Selena Gomez: How I Became Instagram’s Most Followed Person (Without Really Trying)
Her feed is a mixture of professional photos, off-the-cuff videos and selfies. And her fans clearly love it. A June 25 shot of her drinking a bottle of Coke quickly racked up 4 million likes and is widely believed to be the most-liked photo on Instagram at the moment. “I’m not sure there’s a method to my madness,” admits Gomez, who shares a few tips, like: If a caption isn’t coming to you, use emoji and “let it be.”
Her current obsession with Instagram’s longer video product (she was one of the first to post a 60-second video of herself in the studio when the feature rolled out in March) has become clear, too. On the Fourth of July she posted a long shot of herself walking into the party she was hosting and then jumping into the pool. It has been viewed 9 million times.
Hopping from city to city as part of her 81-show Revival tour, Gomez uses Instagram to offer an inside look at her nonstop schedule: working on her new album out of the studio bus, meeting with fans after her concerts, watching The Big Bang Theory backstage. “I try to find a good balance of just being 100 percent myself and knowing when to post a really good selfie with good lighting,” says Gomez.
But a recent photo, of her riding a shopping cart inside a market in Canada, had some fans wondering just how “real” her ‘grams are. The backstory: Her tour photographer tagged along on the excursion. “I’ve created this bond with him, so it’s super organic when he takes photos,” says Gomez. “We were in the grocery store, all shopping for the bus, and I always eat when I shop. I remember one of the comments said, ‘I cannot believe she rented out the grocery store for a photo shoot,’ and I died laughing. I was like, ‘Well, I didn’t.’ “
