To ask how instagram actually works.....

[insecure123]

I struggle to get my head around it (fwiw I love it - but I am more of a lurker than poster - I like looking at outfit ideas and animal pics :))
But some of the people I look at have under 100 follower and others (who I wouldn't say have significantly better pictures) have thousands!!!

How does it work? Where does the imbalance come from?

I enjoy it regardless I just wondered really.....

I have an Instagram a/c (about 8 people I follow, or am following), but am constantly getting follow requests from people I do not know. It seems a "thing" to collect as many followers as you can for some weird people. I've never had requests like that on FaceBook (except for one closed Group I am admin of), but get them all the time on Instagram - which I rarely use

I do believe....some people "buy" followers.......
I can see wanting lots of followers if you are running a business but for a personal page? I have a friend of a friend with nearly two thousand followers - it is all pictures of her horses, dogs and selfies (lovely pictures I enjoy seeing them as I love animals) but where do the 2k followers come from on a personal page it seems madness!

I've wondered about this too and I've got an Instagram account with 100 followers, dont know who they are apart from a few friends.

Plus there's the hashtag culture, are you meant to tag loads with your picture and make them up or use existing ones?

If someone follows you, do you automatically follow them back?

You can buy followers which lots of people do or have followers they don't know.

Lots of people will view your post if you use certain hashtags and you'll get lots of random followers if you use the 'right' hashtags and your account is public.

Many people who want to boost their follower count will do a follow for follow

I have an Instagram account for DDog, started originally for family and friends to see photos if they wanted to and now he has 1300 followers, I regularly get messages asking me if I want to buy followers, something I think is ridiculous but lots of people offer it so there must be some uptake/demand?

It’s been pretty good for us as we’ve met some lovely dogs (and their owners) as they’ve followed us and ended up going on walks which has been great.

People with lots of followers probably use a lot of hastags or tag accounts on their photos (and if you don't see them they possibly delete them later)

Hashtags: Basically to 'tag' your photo into a sort of category, so all pics tagged with 'selfie' come up when you click on it.
To get people going onto photos and liking them, use already well used ones, e.g. ones that people are following. Things like 'couple' 'selfie' 'holiday' etc. I don't understand why people make up really long ones like "#yaycantwaitfortheweekendimtired"... ? Someone explain this!

Tagging accounts: lots of influencers do this, it's a way for these accounts to share the photo and tag you. The reason for doing this is that certain accounts 'aggregate' photos, e.g. they are an account called 'London fashion' and they just curate images from instagram and credit the original photo. These kind of accounts often have a lot of followers, so it's worthwhile to be reposted by them.

Random accounts just follow you, sometimes with a request to follow them back. I have privacy settings on mine so people have to request to be my friend and I rarely accept unless I actually know them (because I sometimes post pics of DS on there). So I have very few followers as a result.

There are also lots of 'engagement' activities if you want to spend time growing an account. This would be things like searching for people who are likely to be your audience, and following them, liking their photos, commenting on their photos, all with the goal of them following you back.

You can buy followers. There are accounts the offer this. I had a look at someone who kept trolling celebrities. She had lots of followers and when I looked at them they were all from another country and left one word comments that bore no relation to what she posted. She was chucked off Instagram and is now on something else with no followers. This is also how some people from the likes of Towie, Geordie Shore, Mic have millions of followers.

See I do random hashtags but I just make them up. I believe there is a "formula" to it but I don't know hwat it is...

I use Instagram but seldom post anything. I like to keep in touch with what Stepson is doing in Singapore and also my DS here in UK.
They both post lovely 'arty' photos.

I use it and have my profile set to public. If you have a particular interest , like say knitting , flowers. Interiors you can have conversations with people in the comments of their posts. People ask questions and give each other advice in comments and DM. It’s been so nice to connect with people from around the world and see people’s everyday lives on stories. If you use it a lot and enjoy the community side of it you just increase your followers . I’ve been on it since 2014 and it’s my favourite platform . I haven’t come across any of the nastiness you see on Facebook public posts.

I've got a couple of hundred followers but only because I use hash tags. My account is mainly for my rescue dogs and cats and so is #dogsofinstagram, #rescuedogsofinstagram etc. A lot of people follow those sorts of tags and will then follow accounts that they like.

The kids have their own world language and life on there lots of moody shots and strange anagrams it's beyond me. I've no interest in knowing..

I have a few thousand followers - here's the secret to getting more:
Spending a buttload of time on Instagram, and a buttload of time researching what Instagram favours, so that you can convince Instagram to show your posts to more people.

Hashtags can help (a couple tips are copying tags from similar posts, or searching for one tag and copying Instagram's related tags).

Other things that help:

• Replying to all of the comments on your post
• Commenting on other people's posts
• Sharing Stories too
• Posting at times of day when more people are procrastinating online
• Posting every dang day
• Tagging other people in your posts (as long as they're actually in the pic)
• Tagging people in your captions
• Tagging your location, and using different locations within the same region

And if you do all of that, it's still not guaranteed. That's why loads of accounts do buy followers - either as a shortcut or because they're just not interesting enough for people to want to follow.

It's also important to bear in mind that some accounts have been posting for 5+ years, and will have gained followers because they've been there longer!

Farting zombie thread. Ah well.

I love Instagram. I've made some lovely friends on there. However, I've changed my account back to private otherwise you get a lot of fake accounts or weird middle aged men trying to follow you. You know they are dodgy because they claim to be 'God fearing men' .

I’m newish to Instagram and just trying to figure out how it all works. I have a personal account that I don’t post on and just use for following a few people. But I’ve recently set up one to use for promoting our holiday home but I am TOTALLY clueless.

One thing I’m unsure about is reposts/mentioning other businesses. For example, if I wanted to post about a local pub/activity centre/tourist attraction etc could I use an image from their Instagram page and then just tag them in it? Do I have to write ‘repost’ on it?

I’ve tried googling this and it says to approach the page you want to promote asking for permission to use their image. Is this realistic or required? Surely lost businesses would be glad of a repost/local promotion?

I used to be on Instagram for my photo diary. Only my friends could follow. My friends had the same photo diary set up. We only followed each other and I had strict privacy on my settings.

The trouble is , as soon as you hashtag anything at all you’ll be bombarded with requests. I was stalked at one point so I decided to abandon Instagram.
Sad really as I really enjoyed doing it.
Was stalked on a photo website too .
I don’t do my photography anymore because of it all. I still take photos, but no longer have the option of sharing them or enjoying others’ photos.

I have over a thousand followers but I haven't bought them.
Some people are only on it for follows and it makes me mad.
I didn't know, how to use it at first but I love it now and can drag a song on my stories across the whole day. I guess it's if you Have the patience to do it. Then go for it x

@Ifonlywecouldwishuponastar do you know about the reposts? Thanks