9 Secrets Behind Our Editors' Instagrams With the Most Likes

Trying to make your photos perform on Instagram can seem like a moving target, algorithm changes notwithstanding. And hey, no shame in the game, we can all admit we like getting likes; that dopamine hit is well documented. And actually it’s partially due the the unpredictable nature of Instagram post performance that makes racking up the double taps so addictive.

So what’s a stylish girl to do? Well, if you’ve already tried “not caring” and deleting the app for the thousandth time, we figured we’d pool our Who What Wear team resources to share our insights. We had Mimi Postigo, the brains behind the day-to-day management of the @WhoWhatWear account, weigh in on the why behind our most-liked posts.

From how to maximize reach to the color that performs 24% better, read on for her takeaways you can apply to your own fashionable feed.

“It’s no secret that this was the skirt of summer on Instagram. Every time @whowhatwear featured this in an Instagram post or story, our audience went wild.”

“A high-quality photo has a higher chance of performing well on Instagram. The composition of the photo, plus utilizing relevant tags (brand, photographer) and location geotags, probably helped to give this photo a high reach.”

“Curalate, a social commerce platform, says photos that are primarily blue perform 24% better than photos that are primarily red. This may have helped this photo to succeed with the cooler tones incorporated. We reposted this on @whowhatwear and it did really well—our audience loves a good denim ’fit.”

“Another great photo that would likely do well on WWW. The midi skirt + top outfit is always an engagement win for us. A great move to tag all the brands featured, as her audience is likely highly interested in fashion too.”

“Never underestimate the power of a good caption. A compelling caption leads to higher engagement, which could be the case here with the fun birthday mention.”

“Another great face-forward photo, boosting engagement with her audience. Our audience has always been really excited about the basket-bag trend—we constantly get comments and DMs on where to find them.”

“This is the outfit recipe of a high-performing post on @whowhatwear’s IG—jeans + tee + ankle boots. Everyone loves an outfit idea that looks easy to re-create. The tags and color composition of this likely helped it to perform too.”

“Photos that show your face are 38% more likely to get likes than a photo that doesn’t show face. This photo looks real, not posed, which is something WWW’s audience also responds well to.”

“Our franchise #whowhatwearing pulls in all the stylish outfit ideas from our community on Instagram. Great idea adding it to the caption here to increase reach and engagement!”