Instagram tips for beginners

Instagram is a great way to showcase your best shots. To build a community with numerous followers, it takes a lot of work and you should keep a few things in mind. Especially for beginners, it is anything but easy to do everything right from the start. For this reason, you will get valuable Instagram tips in this post, which are especially suitable for beginners.

Be inspired by others

There's nothing better than getting some inspiration. You'll gain valuable impressions and develop a rough idea of what your account and shots could look like. Give it time and look around on hashtags. Maybe you'll find a blog or two that fits your favorite topic. Here you'll usually find the corresponding linked Instagram profile as well. Take a look at their posting behavior, what styles do they follow and what kind of shots do they post?

Do not use too many filters

We all have one goal: to post beautiful photos on Instagram. So focus on taking beautiful shots. Filters are all well and good, but they don't (always) make a rather poor or bad picture better. A look at one or the other Instagram account shows that filters are sometimes used quite often. This can look nice and colorful and results in less of a consistent image. For this reason, you should settle on a few (about two to three) filters. Also go down with the intensity so that the filters only appear very discreetly. Less is more!

Find and develop your own style

Even if this part is not so easy, you should find your own style over time. In the beginning, you can experiment a little bit to see what you like best and what works best for you. The style refers to the subjects you choose, but also to the image processing itself. And that's where the aforementioned filters come into play again, where you should not apply too much and limit yourself to a few.

Vary a little with the image formats

Instagrammers used to be able to post square images exclusively. Today, things look very different: Here you have the free choice and can choose between several image formats. Among them are landscape and portrait formats, with which you can vary a little. For example, the portrait format is ideal for being displayed in a nice size in the feed. When a user scrolls through the feed, your image will immediately stand out. Again, it's all in the mix.

Post pictures from both smartphone and camera

Do you plan to create your Instagram pictures exclusively with your smartphone? Or are you planning to buy a camera as well? Smartphones now have great built-in cameras, so you can take great pictures with them. But used correctly, pictures with a camera are even better. Some Instagrammers report only positive things and notice what great feedback their camera pictures get from the Instagram community. So, it can't hurt that you use both devices. Be on the go and take shots with your camera. The best cream puffs will then go on your Instagram profile. In everyday life, you can pull out your phone every now and then and take live pictures, for example, and add them to your story.

Use meaningful hashtags

Hashtags are worth their weight in gold, especially for beginners who don't have many followers yet and want to achieve a decent reach. You can add a total of 30 keywords per post. While some Instagrammers put the hashtags directly in the image description, others use the comment column. Please make sure you stay focused and only use hashtags that make sense. Every now and then, you'll see random hashtags under posts that don't match the image content at all. Quality over quantity!

Think about what you want to achieve!

Everyone wants to be successful and famous on Instagram. But what does it actually mean for you to be successful? Is your goal primarily to reach a certain number of followers? Or do you just want to have fun and enjoy it when users give you likes and leave nice comments? Everyone has their own thoughts on this. After all, it's no use to anyone if they have 200,000 followers but hardly any interactions occur. Then you'd rather have 50,000 followers, but numerous likes and comments.

Take part in challenges and features

Challenges and features are a great way to gain new followers, expand your reach, and engage with others. Every weekend, you'll find a new challenge created by Instagram. Here, a new theme is always served up for you to participate in and send in great shots. Because this increases the chance that one or the other gets stuck on your profile and leaves you a like and follow.

When should I post what? Develop a routine

It used to be that shots were only published in your own feed. Today, there are far more options like Stories or Reels to share content with followers and/or the larger Instagram community. So what should you post and when? Instead of cross-posting anything at any given time, get into a routine. It will support you in not losing your train of thought. For example, you can get into the habit of posting one picture a day on your account. But it can also be two. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Just as it suits you best. This way your account will fill up splendidly and grow rapidly. Are you spontaneously on the road and see something interesting or funny on your way to work? Add it to the story!

Build your own community step by step

It's great to see more and more pictures coming onto your Instagram account and into your Story thanks to your routine. But how do you actually build your own community? Because the best pictures won't do you any good if no one sees them. Basically, there is no standard recipe for building a community. That would be too easy and everyone would have 100k followers in no time. So be patient and constantly interact.

The following are helpful tips:

• If you follow other Instagrammers and like their posts, feel free to leave likes and comments. But please comment in a meaningful and relevant way! Again, quality over quantity.
• Also, look around for other topic-relevant shots that use the same or similar hashtags. The same goes for posts that come from your surroundings.