The goal of the formula is to surface the most recently interesting photos based on a variety of variables. We do not simply count likes. It takes into account much more than that to make sure new people with fewer followers also have the chance of being discovered. We're constantly tweaking the formula in hopes of surfacing interesting photos from all members of the Instagram community Try this link http://help.instagram.com/customer/portal/articles/95746-how-the-popular-page-works
We use a special formula to determine which photos make it to the Popular feed. There are over 30 million members of the Instagram community, and we do our best to make sure everyone has a fair chance of seeing their photos on the Popular feed. The goal of the formula is to surface the most recently interesting photos based on a variety of variables. We do not simply count likes. It takes into account much more than that to make sure new people with fewer followers also have the chance of being discovered. We're constantly tweaking the formula in hopes of surfacing interesting photos from all members of the Instagram community. A notification will appear in your News "You" feed when your photo makes popular. If you have notifications on for Instagram, then you will also receive a message when one of your photos makes Popular.
There really isn't a specific technique as to how you can be popular on Instagram unless you're a celebrity or someone really famous. I've never heard of anyone who got popular through Instagram yet.
Great discussion here regarding the new most popular Instagram. Is there any kind of way to promoting our site or product on it in the manner of SEO?? If I want to promote my site on this, then it can help me to increases massive traffic towards my site?