Everyone posts the same things on Instagram—me included. There are the typical selfies, photos of friends at parties, and lots and lots of sunsets. Aren’t you getting tired of those? I’m going to change the way I post on Instagram, and combine my writing life with my love of taking photos. Why not give it a try with me? I’ll even follow you to see what you’re doing!
- Forget Selfies. Instead of taking photos of myself, I’m going to make sure to take LOTS of photos of people actually doing things. Think of it as being similar to plot, when writing. You wouldn’t have scene after scene of someone just sitting there, maybe thinking or looking as pretty as possible. So, make your photos say something. Action. Plot. Tension. Capture all of those things. They’re way more interesting than a selfie in the mirror. (And maybe you won’t get the “duckface” quite as often.)
- Write a story. Most of us post a quick sentence about the photo along with a handful of hashtags. But if you write a brief story about what’s happening in the photo (whether it really is or not), more people will enjoy it. Some of my favourite Instagram feeds do just this. I’ll read each one, no matter how long they are.
- Have ongoing themes. I tried the 30 day Instagram challenge this summer, taking photos everyday based on certain goals (mine were books). If you take this idea and spin it, taking photos and posting them with the same “heading” each time, it’ll be a great way to get people to follow you. You could try something like “photos of people that look like celebrities”, or “photos that represent song titles”. You won’t find these everyday, but maybe you’ll come across one or two a week.
Instagram says they don’t just put popular photos into the “EXPLORE” page. You don’t have to have a lot of followers to get your photo there, either. They look for interesting photos, and feeds that people might want to continue to follow. So, give these ideas a try and let me know if you end up in the Explore page! Good luck!
Now, I’m off to take some interesting photos!
