Recently I’ve barely posted on Instagram. I’ve called it being busy – you might call it being lazy. I’ve been busy working, holidaying and drinking wine, working hard, seeing friends and working hard. Did I mention I’ve been working hard? Life sometimes seems to run away with itself and whilst I still check into Instagram regularly to feed my addiction I’ve only posted 7 photos in the last ten weeks. And over those weeks I’ve lost approximately 800 followers. I’m presuming that, in some part, it has to be because I’ve stopped posting as regularly (as well as numerous other reasons including people getting bored or not liking my work). I’m in awe of those instagrammers who post brilliant photos daily and get huge engagement. But is a consistent flow of photos the best way to build followers?
Here follows Tony’s brief but very unscientific investigation into this.
Firstly I logged into iconosquare.com which is a great website to get statistics and an overall view on your account. In one section of the site it analyses all your photos and tells you which received the most likes, which photos received the most comments etc – basically a history of your posting habits. It’s invaluable information if you want to plan your postings to garner followers. It tells me that when I post Monday at midnight or Sunday at 8am I’ve seen the most engagement from other instagrammers. Seeing this chart feels like a visual representation of when I’ve used the app. I clearly go on Instagram far too much!
So whilst the iconosquare site is great it doesn’t give information on when best to post. Googling ‘best times to post on instagram’ throws up a wealth of information. Obviously piecing lots of this inforamation together it seems the following advice is pretty universal. This advice doesn’t seem like rocket science to me. Popular time spots seem to be mornings at 6am to 8am when people wake up and can’t resist checking their phones to see what they missed overnight. Midday too is a good time from noon to 2pm: Around the lunch hour is when people get a break to do what they want, and that often includes checking their social media accounts. And obviously 5pm till 7pm in the evening when people travel home and start to relax. For your information it seems 5pm is THE optimum time of day to post and interact on most days.
People engage the most on Wednesdays and Thursday’s (depending which reports you agree with), but Sunday seems to be the day people engage and comment with other instagrammers the most.
So I’m going to start posting more on Wednesday and Thursdays at 5pm and see what happens. Obviously the caveat to all of this is that it will depend how you yourself want to connect to your followers, but these guidelines might help you experiement with different times and days.
I mentioned earlier that I follow certain instagrammers that consistently post amazing photographic insights into their daily lives. They manage to create a brand around themselves and I thought I’d share my 5 favourites high-volume photographers to inspire you to post more…
Patrick posts at least 2 great pictures a day. He’s one of the coolest men about town style photographers I follow. With nearly 400k foloowers Patrick is a great source of inspiration (and a lifestyle I’m envious of.)
With over 400k followers Michael Schulz has created a very insightful street photography gallery based particularly around Berlin but also his travels. He posts daily and he captures human life and architecture brilliantly in my opinion.
The name explains it all really. With over 360 thousand followers all desperate to see what the next breakfast is, this account posts a symmetrical breakfast picture every day. Not only are the shots aesthetically pleasing, they look more delicious than my toast in morning!
Nicanor posts superb pictures at least twice a day. His talent shines through in every superbly composed shot of colourful architecture and his Barcelona life. It’s no wonder he’s got 729 thousand folowers.
Lastly is Catherine Cordasco’s beautiful account. Catherine is an illustrator and she captures beautiful insights in her Parisian life. She also creates some amazing artistic pieces which she shares with her followers too. Regularly posting every day Catherine has 129 thousand followers and rightly so.
Tony Hammond
I’m Tony Hammond. I’m UK based. I’m a total Instagram-addict and I’m unsuccessfully trying to grow a beard. Find me on Instagram at @iamtonyhammond and say hi!