If you’re working on building a strong brand on Instagram,
you might have wondered how to make your Instagram feed actually look good.
In today’s video, I’m going to explain if you need a perfect profile, show you what you should
be focusing on and share some of my tips on how to create an aesthetic Instagram feed!
Ready? Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I share
super-actionable ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives! Today,
we’re talking INSTAGRAM FEEDS! I have a really great video for you answering
your questions and figuring out whether you need a perfect Instagram feed or not.
When I first started working on this, I thought it’s going to be quite straightforward video,
but turns out I had a lot to say and address here so I hope you’re going to love it. When
it comes to what your Instagram profile looks like, there’s always a lot of balancing between
making a great first impression and trying to achieve this perfect, curated look.
When you watch this video, you’re going to learn:
1. The most important things to focus on with your Instagram feed
2. Whether you should make your feed perfect 3. What role authenticity
plays in all of that (and) 4. How to actually make your feed look good!
As always, let’s get right into it!
What should you focus on with your Instagram feed?
Clarity
The most important thing you need to achieve when it comes to your Instagram feed
is clarity. And that’s honestly one of the biggest feed issues that seems to trip up
a lot of creators. What we should always aim for is for the visitors to know exactly what you do,
what you offer, and why they should follow you. Now, a part of this comes from having a very
well-optimized bio that can explain all of these things, but that’s still not a good enough reason
for them to stay and consume your content. After all, they may be on the lookout for a cool creator
talking about house plants, but if the actual content that they see on the feed doesn’t deliver,
then they will quickly move on. This is precisely why your feed should be all about clarity.
If your profile doesn’t instantly show what they can benefit from by following your content,
then you’re not going to convert those visitors into followers.
Let me give you a very basic example. If you post a lot of Reels with covers showing
just your face and no text overlay, then someone who visits your profile will have
absolutely no idea what your content is about. Just look at what it could look like on the feed.
Why would anyone want to check what’s up? That also plays into the idea that
you have to capture people's attention and make it worthwhile for them to click.
If a visitor comes to your profile and looks at your feed, they usually notice the last 12-15
posts within the first short scroll. It’s good to think about it whenever you post so that every
piece of content that lands on your profile is clearly showing what they can expect from you.
Even if you post photos on your feed with no text on them whatsoever, you can still aim for clarity.
As an example, would you be able to identify what this profile is all about?
And now, how about this one. I’m not going to assume for you here, but
chances are when you looked at this one, you felt a little bit overwhelmed. After all,
there’s no real pattern, nothing that says clearly what this creator is all about.
Now with this one, it’s easy to see it’s probably a jewelry brand. Even though you have some
ambiguous posts here and there, you can still see the rings and necklaces and bracelets and all that
good stuff on the profile which means their feed provides clarity on what the viewers can expect.
You can do a little experiment on your own here. Go to the comments section of
one of the creators you follow and visit the profiles of a few people commenting there.
Apart from bumping into some obvious personal IGs, you may see a few business or creator profiles.
Try to determine what their profile is all about without looking at their bio that much.
It’s an eye-opening experience because I often see profiles
without that clarity and that should tell you how essential this is to your feed.
Consistency
The second important factor here is keeping a consistent brand image. This means sticking
to the same brand colors, fonts, and elements so that your profile has a very cohesive feel to it.
Not only does it look more put together, but your followers can instantly identify it’s
you when your post shows up on their feed, even if it’s just on a subconscious level.
In my social media design mistakes video, I mention how using too many fonts or colors
can really confuse the viewers and cheapen the design overall. That’s definitely not
what we’re aiming for on our Instagram feeds so be sure you stick to your own brand guidelines,
no matter how drawn you may feel to a particular style or font at that moment. This is how you
build trust because of that brand recognition factor and frankly, a consistent brand image
goes beyond just the visuals and should really include how you communicate with your followers
and what values you consistently convey. But that’s neither here or there and probably a
topic for another video. What you definitely don’t want is for your followers to see your post on
their feed and think “who is this person again” before going to your profile and remembering,
oh, yeah, that’s her. This is where the power of consistent visual identity lies and I’m sharing
some tips on how to achieve this later on so make sure you watch this video till the very end.
