Imma be honest; I've seriously fallen off the Instagram wagon - straight down, face first, and into a questionable pile of brown. When I first started blogging, I was quick to clamber up the Instagram bandwagon (I'm gonna give myself 50 English-teacher points here for using two wagon-related idioms in two consecutive sentences 🤘🏼), but I kinda lost steam after a while, especially during the time when I was trying to establish an ~aesthetic~ and a ~personal brand~ for my page. Standardizing the type of shot, the color palette, the overall layout, and even the captions and hashtags proved to be a mammoth task, but I know it's worth it because I even find myself keener to follow pages that are cohesive like that. Along the journey, though, I picked up a few tips and tricks, so today, let's take a look at how you can go about showing your unique style on your Instagram page.
Think About Your Personal Brand
Consider the values that you hold as a person and how you want to express those values to the world. How do those values define you and your style? Are environmental issues at the top of your priority list, so it's important for you to support sustainable clothing brands or showcasing thrift and vintage finds (@fionayaporfavor is one of my favorites)? Are you passionate about championing inclusive fashion for mature folks (I love @iconaccidental) or people with disabilities (@abis.got.wheels is amazing)? Small details and anecdotes that you don't mind sharing with others are great, be it as small as sharing a picture of a hat you bought on one of your travels or as major as the story behind the cremation ash necklaces in glass that you sell. Not only will these boost your Instagram following, but more importantly, they will help you connect with said followers, all the while advocating for your values.
Use the Power of Color
Color may seem inconsequential, but as someone who was a lecturer in rhetoric, I can tell you that it is anything but. Color theory exists for a reason, right? A consistent choice across your pictures defines your brand and aesthetic. Think blue for travel bloggers who tend to include panoramic shots of the sky and sea to instill a sense of wanderlust in the audience. Many Instagrammers now use custom lightroom presets to make it easier to maintain this consistency, especially if they post a wide variety of pictures. If you're not sure what color palette to use, My Insta Palette is a good place to start. It's a tool that helps you figure out the most used colors on your page, which you can then use in your presets.
Plan Out Your Shots
This is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I had a plan for my content, but it was hard to stick to because I didn't have the time to produce enough content for such a plan to happen, so days turned into weeks into months into years, and here we are. This, once again, helps solidify the brand that you're presenting to your audience, but more than that, it keeps your page uncluttered, and it makes it easier for followers to find and engage with your other content that they might also enjoy. Some aspects to consider are what types of content you want to include, what pictures work well together, and what spots can use a bit of balancing to make your page look exactly how you want it to. A tool that I've stumbled upon that can help with this is Planoly, which takes the time-consuming aspect out of planning your layout.
Of course, I'm giving all this another shot, now that I'm back posting more regularly on the blog, so fingers crossed! 🤞🏼
What advice do you have for establishing an aesthetic for Instagram?
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