you get in return.

Instagram is exclusive to iPhone users, but there is a web based interface, you can find here hosted by Followgram. According to reports their office is busy developing an Android app and when that goes live, expect their user numbers to surge.