What is Instagram?

Unless you’ve been asleep for the last seven years, you’ve heard of Instagram. You probably have an account, even if you almost never use it. Instagram is the number one photo sharing social media platform in the world, with over a billion users worldwide. What that means is that no matter what you are into, there are thousands of people all over the world who are also into it, and this is a way you can connect.

Extreme Sports and Instagram

I strongly believe that Instagram has the power to spread the word about anything people do. It’s very interesting to see how people manage their accounts to increase their knowledge about a certain topic. It’s the same for skydiving. Skydivers have an advantage because what we do is very photogenic. But lots of people are using Instagram to share their passion for the sport and their work all over the world with this social media. How can you stand out in such a crowded field? The best way will always be to post exceptionally good photos with relevant captions.

Tips for Editing Skydiving Photos

1. High Contrast backgrounds In my case, the shots I get the most engagement on are the ones where I have with a background with water (ocean, beach, etc) or snow. Having a large block of solid color helps to make images in the focused foreground pop, instead of blending into the landscape.

2. Well-Known Locations Places that are well known or highly visited by tourists will always generate great engagement. Making sure you location tag is a good way to make sure you take full advantage of popular locations.

3. Angles and Perspectives Its very important to use different angles and perspectives to get your shots from. Don’t be afraid to experiment with unusual angles and perspectives. Things that are interesting and different stand out on Instagram.

4. Use Vivid Colors Extreme sports are well-suited for intense colors. In my pictures I use more saturation than normal, and it gets people’s attention.

5. Use Faces in Pictures It is scientifically proven that pictures of faces get more engagement than pictures without. Faces make pictures more human and more relatable, and people like that on extreme sports IG.

6. Use Shadows Carefully Shadows need to be used with a very careful touch. If you add too much shadow or make a picture B/W the engagement will decrease.

7. Post Timing When it comes to skydiving, timing is everything. The same is true on IG. The best picture in the world might not get any engagement if you post it at 4:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. Why? Because that’s when everyone is getting ready to go home from work, finishing tasks and then they are usually busy until after dinner time. There is a whole science to posting, but a lot of it is common sense. Plan posts for times when people are most engaged: right after waking up, a few hours into work, or after dinner before bed.

8. Use Captions The captions are there for a reason– this is where you can share interesting, informative, or funny information. A story about your experience, a product you are selling, or a joke. Let your personality come through, so that people have a feel for who you are and what you are about.

9. Max out Hashtags Instagram pros use a lot of hashtags. The reasons are simple: anyone searching for a specific thing is going to search for tags that are related. So one way to reach a wider audience is to tag your photos with relevant hashtags.

10. Have Fun & Be Real In the beginning, you may be tempted to do things like buying likes and followers, but don’t do it! This will damage your reach because Instagram can see it and will knock you down with their algorithm. Make sure your IG reflects who you are and what you do. When you are having fun, it will show and people will notice.

Of course, these are just tips that have worked for me. Everything about your account depends on the people you are trying to reach and why you’re doing it, but that is what I learned trying to build up my account.

There are many tactics that we can use to increase the number of people following us and gain more exposure, but that is for another day. I hope that you find some of these tips helpful in your Instagram journey. Comment below to share your own tips or to report back on how using some of these tips helped you.

Keep coming back

It’s much easier when we help each other. If you like this post, please leave a comment and share it.

If you want to be a contributor and share your knowledge and experience, please click here.

Follow on Instagram: @augustobartelle

Like the Fan Page on Facebook!