I tagged my Instagram photos in Singapore to become Instagram famous, and instead this is what happened
Yesterday we learned that some of Instagram’s biggest stars have been doing this very strange thing in an attempt to bring more attention to their page. Even though they were in the comfort of their own home or just hanging around their hometown, they were setting the geotag in their photos to Singapore. They can’t explain exactly why, but when they started tagging their pictures in Singapore, their posts became much more visible to the Instagram world.
For example, Christian Collins, the 19-year-old singer who has almost four million followers on Instagram and more than two million subscribers on YouTube, has tagged his last three Insta photos in Singapore, even though we’re pretty sure he was still in Canada.
There has been a lot of speculation about why this trick seems to work, because Insta personalities like Christian swear by it, but nobody has come to a sensible explanation yet. So I decided to try out the Singapore Shortcut for myself (it’s got a sort of ring to it, doesn’t it?), because, hey, I could always use some more followers.
I posted a photo yesterday afternoon of my parents’ super cute cat (I’m visiting for the holidays), who has always been useful at getting me extra attention on social media when I need it.
As you can see, it looks like Pretty Boy Floyd and I are in Singapore, when we’re clearly not. I waited a few hours to let the likes accumulate, and when I checked back in, hoping to see more likes than usual and maybe some extra followers, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Altogether, my cat photo only got me a measly 61 likes and 3 comments, which is pretty standard for my cute animal pics.
Next, I upgraded to a selfie. I used natural lighting and made sure my makeup was looking decent enough (thanks, Kylie Cosmetics), and I used a few hashtags. Finally, I added the geotag of Singapore, and crossed my fingers for a change.
Still, nothing out of the ordinary. My golden selfie got me 118 likes and 4 comments. One of my previous selfies from a month ago got me 112 likes, so this Singapore thing clearly wasn’t making a difference.
The Insta stars who discovered the Singapore Shortcut said the geotag helped their post appear higher up on the Explore page. Not willing to give up yet, I scrolled through my Explore page for what seemed like hours looking for either of my pictures to pop up, to no avail. I found nothing.
Moral of the story? There’s no point in lying about your location on Instagram, because it won’t get you nearly as many followers as teen heartthrob Christian Collins has got.
