Five ways to instantly look more legitimate on Instagram
When I’m looking for certain professional services, Instagram goes a long way to show me how detailed and savvy a brand is. It might just be that I am meticulous about these things, or it might be that I gain a sense of trust by knowing a brand cares about keeping their image sharp… but I am totally judgy about business Instas.
Honestly, just a few quick details will turn me away from what could otherwise have been a great brand experience. If you don’t want to lose potential business because of what I’ll call “branding carelessness,” read these quick tips:
Properly crop your logo in your Profile image.
You should always have a version of your logo that can be used in circle format. I cringe when I see cut-off logos at the top of profiles. (On this note, if you have a logo but you don’t have the necessary formats for signature lines, social media, letterheads, etc., we can help with that. And if you don’t have a logo, well… of course we can help with that!)
Be careful with quotes.
Quotes, especially if you’re using a brand palette and well designed template, earn major visual points for your feed. But: pay attention to cropping. Portrait orientation on quotes looks amaze, but when they are cropped down to a square, your quotes can get cut off when viewed in standard grid form on your profile or in a search. I always visualize what will show up if my photo were cropped into a square (right in the middle), and keep the verbiage within that sweet spot before I post.
Use presets.
If you have access to Photoshop or Lightroom, this will be a total game changer. (And if you don’t, hire someone like us to do this for you). Presets are a way to edit your photos in the exactly same way with one click of a button. For example, some remove all the purple tones and increase the oranges hues to create a warm, sun kissed feel. Some make all the whites whiter and tone down the shadows, creating a bright and airy vibe. And when all of your photos follow give off the same ambiance, your feed suddenly feels less cluttered, more cohesive, and is a total dream to look at. While there are other ways to accomplish this, just the mindset to have a consistent color palette will transform your feed and give it a sense of direction. And on that note…
Have some sort of direction.
When you will literally post anything, what it says to me is that you aren’t taking digital communication seriously and aren’t really sure what you stand for. And generally that scares me away when I need something a bit more reliable and consistent. Plus, your audience typically made a conscious decision to follow you because they have a certain expectation about your content and want it in their daily feed. If you start straying from this and posting low lit photos of food or blurry photos of your dog, it’s a sure way to confuse and lose those followers.
Come up with your own content.
Do you solely rely on regramming from other accounts? It fills up your feed, but it might be working against you (the previous tip is a big reason why). Believe me, I understand why this can’t always be a priority. You’re likely not a professional photographer or a graphic designer. But trust me on this, you are capable of generating your own content. You just have to look at things a little differently and once you let that creative mindset flow, you’ll see potential posts everywhere around you. Snap away. Write down quotes. Pen down a short paragraph or story and pair it with a free stock photo. On a constant basis, I am uploading random photos (after presets) and quotes (with my own branding) to my scheduling tool (Planoly) before I even know what it will become. And about two or three times a week, I organize the next few days of content and auto schedule it.
Reach out if you’d like a free consultation about your Instagram professionalism or would like Arrow Design Co. to help you with some of your digital branding and content creation. We can’t promise to increase your followers by 5,000 in 30 days, but we can promise your potential customers will feel much more confident about trying you out.
xo
Melinda