As more and more of your potential customers connect with businesses through social media it is so important to make sure your feed and social media output matches your brand.
If your a fashion, lifestyle, food or retail business then Instagram is one of the most important social platforms as you can use ‘User Generated Content’ alongside your stylised feed to promote your business. If you register as a business you can also use Instagram stories to include a ‘SWIPE UP TO BUY’ option (only if you have more than 10K followers) and direct users to your website. As Instagram is frequented by style savvy users it is important to make sure your feed looks incredible.
Below we will talk you through our favourite Instagram accounts and talk through how they create an Instagram feed that looks on-brand and beautiful.
THE FULL LENGTH MIDDLE IMAGE
Here a full-length shot is split and works separately but then when it lines up in your feed it creates a striking effect and really shows off your items. This style works well for fashion and retail brands as well as models who want to showcase items. To make this work think of your grid in ‘6’ and shot 2 and 5 will make up the split image. If your handy with photoshop this is easy to do as you simply crop the image in half.
THE ACCENT COLOUR
One of our favourite bloggers ‘Heather’ also known as sugarpea_ has nailed the use of an accent colour and matches her post to her current haircolour. Currently looking amazing with pink hair she picks out background colours, clothing, drinks or interiors that have a pink tone in. This creates a consistent and well-thought out feed. You can mix up the colours like sugarpea_ and change to a different colour each month or each hair colour change! This style works well for coffee shops, food brands, bloggers, clothing brands, interiors and makeup brands. To make it work pick out one key colour accent and one or two complementary colours. Here Heather uses green and monochrome tones along with the pink to add variety.
MONOCHROME SIMPLICITY
Using filters turn all your images into moody monochrome shots that instantly feel consistent with your brand. Keep everything minimal in the shot and try to alternate darker and lighter shots like theminimalists do on their beautiful feed which reflects their stripped back, minimalist ethos.
THE QUOTE SQUARE
Really simple if you don’t like planning too much in advance and want to keep your feed looking consistent. Simply alternate between a quote or text based post and an image. Make sure you are using a font that fits with your brand and have a colour pallette pre-defined so that your feed looks consistent. Here our favourite Chai Tea Blend from Manchester ‘Aura Chai’ uses a quote block every 9 images and keeps her colour pallete natural and earthy.
You could vary this and try every other image, or every 6th image. Works well if you want to show off special offers or use quotes. If you are a social brand then a quote post also encourages comments and conversation below.
QUIRKY & MIXED UP
Susan Earlam is one of our favourite Manchester based bloggers who has such a unique feed and blog site that really captures her personality and all the things she loves in life. Images taken on SLR camera help this style look polished but there are no rules just a good eye for shots. Susan has chosen several themes including books, nature, interiors, plants, vintage and lifestyle shots and emulated that vintage style photography through filters. We love how this feed is so eclectic and mixed.
If your not sure where to start then we can work with you to create a template for your feed and a style guide so that you can follow this to create a cohesive and stylish social media feed.
Read about our Social Media Design Packages.
If you have any more tips or favourite Instagram accounts then please let us know and comment below.