Have you ever looked with admiration at beautiful curated, consistent-looking feeds of your favorite creators? We bet you have. We also do, more often than we’d like to admit.
The truth is, we’re all aesthetes to some extent, meaning our mind creates a judgment before our brain can analyze the rest of the facts. That’s the naked truth: first, we judge with our eyes, whether we realize it or not! This psychological knowledge changes the way our Instagram strategy should look like – of course, your mission is to provide value and help your perfect followers/clients find the solution to their problems or dilemmas. However, we shouldn’t forget that Instagram is a visual platform and the visual aspect of our profiles still plays a pivotal role.
It can attract the audience or frighten new people away.
The moment someone visits your profile for the first time, they answer the following questions (at the back of their mind, of course): how those photos/graphics make me feel? Do I feel inspired? What is this profile about? Do I genuinely like this kind of aesthetics?
People are on the platform for many different reasons. Some of them are looking for enjoyable entertainment. Others are self-taught learners and are on a hunt for meaningful tips & tricks from the industry they’re trying to gain qualifications in. Some are looking for inspirational or relatable content. No matter what your target audience is and what they’re looking for, a consistent-looking feed that is just pleasant for the beholder’s eyes will be a meaningful advantage of your profile.
The aesthetics of your feed is also a substantial part of the branding process – whether you realize it or not, branding is remarkably powerful, and you shouldn’t ever undervalue it. Is branding reserved only for thriving companies or start-ups dreaming of conquering the market? Absolutely no (we don’t know why this myth is so widely spread). Branding is the critical part of creating a brand, personal or not, that will be easy to remember. It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be a massive brand or just a non-profit, solo-preneur’s one. It’s just the solid foundation for your online presence (not only your Instagram account, if you’re planning to start profiles/channels on different platforms as well).
Branding is the overall concept: that’s not only your logo or your official signature, as many people think. It’s also about your social media posts’ leading colors, your packaging design, the fonts you choose, and the styles you use. Put simply is the aesthetics that your brand or a profile (for now) will be associated with. People judge a book by its cover – that’s why branding is essential.
Today we’re going to discuss our three favorite pieces of advice to help you create a more aesthetically pleasing and impressive feed – that will be your admirable showcase. Let’s go!
1. Choose your leading colors (establish your color palette)
To have a consistent feed, you can’t create posts in all colors of the rainbow. You have to choose a few favorites, which will be permanently associated with your profile, so your followers will think of you wherever they see a post in those tones. Familiarity plays such an important role in content consumption. When people see content from a creator they already know or remember, they’re more likely to spend more time reading or looking at it. They’re also more likely to engage!
If you want your followers to start recognizing your profile / your brand, you will need to keep your content precisely consistent. The same style of photos, the same fonts, the same colors, over and over again until readers begin to associate you with your style.
Going back to choosing your color palette – decide what your favorite colors are. Do you prefer warm or rather cold tones, bright or dark and moody? Choose about 2-6 colors that will determine the aesthetic vibe of your feed.
Real life example: because we love technology and innovative solutions, we chose purple, green, and pink, as these colors are associated with innovations, royalty, hope, and energy. What about you?
2. Choose your favorite fonts
When you create graphics with quotes or carousels, it would be perfect if they all look similar but without getting boring. How to achieve it? Sticking to your color palette, of course, but your choice of fonts is essential as well. You can’t choose a different font every time you log in to Canva or Photoshop! Choose 1-4 of your favorites and use them conscientiously. You’ll see the difference in the look of your feed almost instantly after making this choice – it will be less messy, and it’ll start looking pro.
3. Plan your feed
How to check if a photo from your last photoshoot will go well with your current feed? How to test if, after publishing a selfie in a cherry-red t-shirt, your feed won’t turn too red and warm? There’s one practical solution: apps for feed planning. They’re mostly free and straightforward to use. We’ve used UNUM and Planoly, but there are many, many more: you can check them out by writing “feed planner” in your app store’s search engine. Thanks to them, you’ll balance how your feed looks and what you can post right now without turning your feed into chaos again. The process of grid planning will be a game-changer: it was for us as well. It’s indispensable when it comes to checking and testing your feed’s aesthetic direction without having to visualize it in your head and stress before publication.
Many creators share highly valuable insights and expert knowledge but their feed is just a mess and that’s why their posts aren’t attracting new followers, and their on-line presence remains underappreciated. They write a lot of good captions, they spend long hours creating content but they simply don’t have an eye for aesthetics and cohesive design. In result, their profiles look less than appealing. Use our today’s tips to your advantage – when you have a crafted, consistent feed, your Instagram profile will look much more professional, it will lend you credibility and help you stand out.