14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at Yahoo Labs don’t waste their time, and quite recently they seem to have taken a particular interest in what makes an Instagram account popular.
The in-depth analysis they conducted for the benefit of all the people leading an obscure existence on the social networking service paid off, and they managed to get to the bottom of the long-debated issue.
As surprising as it may seem, the thing that has the power to make people insanely popular on Instagram are filters.
It is also true that filters can affect your self-esteem as most users are down in the dumps one minute and jumping in joy the next one based on the number of likes they get on their more or less altered pictures, but researchers encourage not showing the "whole face" in the images posted on Instagram.
However, the study does not refer to selfies only, but to any kind of pictures uploaded online.
Take landscapes, for instance. You might want followers to see the exact image you have in front of your eyes when snapping the picture, but that’s not what they would appreciate. On the contrary, they want to see a completely altered version of the original.
The study called "Why We Filter Our Photos and How It Impacts Engagement" shows that filtered photos are 21 percent more likely to be viewed and shared on social media, and 45 percent more likely to be commented on.
In other words, if you post an unamended picture, people won’t even take the trouble to give some feedback.
Researchers also provided some tips on what filter to go with
Furthermore, researchers showed that for a greater chance of success, users are strongly encouraged to use a colder-colored filter. So, just a tint of blueish is prone to get you more likes. And you might also want to work on increasing the contrast and the exposure of the photo you are going to post because it can boost your chances of being noticed.
This useful research serves to show Instagrammers worldwide the reason behind their inability to garner more likes: wrong use of filters.
But now that things have been made clear, they should all keep in mind that in order to up their popularity, they might want to start working on their editing skills. And remember that age filters and saturation are no-nos.