Not hungry? Blame Instagram

So Social

Looking at one or two Instagram photos of food could make your stomach grumble. But looking at too many can actually decrease your appetite.

Really. According to a study at Brigham Young University of 232 people, food was less enjoyable after the participants were subjected to several photos of that kind of food. The researchers say it's because of sensory boredom, and while it could be good news for your diet, it's not necessarily good news for your overall social media strategy. And that's especially true if you tend to post a lot of food.

So now what? Don't worry. Here are five tips to make your Instagram feed more palatable to everyone.

Before you post, look at your feed. No one likes seeing the same thing over and over. That goes for any social media platform. So if your last 10 photos are buildings or clouds, mix it up a little. Here's a great way to do that: Create your own personal photo challenge. Make a pact with yourself to take a photo of a different subject each day for a week. If you search online for 'online photo challenges,' you'll see that the hard work is already done. Create a calendar or document where you can set a reminder. Your photos will be more interesting and your followers will be more interested.

Enough with the filters. Instagram has a lot of them, but there's a common misconception that every Instagram photo requires one. I think it's the opposite; you should only use a filter if the photo absolutely needs it. And whatever you do, don't apply the same filter more than once and don't combine filters. When you see a halo around the person in the center of your frame, you've gone too far.

Hip to be square. Watch the shape of your subject. Remember that Instagram photos are square. Some programs call this a 1:1 ratio. Whatever you call it, know that a vertical masterpiece is not going to look good on Instagram. So when you're out shooting, think about how it's going to look after the crop. Alternatively, some photo programs let you shoot photos that have already been constrained to the correct size.

Holy hashtags! They're overused everywhere, but they're completely abused on Instagram. It's not uncommon to see a very short description followed by 20 or more hashtags. Instagram actually limits you to 30. People do this because they think it increases the chances their photo will be found more quickly. Maybe, but my general practice is to avoid interacting with any photo with more than two hashtags. The best practice for social media in general is to limit a post to one or two hashtags at the most. There's no better time than the present to start practicing.

Step away from the food. The good news is your photos are unlikely to have the same effect as in the research. It would take looking at a lot of photos of food for a long time to achieve similar results. But that doesn't mean you can't get into the habit now of not taking a close-up of your flourless chocolate cake. And this tip also applies to me because I'm guilty of posting a lot of food photos. And now I really want flourless chocolate cake. Apparently this column won't decrease your appetite.

Those are just my five top photo tips. I didn't even get into video. Feel free to send me your Instagram tips. I would love to share them.

What questions do you have about social media? Tweet them to @scottkleinberg. He might select yours for use in a future column.