I thought I would just share some insight on Instagram at the moment to give a little advice on how to grow it etc. I have been working quite hard on trying to create a seamless approach to my social media with my blog, mainly trying to connect my blog and my Instagram. Using the same fonts and colour aesthetic creates a vibe which is my own style and hopefully people who follow my Instagram and blog can see the relation between both platforms. Ideally it should all connect with all social media, but some social media platforms limit the fonts you can use and how creative you can be, Instagram is really good for creativity.
What is an Instagram theme?
So what is an Instagram theme do you ask? Well, your profile page consists of 3 rows of images, when you upload an image to Instagram, it will show up in your feed where people can view it when it is uploaded. When you click on that persons profile, it will show you all photos in the three rows in the sequence they have been uploaded in. Some people can really just create an aesthetically pleasing theme on Instagram with minimal effort, I really envy these people!! An Instagram theme is basically a profile/feed of images or quotes which is consistent in colours, tones and images which flows.
Why have an Aesthetic Instagram Theme which flows?
If I'm honest, people probably definitely think themes are so '2013 Tumblr' which, is true in a sense... Feeds being aesthetic was very popular back in the day, and I thought my old theme was cool and minimal and I'm sure if I looked back at it now I would think WTF! Last year, I had no consistent theme on Instagram. I thought I did, but I didn't. It was such random photos, partying, Visual Merchandising work I have done, inconsistent selfies and INCONSISTENT COLOURS!
TBH, I wasn't hugely fussed back then, but I would be lucky to get between 30-40 likes on a photo. Not that likes really matter at all by the way, that isn't why I have started an Instagram theme, which I will explain as I go through this post. The main reason to have a theme is to improve engagement. I am more interested in improving my engagement to get more views on my blog, and just to make my feed creative and professional too. It really helps create a brand image for yourself. Personal branding is becoming so important trying to make yourself individual and stand out from the crowd.
How can you make a theme flow?
1) Filters are sooo important when creating a theme, it sets the colour scheme and exposure for your theme. These should be applied to all photos so that your theme flows, or you can be creative and use a few different filters. UN UM (the app) is an amazing app which helps you plan your feed, it's really helpful when you're starting to plan a new feed (or your first one!) to get an idea of what you want it to look like.
2) Instagram Highlight Covers are a fab way to set the colour scheme before someone actually scrolls down to see your feed. For example, mine are a greyish mink colour and my theme is white and greyish background colours in my photos. It just makes my highlights feel like part of my instagram page, like they're supposed to be there
3) Similar images are so important. If you are into fashion like me, make sure you post plenty of outfit pictures, but I don't really like profiles which are just outfit-led. I feel like it's too much and isn't very inspirational, so I like to have what I call 'GAP photos' which are basically just aesthetic images, relating to your other images of yourself but aren't actually of you. I like to use pictures of products, like skincare, bags, shoes aftershaves etc. I also like to use pictures of buildings, I recently used some pictures from my time in Paris of the YSL Museum and Zara Home, it just makes your theme a little more real. I'll show you my theme below and what I mean so that this all makes sense.
4) Instagram stories should also be consistent, I use Canva to create most of my Instagram Stories which explain content or let people know about my blog posts etc, it matches my blog and the colour of my theme which ties them both together.
What has happened to my Instagram since I started my feed?
So I started a new theme about a month ago now, and I have seen some noticeable differences in my instagram, which includes a growth in likes, comments and followers. This is great as it exposes my blog to a wider audience who hopefully like the content which I produce or similar. I can also track that a certain amount of traffic comes to my blog from Instagram, which is really good. I have also made some relationships with some amazing people who produce amazing content, and have collaborated with them to produce some Guest Blogs for Mitchell Preston Fashion.
What apps and websites are helpful?
• Canva
• UNUM
• Later
• Photoshop PS
• Adobe Lightroom
• Facetune
Follow my Instagram Below!
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