With Instagram opening new doors & expanding networks, it is more important than ever to have a strong unified brand. One that within 3 seconds of looking at (the average time someone will look at your page before moving on) will keep their attention & even initiate interaction down the road. Here are some tips to take your personal brand to the next level that I've learned through a bit of trial & error.
1. Study other successful feeds & learn from them. The more you look & study what others are doing right the more you will learn & eventually soak in simultaneously. It goes back to the saying "Who you surround yourself with is eventually who you will become." So look at as many good examples as you can & don't be to hard on yourself. You'll get there with a bit of sweat & elbow grease.
2. Develop your style & tastes through other avenues. Whether that be through Pinterest, Tumblr, or even magazine clippings. Have a designated site or folder to keep lots of examples of images you love & want to recreate. Somewhere you can go for inspiration. In the past I've used a photo collection program called Ember for this as well as the site Designspiration & go there regularly when I hit a creative block.
3. Make your content unified so they all flow together & have an underlying theme. People respond positively to order & pattern. Whether it be in color, content, or style of image. All of the best social media guru's have a theme that works for them & they stick to it. Work hard to find yours, one that is also natural to you. It doesn't have to be perfect or have professional photographed pics but people do know the difference between a thoughtful image vs. a quick pic.
4. Look at your content as a whole. The last 3-9 posts are what most people will see when they look at your page & then decide to follow you. Make them count. Sometimes it helps to lay out the next couple images in a separate album folder or program. You get the idea. You may think that this is just an unnecessary time consuming task but I promise it gets easier once you get the hang of it & you will have good results down the road.
5. Leave thoughtful comments on other's posts that initiate conversation. Everyone wants to feel connected & make new friendships on Instagram. The surest way to gain a person on Instagram is to take the time to get to know them first. Be consistent & leave comments that are genuine & longer than the typical one word or my very favorite, emoji only/no words needed comment. There are times & places for those types of things, once you've already built a foundation. And also, there is no shame in following them first. Just do it & have the confidence that they will return the favor down the road.
Here are a couple really fantastically themed feeds/brands/styles for inspiration.
Instagram: ThisWildIdea, Circa Doughnuts, TuesdayBassen, Maritime Supply Co, Elise Mesner, David Kitz