Hello and WELCOME to my first blog post for GATYD! Yay!!!!
It's time to share some awesome tips about Instagram. As a Social Media Manager, I receive TONS of questions about how to best use this favorited social media platform for business growth. This week's topic is the importance of cohesion.
It can be hard to decide what to post on Instagram and in what order. Whether or not you use a planning app, these decisions can be stressful! When I first started my Instagram for my new business I will fully admit I was paralyzed at first. It just seemed like so many decisions to be made to present myself to the world the way I wanted to be seen for clients to be drawn to me and hire me.
So I took lessons from experts, tried their tips on my own posts and learned what followers are looking for. One of the top answers is an Instagram page that is curated just enough to make sense as whole and continue to point to you and your business in an organized way. Which brings us to the topic of cohesiveness. So how does one get an esthetically cohesive Instagram feed?
Two ways to do this are to keep your branding colors showing throughout your posts AND to use the same editing filters for all your photos.
Let's dig in to what this means...
First of all, there are several ways to incorporate your branding colors* in your photos. All the pictures you use should have one or more of your brand colors in them at all times. If your colors include blue, make sure there is a blue pen, vase, the sky or ocean, item clothing or accessory... something in each photo that has a pop of that color. More importantly, make sure if you have multiple colors that each post should have one of the main colors in the picture before it in the picture after. Let's use the blue example again. If your post from two days ago had a pop of blue, but your other colors are lavender and white then you can use lavender in your next photo as long as there is something with a blue touch in it. Then by the third photo you can add any color you want as long as there is a lavender pop in it to match. This way the overall feed has your brand colors and from post to post it flows from color changes. Notice the yellow pops in my picture above?
*Of course this only works if you have brand colors chosen. If you don't, start there first!
Next, what filters do you use? Do you use filters? You should! Why? Because the pros edit and filter their pics, so even if you aren't a pro at photography this step will get you closer to looking like one. And if you use the same filters, your feed will have the same feel and look to it with similar color tones highlighted. Talk about cohesive!
How does one do this? All phones and Instagram have built in filters you can choose to use over and again. I prefer the method of getting filters from professionals on Etsy or other websites and uploading them into the free app Lightroom by Adobe. Even a novice can follow the easy instructions provided on a $4 filter and begin editing to a cohesive page in no time! I use 2 different, but similar filters that are light and bright to bring a soft, but focused look to my pictures.
So, did this help you? I surely hope you were inspired by just one of these tips to start making your Instagram appear more cohesive to your audience, especially those tuning in for the first time. Next blog post we will discuss how to use photo topics on Instagram!
Until then, please get my FREEBIE "5 Tips to a Captivating Instagram Feed" by clicking here!
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my next post about photo topics and how to choose them!
XOXO,
Charlese | Girl at the Yellow Desk
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