Hello guys! A couple of you asked me about my instagram routine for reposting content, which is awesome! I will get to the point in no time, but let me introduce a concept first.
Why do we need to get technical?
Every digital image comes with a lot of hidden information called metadata. Stuff like camera parameters, phone model, gps coordinates and so on are stored into a file called EXIF, which can of course be edited.
Another parameter we need to introduce MD5: simply said, it’s an unique code that univocally identifies your file. Identical files have identical MD5 codes. You can picture it like a short alphanumeric “summary” of your file.
Why is this important though?
First, because when you post original content on instagram, the platform erases all of it (we will get back there in a second). Second, because the platform uses EXIF contents to gather information about your picture.
Let’s say you’re a professional photographer, and you just took a picture of your hot girlfriend with a Canon MARK IV. You do some Lightroom work, you post it on your profile. Instagram recognizes it as a very high quality picture, therefore we can assume it’s gonna be prioritized from the algorithm (because we know for sure that Instagram values quality – they don’t even allow promotions on low-hd content!).
On the other hand, if you’re a shady social media manager and you want to use that non-original, uber-reposted, yet viral picture of Santorini to skyrocket your travel niche account, you might wanna use every tool in your possession to trick the system into thinking YOU took that shot.
What should I do to improve my chances of tricking the algorithm?
Well, you have to make them believe the content is original. That your camera is bomb. That the gps coordinates match the location. Simple as that.
How do I do this?
I can tell you how I do this, but I’m sure there are WAY better routines out there.
- Download the picture you want to repost from the best source available (dig to find the original one – reddit, google images, instagram itself: do your homework and don’t be lazy).
- Open it in Lightroom or Photoshop, and do some slight adjustments (I usually just do Image > Auto Tone and Image > Auto Color).
- Save as a copy, creating a brand new file.
- Obtain a high-quality picture (I used a simple picture from my iPhone 11 Pro), and open it on an EXIF editor app (I use Photo Exif Editor from the Mac App Store, which is like €1.09, but you can use whatever you want).
- Copy all the relevant data and save it somewhere.
- Open on the EXIF editor the picture you edited in Photoshop/Lightroom and fill all of the fields with the good camera information you just obtained.
- Make sure to import the correct GPS coordinates you want to use – Google Maps is free, and allows you to see GPS coordinates very easily
- Save the picture and send it via email/airdrop (DON’T whatsapp it) to your phone or upload it straight to JV
- The resulting picture will, of course, have different MD5 from the originally downloaded one!
Are you some kind of paranoid?
Well, yes. I know this is probably a min-maxing thing that doesn’t really help a lot, but doing this diligently resulted in me getting crazy engagement on my reposted content. Better safe than sorry!
If you enjoyed the guide make sure to drop a like – I really appreciate it!
I’ll be in the comments for any other question.
