Written by Lauren Bath. All images provided by Lauren Bath.

Content

The quality of your content will directly affect the traffic to your Instagram page. Attempt to post only the highest quality photo or video that you are capable of producing and use editing tools to polish them, even if they’re just mobile applications like “Snapseed”. I use Photoshop but Lightroom is also popular.

At the very least images should be cropped if required, straightened and colour adjustments made.

Consistency

Be very consistent with your Instagram habits. Be consistent with the quality of your posts.

Main points to consider regarding consistency –

• How many times you post per day (I recommend 2-4 but separate each post by at least 3 hours)
• How much you engage when you are on the platform, give back!
• Keep the quality and style of your content consistent

Personality

Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Write interesting captions that share a little of your personality and story.

Use Hashtags

Use a relevant group of hashtags and I recommend using between 20-30 per post.

Very important: Don’t use these hashtags in your caption. Create a note of hashtags and paste these into a comment box BELOW your caption. See examples below.

*Keep on top of the hashtags that are relevant to you and popular, resist using hashtags like #follow4follow. I use a combination of popular travel tags, feature account tags and image specific tags.

Engage!

Engagement is right up there with content. The more you engage with other Instagram users the more you will see engagement come back to you. Be social, social media is a two way street!

Network, Like, Comment, Follow relevant accounts.

When I post a photo I do the following –

• Go to my home stream and like and comment on photos of people that I follow
• Go to the previous post I uploaded and reply to as many comments as I have time for
• Do a hashtag search of the destination I am in and like and comment on the photo’s that I love

*Do not use bots or programs to engage for you. They are against the terms of use for Instagram and could inadvertently like or comment on all manner of photos and videos from your account; porn, violence, underage nudity etc.

Bio

Make sure you have a clear and sharp bio photo that looks like you.

Make sure you have relevant information listed such as where you live, what camera you shoot on and an email address if you want people to be able to contact you easily.

Use the spot for a website to list the site you most want traffic to go to; your website or another social media platform.

Don’t be afraid to make this space look awesome with relevant emoji’s.

Always check out the top nine posts on your feed and consider how a new upload will look next to them before you post. Most people checking out your account will only look at the first page of your profile before deciding to follow or not.

Have fun

Try to enjoy the platform and the experience. If you only use Instagram to gain followers the interactions you have aren’t organic and genuine. Share your story, share a bit of yourself and enjoy. Connect with me! 🙂

Lauren Bath became Australia’s First Full-Time Professional Instagrammer when she decided to take a chance on Instagram and quit her job as a chef. Since then, her passion for travel has taken her all over the world and inspired others to chase their own dreams, through her mentorship with The Travel Bootcamp. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.