Instagram is one of the social platforms with the largest number of users. Navigating through millions of profiles of companies, brands, celebrities or individuals can be as difficult as trying to stand out among them. Your Instagram feed is undoubtedly the best letter of introduction on this network: this is where users who want to know more about you and see what you’ve said – or done – so far will look. So, it’s important that you take care of it.
What is the Instagram feed?
The feed is the interface to your own profile. This is where your username, your profile picture and the various “fixed” posts you have made so far are displayed.
Unlike stories, here users will be able to see your description next to your posts. In an instant and at a glance, this user can get an idea of what kind of profile they have in front of them, if it is of quality and if it deserves their attention.
The Instagram feed: a showcase for attracting followers
On Instagram, first impressions is the most important. If it’s bad or doesn’t connect with the user, your profile is unlikely to attract them back. So how do you capture their attention and stand out from the crowd?
Before we start taking pictures or making flashy designs, the first step is to turn on our brains. What do we want to achieve with our Instagram profile? What will be our goal? Based on the content we want to offer, we will make our feed. There are several approaches -where creativity and originality should always be present- that we can group into:
- Inform: our intention is to inform about a fact or event, providing photographs focused on the action they illustrate.
- Inspire: in contrast to the previous one, our aim is to offer an emotional and artistic background that generates an impact or intentional reaction in the user.
- Entertain: from fragments of poetry to fun facts, including the famous memes.
- Reinforce our brand: beyond showing our logo, the aim here is to remind us of our corporate values in a more explicit way than in the previous cases.
- Informative: sharing non-original content, either from other profiles or social networks.
Can different objectives coexist in the same feed? Yes, although the most advisable thing is that it should be framed within the same strategy. In other words, the message must be clear and direct for our target (the user-customer we are addressing).
Aesthetics
You may have come across profiles where you’ve thought “Wow, what cool pictures! What a colour composition! These are certainly not elements that the author has left to chance. What determines the beauty of these Instagram feeds is their aesthetics. Without intending to enter into artistic debates, we can briefly summarise aesthetics as the story that intertwines several images, giving them coherence and meaning.
priori one of your own, in accordance with the values you want to transmit and maintain it throughout your feed in future publications. Here are some tips (and they will help you to avoid monotony):
- Always use the same Instagram filter
- Choose different approaches: combine close-ups, general shots, detail shots, macro shots… to highlight one element or another.
- Stay within a range of colours (define your mood board)… or evolve with the seasons (by providing a chromatic evolution in tune with the weather).
- Sharp and well framed images. Without leaving your smartphone camera, you can take the time to stabilise the image before shooting and try taking several shots. Choose the best and most suggestive one, crop and edit to stand out.
- Don’t overdo it with selfies, go for portraits if you want to appear or illustrate one or more people at a time.
Tools to help you take care of your instagram feed
There are many, some of which are paid. In our experience, we recommend these:
- Canva
A Canva graphic design platform with templates for uploading and editing your photos, illustrations or texts. The free version offers a wide range of options and formats, including one adapted for feed photos or stories.
- Photoshop
If you are looking for detailed retouching of your images and a more professional finish, this is the tool for you. Together with Lightroom, Photoshop is Adobe’s bet for high quality photo editing. It is paid, but it is undoubtedly the one that offers the widest range of options for editing with layers.
- Later
Designed to schedule photos for the feed or stories for Instagram in the paid version. With Later you can also see a simulation of how your feed will look with the posts you schedule, prepare their content, text and image.
And so much for our recommendations on how to take care of your Instagram feed. Without a doubt, it is a task that requires patience, care and a lot of originality, but it can help you -and a lot- to make yourself known and connect with your audience.
We hope we have helped you and if you have any questions or need advice on digital marketing for artisans, Labois can help you.
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