Up your Instagram foodie game with these useful tips

Got your Instagram page up and running? but you’re not getting the amount of likes and exposure you would have liked to? or thought your tasty looking pics’ likes would have been sky-rocketing?

There are 4 important factors which should be addressed:

1. The quality of your image
Let’s address the quality of your image. This plays a big role in catching the eyes of Instagram users, natural light is always the best! But if natural light is not an option, good lighting is second best (find a way – even if you need someone to hold a lamp above your food). Hopefully you have a good camera, whether it be on your phone or the proper kind – this will result in beautiful images each time.

You need to get creative with your styling – it need not be out of this world, but if you’re stuck just remember that simple is always better. Having a theme to your page is always a good idea, consistency is a winner on the ‘gram’. Do not over-edit images, keep it as natural looking as possible. When taking images of restaurant food I recommend taking it from the top about 40cm away from the actual dish to get some other elements that are on the table in the shot.

Have a look at some of these totally inspiring Insta-images to get your creative juices flowing…

Making macs in my ‘industrial’ oven for the first time today! Hoping they come out like these from a while ago ?? Has anyone else got the problem of too much fan action in the oven blowing baking paper around? #oventornado ????

A photo posted by nikkialbertyn (@nikkialbertyn) on Jun 1, 2016 at 11:26pm PDT

great one for barbecues.. beetroot and boar burger. The beets here add a real depth of flavour that’s just So good! as well as grilling your patties, you can also cook the beets wrapped in foil, straight on the coals. recipe in this months @jamiemagazine gang JO X ??

A photo posted by Jamie Oliver (@jamieoliver) on Jul 21, 2016 at 6:37am PDT

Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes with Créme Fraiche Ganache up on heinstirred today. Because vegetables! #food #foodporn #foodie #foodphotography #foodphotographer #foodphoto #foodstyling #baking #cupcake #chocolate #beetroot #vegetable #ganache #cremefraiche #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography_ #nikond750 #food24_sa #f52grams #feedfeed @thefeedfeed #huffposttaste #buzzfeast #baker #iamnikon #iamnikonsa #sweet #beets #crisps #cake

A photo posted by heinstirred (@heinstirred) on Jun 20, 2016 at 6:54am PDT

The easiest No-Churn Passionfruit Cheesecake #icecream in the world #recipe #linkinbio

A photo posted by The Kate Tin (@thekatetin) on May 20, 2016 at 1:40am PDT

TV 2 kårer Norges beste matkunstbilde i anledning Årets Kokk nå på tirsdag. Jeg er dommer, og bestemmer hvem som går av med den gjeve tittelen. Tag ditt bilde med #2kokk» – kanskje du vinner! Frist tirsdag ettermiddag. [Norwegian food art competition for Chef of the Year television broadcast]. #bocusedor #chef #cauliflower #potato #carrot #pepper #tomato #tv2

A photo posted by idafrosk (@idafrosk) on Oct 11, 2015 at 4:44am PDT

Doesn’t eating your weight in Mexican food sound like a good plan?? ?????????? Happy #CincodeMayo!

A photo posted by Julie Lee (@julieskitchen) on May 5, 2016 at 3:44pm PDT

2. The hashtags you use
Hashtags – there are so many to choose from and so many that will get you more likes and more followers. You certainly do not have to hashtag each and every ingredient you used in your recipe or every component making up the meal. Don’t forget to hashtag the time of day or meal such as #lunch or #breakfast. Don’t go overboard though – less is more, less of the unnecessary and more of the relevant!

Try some of these popular food hashtags:
#foodie– 38.7M (number of images)
#foodporn– 35.9M
#foodgasm– 18.8M
#yummy– 75.9M
#instafood– 61.7M

3. Re-posts

Ever scrolled down your feed and came across a pic that made your mouth water? Only to find out it’s not something the person you’re following actually posted themselves. And you now have to go and follow that other person- because, “me oh my!”, their food looks way too good! This is something that could give you more exposure, because re-posting something from another page could get you a re-post on their page, and in turn, their tons of followers could decide to follow you too! Give it a go – you have nothing to lose but ALWAYS give credit!

4. Regular posts

I cannot stress this last one enough! Having a page and hardly ever posting is just pure sin – a waste of space and time really. Posting regularly assist in maintaining your growing following and gets you more with each post. Imagine following a page that posts every second week? I’m sure you would unfollow them, since there’s nothing new to look at or no new recipes as promised in the Bio. Followers want to see new posts especially if they followed you for a specific reason, be it healthy food recipes or the latest restaurant review. Basically – you need to commit.

If you don’t know who to follow yet, we’ve got you covered (hopefully you get a re-post from one of them):

The best foodie Instagram accounts to follow in 2016

11 Vegan Instagram accounts that will have you scrolling for days
10 chefs with the most influential Instagram accounts

Go ahead, snap away!

Don’t forget to tag @Food24_sa in your foodie image and if you are not following Food24 on Instagram, what are you waiting for?!