Say what you need to say, visually.
Visual content, just like website or caption copy – can convey a mood and tone to your viewers. What kinds of content do you want your brand to represent? Is your brand fun and carefree? Clean and minimalist? Dark and contrasty?
Think about some words that describe your brand. Let’s use Pottery Barn as an example. What words come to mind when you think of that brand? Perhaps you think of words like soft, cozy, clean, and chic. Now this translates to visual content as well. Soft, cozy, clean, and chic make me think of white and cream colors, soft lines and textures, organized vignettes, and inviting home scapes.
Pottery Barn stays true to these in their instagram grid. And it’s not just about content and color. Being an upscale brand, quality of photography is consistent as well. They always choose professional looking photos with sharp focus and deep depth of field – all keeping their grid cohesive and consistent. You won’t find iPhone photos or shallow depth of field here.
Plan it in advance.
I use an apps like Unum and Planoly to plan my instagram content. Each app lets me visually see what my next posts look like in comparison to my existing feed so I can make sure my content is cohesive.
I also love seeing my grid before posting because it allows me to add a variety of angles to make the grid look more visually interesting. I love this blog post by Sarah Crawford of Broma Bakery which outlines how to curate your Instagram feed.
Use filters for consistency.
Filters are preset photo editing settings which you can apply to your photos to get a consistent look across all your images. Think the same tones of greens and blues in all your images, grain in your images for a rustic feel, etc. You can create your own filters in Lightroom (tutorial coming soon!), or use premade filters like the ones in Instagram or from apps like A Color Story. I like A Color Story and Lightroom, because you can edit photos on your computer as well as your phone – making getting a consistent brand story a cinch!
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