We’ve seen a lot of success with certain Instagram feeds, while others lack engagement. These successful accounts first draw the viewer in with a post they happen upon, and lock them in with their feed and content. From a creative perspective, there are many tips and strategies that can aid in making sure your Instagram feed is filled with great content and looks aesthetically pleasing.
Determine Your Theme
First, make sure you’re aware of what type of content you should be focusing on. Whether you’re running a restaurant account or an elective medical one. This part is easy. But after that step, knowing what type of aesthetic you’re going for is important. Are you posting mainly graphics, or photos/videos, or a mix of all? Figure out whether you’re utilizing people, or just items within your posts. What is the overall message you’re trying to get across to viewers and how do you say that in your content.
Within this bubble of thought, you can figure out how to plan our your content so that you will distribute these posts evenly. This would be the most pleasing to the eye. If you have random bursts of photos, or a small section of flat graphics, your feed will display uncertainty in the type of content you want to focus on.
Consistency in All Aspects
In order for your Instagram feed to flow and look great, consistency is a major component. We can break this down into multiple areas that needs consistency: color, visuals, types of photos, and types of graphics.
Colors: Here we assume if this is a business account, you have your branding set. Make sure to utilize your company’s colors throughout the feed. Each post does not need to be overtaken with these colors, but enough that it shows they are tastefully added in.
Visuals: As mentioned in the previous section, making sure that you define your subject and content goals, consistency will then show throughout your feed if you stick to those planned posts.
Types of photos/videos: Think about whether you want bright well lit photos, or maybe ones with a more contrast. There are many factors that can also be within this layer of planning. Look for consistency within the photos themselves. Is there more negative space, are these going to be lifestyle photos? Are these colors consistent; do they have more cool tones, or warm tones? While searching for stock video, or if you’re producing your own video content, keep these similar as well. Videos can have a bit more freedom since what you initially see on the feed is just a static image, but making sure the lighting and the visuals are aligned properly is still key.
Types of graphics: This is a vast area of creativity that also has a lot to take into account. Make sure the graphics created for your feed also follow branding guidelines because again, we are all about consistency here. You also want to avoid large paragraphs of text within each graphic. Keep in mind, majority of the time people are looking at Instagram at a smaller scale through a mobile device. You want your copy to pop and be readable in just a couple seconds. No one stops to read through a paragraph while scrolling.
Plan Out Your Feed
Knowing what you’ll be posting and when will give you a nice tunnel vision into what your feed will actually look like before you post. From there, you can rearrange posts in case, for example, you posted 4 photos in a row and are lacking a graphic element. There are plenty of digital Instagram planners out there to assist in layout and helping to visualize what your feed will look like once your content is posted. Some tools will even help with scheduling and post for you. Some examples of these Instagram planners are Planoly, UNUM, and Plann.
Having an idea and plan of what you want your Instagram feed to look like will bring success to your feed visually. Factors to keep in mind are always type content you want to post, the visual consistency of them, and making sure all your different types of posts are well timed out. Also make sure that you do not post for the sake of posting. Remember: quality over quantity. You want to keep your account and feed active, but don’t churn out boring content because you feel the need to post something.
If you would like help with marketing and advertising, feel free to contact us. We offer a variety of services like digital marketing & analytics, marketing & brand strategy, and more to small and large companies.
