I wrote about Instagram in a previous Social Media post and not in the most favorable terms. It is now the moment to share with you some of my experience there. A few months ago I had the urge to make a guide about how to succeed on Instagram, based on my own experience and on what I read from marketing specialists. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to read some advice sold pretty expensively online, here and there, with prices starting from €200 up. If I’ll find the time, I shall finish the booklet, but it’s not a priority for the moment.
A Followable Account on Instagram
This is a compilation of my best nine photos of 2026, made with an Instagram app
[source: image is a snapshot of an instagram post made with a certain app]
This short article is only partially written to promote myself. I want only to say what I think on the matter. It’s not about how exactly to make a good account, or even an average one. I read on the website’s instructions that good content is going to take you far. Believe me, with or without good content, you are invisible if you don’t promote yourself. If you are already a celebrity, there are other institutions which made it for you, professionally, better that you can imagine. If you invest a lot in promotion but your content sucks (sorry for the harsh term), you may be a little famous, at least between your friends, whoever they are.
The picture below is an embedded content. I made it for Adriana and it was arranged and published by herself, on her own account. I have reposted it shortly after that. This is a pure example of “no filter”. Being a portrait, it was a pity to alter it with other effects, at least in this case it wasn’t necessary.
The following one is again a “no filter”, it is at most a crop of the original picture, made this time by Adriana herself and representing our treasured kitten Kara Bey.
The point I want to make is that sometimes it is ok to leave your pics unedited, or minimally altered, but generally, if you want to have a smashing effect over viewers, it’s better to use some awesome filters, like my friend Christos, below:
I have a few friends with private accounts. They sometimes discuss in their own circle, which is usually under a thousand persons. It is fine for them, they don’t promote anything, they just live their fantastic lives (mostly) with no swag. Their pics or videos are personal without exposing much from their private lives either, even if they have boats, pets or beautiful siblings.
Exposure, or “What I like”
For me, Social Media represents a meaning to an end. I like new friends, of course, but I can keep myself at a distance, too. If you want to increase your network, you have to keep your account public. I don’t like the accounts without content, I know that it was a time when together with your Facebook account you were pushed to an Instagram account as well. Maybe it wasn’t as disturbing as it was when Google made for every gmail address or youtube account, a Google Plus profile. All that, after foolishly applying at their beginings, the “scarcity” marketing model, which demanded for one to be invited by a Googler or a Google Plus profile possessor to make an account with them. So, I have some Instagram “friends” with no posts who I followed back, but this will come to an end.
I do not consider wise to keep a private profile and follow other people in the hope they will follow you back just from curiosity. I’m not that curious and I rarely follow a private profile. I do it only based on my flair because I see the potential, otherwise I ignore them. I am not a photographer, I am a networker. I genuinely appreciate talent, and I befriend talent whenever I can. I don’t have a crush for curator profiles, I try to avoid as much as possible the accounts without their own content. It is not quite difficult to spot stock photos at a first view. I like memes, I like jokes, I like nice quotes even on stock pics, but I find artificial “the motivational” phrases or quotes. Sometimes is fine to repost other one’s picture, and it is absolutely imperative to give proper credits, to mention the person, who will be signaled when you do that.
I am not anyone’s “fan”, the accounts I follow, have to follow me back, but that’s my personal philosophy, I won’t justify it to you here. I made very few exceptions on Twitter and Google Plus only because I already am “friends” with them on LinkedIn or Facebook. Once, I noticed that a Romanian “friend” was followed by Obama’s Twitter account. It was when he campaigned for president before his second term. The “blessed” guy didn’t even thanked me, he followed Obama’s account back and unfollowed everybody else without the “verified” badge.
The picture above is heavy “filtered”, and I’m fine with that, because I feel it will establish my likes number’s record to date (0.9k, meaning 30%). Of course, my goal is for more (33%?), but this will come along with the followers.
Like a gourmet dish, where you add your secret ingredients and talent to a simple meal to make it exceptional, a picture can be made to look fantastic if it seems just ok when it’s raw. Don’t brag #nofilter, because every time when an image looks “good” it is nature’s credit, not yours, even if you have a state of the art gear. The art comes with the manipulation: a little bit of white pepper, a pinch of turmeric, thirteen milligrams of ground cumin and only an expert will guess where from comes the heavenly taste.
The experts say that if the number of likes for one post is 5% from the followers’ number, it is all right. I tend to have more than 5%. A number around 20% is just fine, it shows you’re not followed by bots or inactives. It’ll be harder to maintain it so high when the number of followers will increase. You can follow only 7.5k, so make this limit valuable. I recommend to clean the inactives as soon as you detect them, because later it will be harder. Don’t unfollow everyone (keeping only the verified who don’t even know you exist) just to feel yourself a star with a couple of thousand fans!
You may follow Adriana here: @adrianachronique
You may follow our adorable kitten here: @karathebey
As for me, I’m sure you can figure out how to follow me if you watch this page carefully 😃
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