Have you been using Instagram for a while with only have a handful of followers to show for it? Do you rarely receive likes and comments on your photos, despite your best efforts?

If so, these tips should help you make a splash and give you a better idea of how to get your Instagram profile noticed.

1. Upload Only Your Best Photos

Take a look at the people that you follow on Instagram. Unless they're friends, celebrities, or more practical Instagram accounts, you're likely following them because you love their photos. Put yourself in your followers' shoes. One way to get noticed on Instagram is to learn from their example and to only share photos with them that you, yourself, love.

When people land on your Instagram account, you'll want them to be blown away with your smartphone photography skills. This will not happen unless you're only posting your best shots to your public profile.

This doesn't mean you must stop posting all those impromptu selfies and less-polished photos. For these photos, you could always create a finsta account or just send them to your Close friends list.

When you post a shot to your Close friends list, it does not appear on your public profile so you don't need to worry about it tainting the rest of your Instagram portfolio.

2. Pick a Niche

A girl looking at Instagram on an iPhone.

If you're trying to get Instagram followers, it's likely you're looking for a certain kind of follower. If you travel a lot, you'll want to appeal to other travelers. If you're a foodie, you want other foodies to tag along on your food adventures. Taking Instagram seriously means always keeping this in mind.

Make sure that each photo you upload will be interesting to your "ideal follower". One of the main reasons people unfollow accounts on Instagram is because the photos being shared simply don't resonate with them, so be careful not to fall into that trap.

3. Have Your Own Aesthetic

People also follow Instagram accounts because they love the aesthetic of that account. They love the style of the photos being uploaded. You can't have this appeal if you're constantly changing the filters that you use, hopping between color and black and white, or playing around with different styles day in, day out.

Spend some time figuring out your own aesthetic. Accidentally Wes Anderson focuses largely on symmetry and pastel colors. Foodstories sticks to beautifully shadowy food and interior styling.

This doesn't mean you're locked into this style forever. You're free to evolve. When it comes to getting people to follow you on Instagram, having a recognizable, largely consistent style can be very helpful.

4. Use Hashtags Wisely

Photo of a person scrolling through Instagram next to a cup of coffee

Using hashtags is one of the best ways to get more people to see your photos and videos; Instagram limits the number of hashtags you can use in each post to 30. While there is some debate over how many hashtags you should actually be using, there's no right answer. Using all 30 doesn't appear to bring with it any negative effects, so knock yourself out.

When it comes to picking which hashtags to use, avoid super-popular ones like #love or #instagood. They're too broad. You'll just get lost in the shuffle.

Instead, keep your chosen hashtags highly relevant to your interests. To do this, start typing a hashtag into your caption, and Instagram will suggest alternatives that could perform well for that topic. Don't fall into the trap of using the same hashtags all the time, though. Customize them to the subjects of your photos. You'll reach many more people.

5. Don't Post Too Often

When you don't have any followers, you don't to worry about annoying people by constantly posting too many photos. As soon as your following starts to grow, try not to bother them with too many posts per day. We recommend not posting more than four photos or videos in a 24-hour period.

Read more: What Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram?

Space them out. Don't upload all your photos at once. You can save posts ready to publish as drafts within Instagram. Preview app is one advanced way to do this and is available on both iOS and Android.

Alternatively, you could use a service such as Buffer to schedule Instagram posts in advance.

6. Interact With Your Community

Remember, Instagram is a social network, not just a publishing platform. To really succeed, you need to integrate yourself into your Instagram community.

At the very least, this means replying to comments that you receive on your posts, and tagging people and places who are in, or relevant, to your photos. In return, they will receive a notification and might even tag you back. If you're still trying to figure out how to take your Instagram seriously, this is one great place to start.

A simple way to do this is to follow Instagram hashtags that are relevant to your niche. Some photos that are tagged with these hashtags will then appear in your feed. Spend some time leaving valuable comments on these posts and following profiles you admire. This will put you on the radar of other people in your niche.

If you have the time, consider trying out Gary Vaynerchuk's $1.80 strategy. This is where you leave your two cents (Without spamming people!) on the top nine posts of 10 relevant hashtags each day. Before long, you'll become a contributing member of your community. You can learn more about this strategy in the video below.

7. Use Instagram Stories to Get Your Photos Seen

Instagram Stories have quickly become a key part of the platform and can be a great way to build loyalty and engagement in your community. We recommend these tips to make your Instagram Stories more engaging. Don't forget about apps that will make your Stories more awesome!

The thing to note here is that Stories are a great way to share more dynamic, unpolished content that can offer a "behind-the-scenes" look at whatever you're sharing on your main profile.

An additional benefit is that individual Stories can contain links to your website. This is something you really can't do on your main Instagram posts, making it one of the only ways to drive your Instagram followers elsewhere.

8. Post Multiple Images at Once

If you shot a bunch of photos during a shoot, you might want to publish these as a multi-image post rather than as lots of individual posts. Multi-image posts can contain up to 10 images, all sharing a single caption. Users can swipe through them from left to right before continuing to scroll through their feed.

The benefit to this is that you can tell a more comprehensive story within a single post. This could be showing behind-the-scenes snippets to your main image, or several angles to a single location or subject.

This is far better than pepper-spraying your profile with lots of shots that might all look very similar.

9. Include Calls to Action

If you really want more interaction on Instagram, don't be afraid to ask for it. Ask a question in the caption, like adventurer Alastair Humphreys has done in the post below.

Ask people to like the photo if they do, in fact, like it. Start a conversation. Request recommendations. This method works for getting more interaction on blog posts, as well as for Facebook and Twitter interactions, and it works just as well on Instagram.

10. Take Your Editing to the Next Level

If you want to stand out even more, another great way to do so is to edit your photos using a different photo-editing app. Instagram's editing features are all well and good, but there are many better options out there right now.

We've included many of these in our lists of the best photo editing apps for Android and the best photo editing apps for iPhone.

How to Get Attention on Instagram: Become an Instagram Maestro

By implementing some or all of the tips listed here, you'll not only create a far more attractive profile, but you'll also become a real part of your own community on Instagram and could even find yourself making money.

Keep up with all of this, and you'll gradually see your brand solidify and your followers and interaction increase. You'll be able to reach a far greater number of people. Who knows? Maybe you'll even get verified one day.