Romy Winter

I created my Instagram account in summer 2012. Back than, to me Instagram was just another social media platform on which I posted personal pictures. I took them with my old smartphone and my editing skills consisted in using the basic Instagram filters. I did this for about two years until Instagram became more popular and more and more Instagram bloggers appeared on the scene. They inspired me to see it as a form of art – I started caring about the “theme” of my feed, putting more effort into editing and really spending a lot of time on it. A few years later, I’m still posting regularly, putting a lot of effort into the quality of my pictures and their editing. As a nice sideeffect, this year the engagement on my account has kind of increased (still not famous tho). BUT, this is my first advice: don’t do Instagram for the fame – in most cases you won’t have an insane amount of followers at the beginning of your “instagram career”. You have to keep posting and be consistent and that’s something you can only do, when you genuinely enjoy producing content. I posted almost 500 pictures before I hit 1000 followers, because I enjoy taking pictures, editing them, writing captions and interacting with other users… of course I appreciate a positive feedback on my work and I’m really happy to see my audience grow, but that’s not why I initially started posting pictures. So make sure that you have the right intentions and than start your instagram using the following tips.1. User-name

Pick a user-name that’s easy to remember and to pronounce so that people can easily come back to your account. If you have a precise niche in which you could classify your pictures (e.g. cars, cats, landscapes, … ) incorporate that in your user-name, so that people know what to expect on your account. Otherwise I’d always suggest going for your actual name, especially if you consider doing this in a more professional way.

2. Biography

Keep your biography clean and simple. Add your age, where you live, a way to contact you and a short description of what you’re doing. In this case “more is less” because this is the first thing people are going to read when they come to your account and you want to inform, not overwhelm them.

3. Profile picture

Choose a profile picture that represents what you’re doing on your account. If you’re posting pictures of cats, also use a cat as your profile picture, if you’re having more of a personal account use a picture of yourself. Just make sure, that that it’s aesthetically pleasing.

4. Pictures

When I looked for instagram tips online, I found out that the more you restrict the category of pictures you post, the more followers you’ll get. This seems logical since that way people know what they sign up for when they visit your account and they´ll follow you if they want to see more of it. Anyways, I personally never respected that advice because I don’t want to limit myself – I want to post outfits and selfies and landscapes and street photography and so much more. So I would suggest to post whatever you enjoy posting – if you have a precise niche, great. If not, you’ll find people who want to follow you for the diversity of your pictures.

5. Equipement

If you’re just starting out, all you need is your phone. They take pretty good pictures nowadays and I would only invest in a camera once I am sure that this is something I enjoy and will continue doing in the long run. Moreover, if you want pictures of yourself but you don’t have anyone to take them for you, a tripod and a remote for your phone can be really helpful.

6. Editing

Don’t spend money on editing software neither. There are really good editing apps that you can get for free – my favorites are “VSCO cam” and “snapseed”. Otherwise you can also just use the instagram app itself to edit your pictures.

7. Caption

Although Instagram is mainly about pictures, the caption is also important. If your caption is relatable, people are more likely to follow you. Personally I am a huge fan of quotes or if there’s a story behind a picture tell it or use the caption as a “blog” where you update your followers or talk about certain topics – there are so many options on what to write in your caption. Language-wise I would suggest you to go with english since that way you can reach the biggest amount of people.

8. Theme

In the Instagram world we consider a “theme” the way all your pictures look combined together in your feed. Let me tell you this can be really frustrating and it will take a long time until you find your perfect theme (I’m still not there and I’ve been trying for years). I would suggest you to use similar filters on all of your pictures and try to incorporate identical colores into your photos. Just make sure that your account doesn’t look like a mess, but don’t be too strict about it and while putting effort in your feed, don’t forget to make sure that your pictures are high quality individually.

9. Interaction

Instagram is a SOCIAL media platform. That’s why you need to interact with other users if you want your pictures to be seen. Find people who have similar interests to yours and like and comment on their pictures so that they and their followers can find your account. But don’t spam!!!

Keep in mind that this blog post is about how to start an instagram account and not how to become successful on Instagram (I’m gonna write a post on that once I’ve achieved it in a few decades lol). However if you use those tips, start your account and find in instagram something that you enjoy doing, then you’ve already won!