Prime posting time, follower ratios, post frequency, filters, hashtags. All of these are essential to truly mastering Instagram.

According to Vogue, there are many “rules” to Instagram for maximizing likes. Such include a “prime” posting time, appropriate follower to following ratio (hint: make sure you have more followers than accounts you’re following) and maximum amount of posts per day just to make their feeds appear better to their followers.

According to junior Tali Petto of Marlboro the “prime time” to post is at night.

“If you want to be more specific, Sunday nights from 8:30-10 p.m. are ideal. People normally posts at those times because it is when everyone is scrolling through their timeline before bed,” Petto said.

Having a theme for your Instagram profile is an idea that is becoming widely used among social media influencers and millennials according to Socialfly. From black and white, to a specific filter or undertone, the possibilities are virtually endless. Petto personally favors colorful and vibrant feeds over dark and dreary ones. But, Petto also believes having a theme to your profile is not essential to social media survival.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily important to keep up with a theme but I know that I do just because I find it fun. It’s just another way I can express myself,” Petto said.

Sophomore Brian Schade of Tinton Falls believes that high school girls are held to a different standard when it comes to having an aesthetically pleasing profile than that of their male counterparts.

“Girls’ feeds are taken more seriously, in my opinion. I think that they are judged a lot harder based on their Instagram profiles,” Schade said.

Schade is a fan of comical posts so an Instagram theme is not as important to him.

“I feel my Instagram really portrays my life because there are a lot of things that I don’t take seriously, Instragram included,” Schade said.

Both students agreed that there is some social pressure to uphold a certain number of likes and to make your profile presentable.

Curating a “personal brand” of sorts on your social media pages is another medium used to express one’s personality to the world, according to socialfly.com.

“I know so many people who will delete pictures that they like just because it didn’t get enough likes. They want their followers to only see the best of them,” Petto said.