Here's one of my top secrets for getting more exposure on Instagram. This one is big, because if you don't get it down, you may actually be penalized by Instagram without knowing it. Here's the deal... Instagram has some pretty savvy technology to calculate whether or not your photos have "popularity potential". It all has to do with image quality. This means, if you're posting low-quality photos, Instagram robots can tell and they treat your photos accordingly, based on four main factors.