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Branding Your Instagram

Over its six year history, Instagram has evolved into a social media giant. The platform is much more than artsy shots of a mediocre lunch or far too many photos of a cat. With over 400 million active monthly users it must take almost no effort to promote your brand on Instagram, right? Wrong.

You have a great camera on your phone, basic knowledge of photography, some good content, and more filters than you can shake a stick at. But for some reason, your page just isn’t churning out the desired results.

Instagram, unlike other platforms, offers an almost entirely visually based representation of your brand, organization, or business. Ensuring that the content you post to it is consistent with your brand image is paramount.

Creating and maintaining an Instagram strategy will make sure that your content is attractive and easy for any account user to manage. Let's break it down.

Set Your Objectives

As with most things in life, the first step is to determine what you want to get out of your efforts. Are you trying to reel in new clients or are you attempting to grow brand awareness?

  • Many companies choose to focus on product centered posts with creative designs and imagery.
  • Others give behind the scenes pictures or highlight their company culture.
  • Determining where to focus will help organize not only your strategy but your entire social media effort.

Setting your goals will give you a solid foundation on which to build your Instagram's look and feel. Map out who your audience is, what they want to see, what times they are most active online, and how to best engage with them.

Map Out Your Content

Content is king. There is no contesting its rule.

And your goals should be directly reflected by the overall feel of your content. Review them and determine what best fits for your audience.

  • B2C companies tend to lean towards focusing on products or services.
  • B2B companies highlight their team members and culture.

 

Both of these plans offer a great jumping off points for content themes to grow your Insta-presence. There are endless other themes to work with such as event photos, facts/tips, and anything you can think of with some solid brainstorming. Instagram also offers the ability to promote content other than just photos. Videos, time lapses, and gifs all offer a rich way to visually entice your audience.

Develop Your Aesthetic

Objectives, check. Awesome photos, check. But now how do you make sure everything fits into place and looks great? Creating a solidified and clear style guide will make sure all of you posted content properly convey your brand image to the masses. Here is what do!

 

  • Logo: Your first step is to ensure that your logo or mascot is properly displayed as your profile picture. First impressions count in this game.
  • Bio: Make sure your bio is clear, concise, and gives a solid insight into who YOU are.
  • Colors: If your brand has a color palette and font in place, make sure to stick with that for all of your photos. Pay attention to cool or warm tones in photos, add a bit of your color palette into photos in creative ways, and use the same font for any text.
  • Composition: Pick some basic composition rules to follow in your photos. Such as using simple, yet colorful backgrounds. Applying the rule of thirds to product shots or using contrasting tones to make the image ‘pop’.
  • Filters: In similar fashion to your color and font choices, be wise with the filters you use over photos. Using too many different selections will make your page feel disjointed and ruin any flow that you may have going on. Pick a few and stick with them. If you are doing a series of posts keep the filter consistent if you are using one.
  • Captions: The text beneath the photo is also of vital importance to your Instagram feed. General copywriting procedures should be applied to the captions. Be sure to put the most important piece of information first so it is clearly visible without clicking the ‘more’ button. Determine if short fragments, tagging other accounts, or using emojis is relevant to your aesthetic and goals.

If the content is king, hashtags are Instagram’s prime minister. Including tags that represent your brand, influencers, and overall fit the content will increase your visibility to the Instagram community. Do some research, see what's trending, keep them in a word document, and post them along with your content. You will most likely use a set of hashtags with every post, and sprinkling on some specific ones relevant to the content posted.

Contact Your Internet Marketing Firm

Using these tips will help reimagine and reorganize your Instagram to its full potential. However, if you would like some professional assistance with your Instagram or any social media contact your internet marketing firm today. At ProFromGo we help businesses attract customers through smart marketing strategies. We provide a full-service online marketing experience to help your business strengthen brand loyalty and grow your customer base. To get started with a consultation, contact us today.-

 

Chris Vendilli
About the Author
Chris is the founder and CEO of Vendilli Digital Group. In his free time, you’ll find him camping, fishing, or playing beer league ice hockey with a bunch of guys who refuse to admit they’re already over the hill.
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