Today, I reached 210 followers on Instagram! I understand that this is nothing compared to the millions that many on the app have, but hey, I’ll give a shout-out to all my dear friends, especially the loyal 20 odd ones who always like my pictures. We will rise up the ladder, one like and follower at a time.
I’ve become an Instagram addict. And there are three reasons for it—the Kardashians (of course), Rahul Khanna, and Karuna Ezara Parikh.
It began with following, rather stalking them, until inspired by all the photographers, potters, writers and selfie queens and kings, I went from the once-a-month upload to frequent posting. With time, you learn that frequency of posts is very important to ensure steady followers. Novice advice No. 1: try making at least one post every day, the more the mucher!
Another thing that helps, especially with those ‘random’ likes, are Instagram’s signature hashtags. I have tried, and failed miserably at them—my only proud one being #potterhead that I use for all my pottery posts. But quirky hashtags aside, what is important is putting in hashtags that are used and looked up by many—a concept used by many, but hated by me. Try it nonetheless! Novice advice No. 2: use commonly searched hashtags; and again, the more the mucher!
A trick that works in getting steady followers is if your clicks are themed. But I have failed miserably in this too. I keep reminding myself that I have diverse interests and enjoy dipping in all of them. K.G. Subramanyan once told me it’s no fun doing only one thing when you can do more, and I remind myself of it every time I am on Instagram. Still, novice advice No. 3: themes help create identity, and will always work.
Novice advice no. 4: make it pretty. For all the “beauty is on the inside” talk, Instagram does not believe in it. So choose, filter, edit, and make all posts look great.
And don’t just click away, but shoot, since the addition of videos has taken the app to a whole new level. Now you aren’t just seeing excellent photos of #yummyinmytummy, you actually have videos telling you how to make the dish for yourself.
For everyone who is a sucker for photographic evidence on people’s lives, your thumb may tire from all the scrolling, but your soul shall not. The love for the ‘instant gratification gram’ has kept about half-a-billion of us going, and hopefully, one day, more of us will also have random people following us and telling us how much they love our photos, our work, our writing—inspiring themselves to become Instagram addicts themselves.
