How to win the Insta-game (and get more followers)
Now go forth and ‘gram.
The Insta-game is one most of us try to play. Navigating the digital world of picture sharing can be tricky, and filled with endless and painstaking decisions: to hashtag or not to hashtag? To filter or not to filter? Is Mayfair ever a good choice? #Dilemma.
These questions were getting too much for us to handle, so we employed the help of BNKR’s social media team to curate a list of tips to ace the game. They’ve just hit 100k followers on Instagram, so they must be doing something right.
1. Choose your style
Pick a style, and keep to it. As BNKR social media executive Steph Dugan says, “be sure to figure out your aesthetic and stay true to it.” There is something super satisfying about seeing your Instagram flow with repeated colours and similar lighting.
Figuring out your timing is important too. Steph says, “post regularly and at similar times of the day as well. You never know who is going to stumble onto your feed!”
2. Excite people
The best way to gain followers is to provide them with something interesting. A standout picture will cut through a cluttered feed. Basically no one wants to see 30 of your #selfies, so keep ’em on your camera roll.
“If you have your own point of view people are more likely to follow and love you,” says BNKR creative producer Alistair Thompson Brown.
“It is important to stay relevant and get involved in current social trends.”
Alistair also recommends checking out @_Belindaliana_ from Sydney for some good #inspo.
3. Make pretty pics
This one seems pretty obvious, but sadly there is still no apparent end to overexposed and high-contrasted images. As BNKR tells us, “it’s not easy on the eyes.”
They also recommend avoiding unnecessarily critical comments and distasteful nudity. Trust us when we say that nobody wants to see that.
You want to aim for “a beautiful, high quality image, which says everything you need it to, without the caption.” In summary, no shade and no nudity. Got it?
The BNKR team also say we should avoid the standard filters. If you take high quality images, you should be able to get away without adjusting the levels yourself. Sorry Sierra, you’re out of here.
4. Hashtag
The answer to your pending question is here. And the answer is yes, hashtag away. Hashtags are an important tool, especially for exposure, but please make sure it’s relevant to your image. No one wants to decipher your sentence-long tag and it definitely won’t gain you any exposure.
Good use of tags includes which brands you are wearing, companies and locations. As Lucy Ahern from the Marketing team at BNKR says, “we’re always on the lookout for unique content to regram – as well as new recruits for our Style Innovators program – so if you don’t tag, we might never know it exists.”
5. Collaborate
By now you should have a handle on the basics. Now it’s time to take your game to the next level. The best way to do this is by teaming up with the other big players. Look to work with influencers “who have a really clear vision and style.”
This is a key part of BNKR’s Insta strategy: “Collaborating with other Instagrammers who are passionate about visual creativity – and of course BNKR – is so important to us.”
And there you have it, it’s pretty simple. You’ll be dominating in no time. Now go forth and ‘gram.
Cover illustration by Twylamae.
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