Without a doubt, one of the best ways to increase your presence on Instagram is by getting featured. “What does getting featured mean?” you may be asking yourself. In a nutshell, getting featured is having your work showcased on an Instagram featured account. A featured account (also known as a curation account) covers specific topics, communities, or photography styles and attracts a lot of people. When your work is featured on a curation account, you gain access to the followers. If you have great content, the followers start following you. But the big question is, how do you get featured on Instagram? Here’s how.
#1 Search and Study Instagram Accounts You Want To Be Featured In
If you want to get featured, examine the popular Instagram accounts in your field. Take note of the kind of images they post, their photographic styles, themes, filters, and subject matter.
People avoid watching stories of competitors because your name shows up in the list of those who’ve seen the story. This can make your competitor alert that you are keeping an eye on them. You can deal with this easily by using IG story viewer. It will keep your identity hidden and help you analyze your competitors better.
Another reason why it is important to inspect featured accounts is because the followers already like the style of photos. Since your main aim of getting featured is to get more followers, you have to stick to the same style. If your images are great and get featured, your chances of getting more followers are high.
#2 Know the Guidelines for Submitting Photos
In order to have your work displayed on an Instagram featured account, you must follow the set guidelines. Ignoring the rules can work against you. Remember that featured images are chosen by passionate people who search hundreds of images to find the very best. As you submit your images, you have to tag them with the account’s dedicated hashtag. Some accounts ask users to tag them in their pictures, to like their pictures, or to comment on them. Know the rules of the featured account so you can follow them when submitting your work. Use dedicated hashtags correctly. Most popular brands and featured accounts scrutinize posts published under their hashtags on a daily basis. That’s how they find new talent to feature on their accounts.
#3 Take Pictures with Brands’ Products and Tag Them
Brands love to see their products being advertised. If you have gorgeous images and appropriate hashtags but aren’t being featured on curation accounts, go a step further. Tag your favorite brands and accounts in your photos. For example, if you love a certain photographer’s style, you can try to recreate the style and tag them directly in the picture. They’ll see it and think “That’s a fan!”
However, note that tagging popular accounts in every image may not always work to your advantage. You may be seen as irrelevant or fake. Therefore, use tags wisely and be choosy. Tag your favorite accounts only in your outstanding pictures or the most relevant. For example, you can pick a brand that regularly showcases the work of its fans and tag them in a photo that shows you using their product creatively.
Another reason why you should not tag your favorite accounts in too many photos is because an Instagram photo feed can get cluttered very quickly. Unlike Facebook, Instagram does not group images into a condensed album. This means that all the images will appear on the accounts’ photo feeds, something that may not go down well with the owners. In addition, the images will also appear on the photo feeds of your followers. Curating content is a hard process, and if your posts are migraine-inducing, you will probably get blocked. Your followers might also lose interest and visit your page to unsubscribe.
#4 Give &Recieve Shoutouts
Giving and receiving shoutouts is another great technique to use if you want to get featured on Instagram and expand your reach. The idea is to search for users with content that is similar to yours, reach out to them and offer to give each other shoutouts. This is one of the quickest ways to grow your account and can benefit both parties. But getting a great shoutout can be an uphill task. It requires a lot of networking, and you may have to feature another user’s content on your account before they post your content on their account.
To get a great shoutout, the trick is to find users with more followers than you do. While some users will only agree to a shoutout if you have the same number of followers, some may be willing to give a shoutout if your work is great. Don’t be afraid to ask. But before that, don’t forget to comment and like the users’ images and follow their accounts. This shows them that you are interested in their content. However, avoid spamming photos with requests for shoutouts. Focus on making a real connection instead.
#5 Join Forces With Other Influencers in Your Niche
Teaming up with influencers produces great results. Look for the gurus in your niche and check out their audiences. Having a large following is not enough, successful influencers have the right followers. Such influencers can expose you to new audiences. But building healthy relationships with influencers is not easy so you have to be patient. Once you identify the influencers you want to engage with, start conversations on Instagram. After building rapport, begin communicating via email. You can send them a gift and ask them to share a photo of the gift with their fans.
You can also pair up with influencers and offer shared contests or promotions. You can take an amazing picture, add captions, tag the influencer, and inform people about the contest. When the influencer features the image on his account, he promotes your account to his followers. Use #contest or #promotion when posting the image to make sure people find it easily. You can also ask influencers to repost certain images from your Instagram account. This way, you control the aesthetic and message.
Wrapping It Up
If used properly, Instagram can be a powerful advertising tool for a brand. It provides more engagement than other social networks and is a perfect platform for growing a business. However, just like any other social network, you have to get involved if you want to see results. While the tips for getting featured on Instagram are not set in stone, these will come in handy. Participate in the community and getting more followers won’t be a hassle.
Darshan Patel says
Wow good I like it
Lea Stuart says
My profile was featured already few times by some bigger profiles and this help me do gain more followers, so I use this strategy often. But this is not easy as it sounds, you need to do good research to understand which accounts will be appropriate for your niche and to be sure that you submitted good content.
Siena Wills says
Your number 3 suggestion is something that all influencers use which I noticed. They use this for multiple reasons, and it’s a good strategy. They use it also to get noticed by some big brand and maybe even get some collaboration. Or they are already paid to do it post their products 🙂
Adrianna says
I’m always happy to give a shoutout to some smaller profiles, because I know how much it meant to me when I was starting from 0 with my profile. Also along the way, I used this strategy as well and I’m still using it from time to time. Followers will stick around if they like the content you continue to share.
Harrison Hugh says
I like this the most:
#3 Take Pictures with Brands’ Products and Tag Them
So simple and effective!
Liroy Sakhou says
I think that collaboration is the key, we need to think about the potential profit, not about our small interests
Katty Karlsen says
The very good article very simply explained and showed what we can do to get our content featured, thanks for sharing