I remember the mania of sharing personal photographs that Facebook brought on; people posting inane pics of anything and everything – getting miffed if their “friends” didn’t like or comment on them. Then came Instagram which went one step further by only giving instant fame (and shame) to your photographs – as it focuses on images, unlike other platforms that let  you voice your opinion, contradict , troll and what not….

Instagram has metamorphosed into a portfolio / catalogue sharing mode – much suited for peeps in the creative stream.

Sure people do post insane stuff there which makes me cringe but I have fine tuned my feed and am following some amazing photographers, bakers, graphic artists, designers, travellers, etc who are sharing amazingly creative photographs. I have started studying their photo compositions to make my pictures better. And this is one advise I would like to give out to others who are interested in photography and/or use pictures to promote their brand, business, blog, etc.

I checked out my best nine pictures from the 2016 Instagram feed and this is what I saw :

Its one huge reach poll considering that I don’t promote very actively and engage sporadically. Plus I post everything from my work, to random pictures of self and whatever catches my fancy. ( 2017 is going to change all that – I am working on making my feed highly singular and stand-out-awesome to be in line with my blogging)

Connect with me on Instagram Here

Making an Instagram account is not difficult  nor is maintaining it for proper traffic and engagement. In fact its one of the best mediums for promoting one’s work in a highly innovative way with maximum impact.

My top 10 Insta rules are:

1. Just fill out a crisp and clean business bio to highlight your profile/brand and put an interesting self picture or logo.
2. Dont forget to add a link to your website / blog
3. Post pictures that identify with your brand/belief (It’s ok to post selfies but not too many please on a business profile)
4. Do not tag people unnecessarily – it’s a nuisance factor for a lot of influencers who will end up blocking you
5. Pick out hashtags relevant to your brand / pic you are posting (check out related pics to see what others are using)
6. Follow at least 5 influencers in your business category
7. Engage with meaningful comments/queries on posts you find interesting (don’t be rude or sarcastic)
8. Reply to every comment and remember to thank peeps for compliments
9. Post 1-2 times in a day and keep some gap between the posts
10. Be original!!

So come on click those awesome photos of your blog posts, products or whatever else you do and start posting for maximum impact!!

Best9of2016 – click here if you want to generate your best 9 pics from 2016 time feed.

Linking up to Ultimate Blog Challenge