Many people are drawn to Instagram accounts that revolve around a theme, and Instagram has to many accounts that you're bound to find an account that suits you. Like Pugs? There are hundreds of accounts dedicated to Pugs. Fashion? Thousands of accounts. There's even an account called, @IDREAM0FSUSHI with 66.5K followers.
People who are really good at Instagram can build their existing business, make money through sponsorships with companies, sell shout-outs, and sell accounts. According to this Huffington Post article, many millennials are making full time income, some with six figure salaries, off of Instagram alone. To make money, one must have a clear, thought out theme. Here are a few steps to getting the perfect theme:
1. Decide on what you'd like to post
As I've written in the beginning of this post, there are many theme accounts out there. Some post about dogs or cats, some post about a certain type of shoe or band. I have an account for my business, That's so Fletch and a personal account. For my business, I post pictures of the bracelets I sell and make, as well as some of the raw materials before they're turned into bracelets. On my personal account, I try to post pictures of places I've gone and things I'm doing, and the theme is centered around my life, obviously.
2. Choose similar elements in each post
For each post, focus on similar elements. Use the same few colors in the background, take photos in the same lighting, in the same place, or from the same angle. For both of my accounts, I like my photos to be light and bright, so I focus on using as much white or light grey space as possible.
3. edit your photos the same way
Even if your photos use different elements and colors, editing them the same way will help your theme look cohesive. Here are the most popular apps used for editing photos:
VSCO Cam
VSCO Cam is a widely used photo editing app that's free in the app store. With it, you can use filters and tone certain parts of each picture, like contrast, exposure, hi-lights, shadows, and colors. I like that you can copy edits from one image and paste it onto a new image so that you can make sure your photos all look the same.
Face Tune
Face Tune is a $1.99 app that is mostly used to fix up selfies. I only use the whitening feature to whiten the background and certain white elements of each photo. You can also use their smoothing features, filters, and lighting features to fix up each photo, but I like to use VSCO Cam better for those elements.
Instagram Filters
Everyone who uses Instagram knows of the various filters available in app. The names of each filter even have supposedly influenced baby name trends, which is a little too intense for me. I tend to not use these filters because of the editing I do on other apps, but my favorite to use is Clarendon to brighten up a picture a little more.
4. Find your voice in the captions
Similar to finding your voice in writing, finding your voice in the captions will help followers to understand the person behind the account a little better, as well as the feel for the account. If you want your account to feel bright, happy, and cheerful, use some exclamation marks and fun emojis in the captions. If you're a brand, caption the photo with something that reflects the feel of your brand, and make sure to include what product is being shown in the photo so that customers can easily find it on your store website. I'm still working on finding my voice for both my business and personal account, but this is something that will come with time.
5. Edit your bio and profile picture to reflect your theme
Make sure potential new followers know exactly what your account is about within the first few seconds of visiting your profile. If its a brand account, make your profile image your logo, and include your brand name, and what you do and sell in your bio, as well as your business website. For your personal account, make your profile picture a picture of yourself, and your bio something about what you post. For my personal account, my pictures reflect the places I visit and things I do, so my bio states: "23. Chicago-ish. Owner of @thatssofletchboutique. Here's photo proof that I'm not super lame."
Make sure to follow me on Instagram!
Personal: Jenn_fletch22 Business: Thatssofletchboutique
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