By Katarina Chen :
Instagram is an app for sharing photos, so your first step should be to take a picture. These should be taken when doing casual daily activities that are an “aesthetic” and “candid,” such as casually posing in front of graffiti in Harvard Square.
A proper caption is essential to any good Instagram post. A funny pun is your best bet. However, the pun must be related to the picture. For example, if your photo is at the beach, and it’s the end of summer, an appropriate caption would be “S(ea) you later, summer.” Add parentheses around your pun for emphasis, even though it makes no grammatical sense.
(Important note: It is appropriate to post summer pictures at any time of the year, but if you post them during any season other than summer, you MUST caption your post something along the lines of “missing it ughh.”)
Now, you might think that once you have a photo and a caption, you can just post willy-nilly, whenever you want. This is a common amateur mistake. Intensive academic studies have shown you will get the most likes if you post at 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Once your photo is up, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL that you self promote it. One way to do this is posting your own post on your Instagram story. Another method is to send “lmr” to your entire Snapchat contact list. This stands for “like my recent.” Additionally, make sure your besties are commenting appropriately. Appropriate comments include “cuuteee” (any number of “u”s and “e”s), and the heart eyes emoji is always a safe bet.
If you don’t get a lot of likes within a few days, your picture is worthless. Just delete it.