How to Build Your Instagram Brand Identity

Instagram is all about the visual appeal to the viewer. The platform is easy to use, and posting beautiful photos may seem like no big deal. But take a step back and think about a few things. First, to really rock Instagram, you need to build a cohesive visual and content strategy that takes into account a variety of factors. First, consider your buyer Persona when thinking about how you want to develop your brand aesthetic. Is your audience young or old? B2B or B2C? Are they thrill seekers or bookworms? Take a look at their demographics, their likes and their interests when considering how to align your own content, one way to get started is to take a look at your competitors and other brands that are doing well in the space. How do they present themselves? How do they unify imagery with fonts, filters and colors? Brands should also think about their tone and voice. Voice is the distinct and steady personality or style of your brand. Tone, on the other hand, is a subset of voice. It refers to the moods and attitudes of specific content pieces, which can change depending on the channel, the situation and the audience. Figuring out what the right tone is for a given post will vary depending on your audience, your message and its purpose. Check out the Resources section for a link to a video lesson on developing tone and voice.

Creating a Visual Theme, A Visual Story A visual brand on Instagram is where you need to start. That is number one, hands down, if you don't have a cohesive look and feel that captures someone's attention and keeps your business top of mind in your niche, you're kind of losing out on what Instagram's all about. And I always go back to that magazine look and feel. It's the promise that you make in your bio doesn't match up to your feed. And if your feed is confusing and it doesn't have an overarching look, feel or theme, then people are going to be confused and most likely not follow you.

Take a cue from some of the best influencers on Instagram and consider theming your content. What does that mean? Let me show you. You can create themes based upon color, subject matter, fonts and more. Toy with using specific borders on every image, grouping them by specific shots, or using certain Instagram filters. This sort of creative aesthetic takes some thought and planning. Put together guidelines for your team to adhere to when planning your Instagram posts. One thing to keep in mind puzzle layouts like these may look pretty cool, but they aren't easy to do nor to maintain. Additionally, since most people are viewing individual photos in their feedback, seeing a partial picture may be off putting. There are a number of tutorials and tools you can use to plan your Instagram aesthetic. Check out the Resources section for more details. Before we start talking about the content of your posts themselves, let's talk about your ontent calendar. A content calendar is key. It will help you plan your content, make sure you take into account holidays and events, and help you stay organized. You want to plan your posts for the time when your audience is most active. If you're just starting, CoSchedule found that Mondays and Thursdays are the best days to post. Between 8 and 9am avoid posting at 3 to 4pm you can also check the link in the Resources section for some help on determining the best times. If you've been on Instagram a while, dig into the Audience section of your metrics to see when your audience is primarily online. You might also want to consider a third party to schedule your content automatically. There are several companies that offer this, as you can see from this slide. So let's think about the content itself. There are four main ways that your images can help or engage your followers. They can educate your followers Entertain your followers Assist your followers in solving a problem Motivate or inspire your followers to attract attention. Make sure your images align with at least one of the categories below. Post about an upcoming holiday or event that connects to your following. Trending Post the type of content that's currently hot and trending on Instagram. Original Post Unique, beautiful and interesting content that can't be found elsewhere. Snackable Post content that's easily digestible while your followers scroll through their feeds. Actionable Include a call to action in your post, directing your followers to like, share or comment on your image. But above all, you want your images to tell a story. The best way to establish a loyal and enthusiastic following is to use your Instagram images to tell a story that captivates and engages your followers and allows them to be part of the adventure.

A brand should think about what type of content to create that really is based not only on being educational or entertaining or inspiring someone. It really is based on emotion and the feeling that people get when they look at your post. And how can you connect to someone's emotion deeper? I think that there's a huge movement with the whole feeling, and this is why you see so many posts and pictures of people not looking directly into the camera. But they want you to feel like you're experiencing what they're experiencing.

Need ideas on the types of posts to create? You're in luck because we have a few ideas you can run with behind the scenes posts, post events, video shoots, and more reposts from employees. Share the fun things that your employees love about working at your company. User Generated Content User Generated Content, or UGC is curated content from your fans and followers that capture your brand's style. Educational Posts these are quick tips on how to do or make something with easy to follow instructions. Influencer Posts these posts piggyback on the fame of a celebrity or well known public figure to draw attention to your brand. Note that you may need to pay influencers to work with them. Motivational Posts these posts are simple visuals with some kind of uplifting text or quote overlaid on top. Post these sparingly to avoid looking cheesy. Newsjacking this refers to developing content based on a local, national or world trend, or by jumping in on other trending topics. I asked David Meerman Scott, who wrote the book on newsjacking, to explain so.

Newsjacking is the idea of Every news story breaks in exactly the same way. It grows in importance. It peaks at some point drops off as a news story is breaking. Journalists and analysts and people on social media and possibly people who want to buy products and services, are looking for somebody who's an expert in that particular topic. So if you happen to be somewhere where something is happening and you can create an image around it, or if you happen to have an expertise on a breaking story and you can do a real quick video or you can do a real quick update, maybe with a photo of yourself or a photo of something appropriate, you can do a really great job into getting your ideas into the market. A friend of mine's name is Mitch Jackson, and what Mitch he's a lawyer, so what he does is comments on the legal aspects of news stories, providing the legal ramifications of what's going on out there. And he often does that using social media. And anyone can do that getting their expertise out. At the moment, that's right along those.

Lines, it seems like there's a holiday for everything these days. Fun events like National Sibling Day and National Ice Cream Day generate a ton of engagement on social media. Develop content that fits in, and make sure you tag your content appropriately to connect to the conversation. Now that you have these content strategy tips in mind, you're ready to start creating posts and videos that will help your business grow better. On Instagram.

Grab.