Perfection
Does it mean feed needs to be perfect? In my opinion, absolutely not! If you’re aiming for
some unattainable standard, then be sure that your content creation for Instagram is going to be a
nightmare. When you always try to maintain that perfect Instagram feed, it inevitably leads to
a lot more anxiety or simply makes you spend more time on it than you probably should. And trust me,
it’s the time worth putting towards improving your content quality or providing more value to your
followers. If you’ve ever wondered whether you should publish this particular post but you’re
worried about ruining your perfect feed... then something is wrong. Whether it’s the post you’ve
had ready for a while but doesn’t really look as good as it should on the feed or the post that
works brilliantly for what’s currently going on in the world, or simply a post that you feel like
posting at that very moment, if you’re stopping yourself from posting because of some weird rule
about having this incredible feed, then please just hit publish. Don’t let the obsession over
the perfect feed prevent you from showing up authentically and serving your audience.
I wouldn't be myself if I didn’t mention the puzzle feed here. As someone who’s created plenty
of Canva tutorials here on YouTube, I get asked all the time: how do I create a puzzle feed in
Canva. First, let me say, I am not going to create a video like that. Ever. I know they say “never
say never”, but truly, it’s so unlikely, I’d much rather become a lifestyle vlogger than work on a
video like that. I feel so strongly about puzzle feeds because despite looking really beautiful,
they are so hard to upkeep, that in my opinion, it’s just not worth your time. I’m going to repeat
myself here, but you really could be spending that time on creating quality content. I can’t
count how many times I’ve seen puzzle feeds that lasted like two scrolls before someone gave up
posting altogether or seen beautiful feeds with absolutely no substance in the captions because
the pressure is on looking good. Honestly, save yourself some time and focus on what’s important.
If you’re really looking for a feed with a certain feel, you can try different feed styles. I’ve
used the good ol’ checkerboard feed many times before because it is so easy to maintain and
gives a really good feeling when someone looks at it. You can try the trio where you post three
types of posts consecutively, with a focus on a specific style, format or even color. There’s
also what I like to call the wave feed which just flows naturally when you repeat 4 different post
types - I love it when it’s driven through unique brand colors like this. Bottom line is, find a
style that works for your posting schedule and won’t limit you from posting more spontaneously.
Authenticity
In recent years, we’ve seen a slow shift towards more authentic, organic-looking social media
posts. And listen, I am here for it. There are enough studies now showing clear evidence that
this perfectly curated social media existence is really bad for our mental health. And I’ll be
the first to say, I was a victim of it. I don’t know if it’s the general media obsession with
perfect looks or the weird standards in portrait photography that I’ve always loved most as a
photographer, but I could never just let a photo be. I had to do something to it, whether it was
removing a small crease from a T-shirt, covering up that spot on my face, or even fixing the way my
body looked. Even though as a society we have a long way to go, I feel like in the last few
years we’ve embraced that raw, natural presence on social media. You can see real people on Stories,
showing up in messy buns or tracksuits, with no make-up on or a bit of a cluttered living room.
And it’s great! Same goes for our Instagram feeds. There’s less pressure to have this
carefully curated feed because people start caring more about what you have to say.**!!!!!!!!!!!!!**
Now, does this mean we should not care about how our feeds look?
No, I still believe it is important that your feed is well-designed.
We’ve already talked about clarity and consistency which play a huge role here,
but it’s important that we create click-worthy posts that stop the scroll. It’s important to
capture your viewers’ attention and invite them to engage, and aesthetics
are an important component in all of this. Coming back to my video about design mistakes,
so often I see really good quality captions and interesting information from creators,
dressed up in bad design. Whether it’s an educational carousel that you can barely
read because there’s not enough contrast between the background and the text, whether it’s a post
that makes you feel like you’re suffocating ‘cause there are barely any margins, whether
it’s a mix of bad templates chosen from Canva with no regard for your own brand... if you put
posts like that on your feed, non-designers may not know what’s wrong specifically,
but they will certainly feel that it’s just not good. You always want to stand out in a good way!
How to make your feed look good?
I have mentioned the different feed styles if you want to adopt
a specific look so as a refresher, you could use a checkerboard feed,
a trio feed, a wave feed or the puzzle feed (joking, again, please don’t do it).
Another great way is to come up with your own templates for your social media profile.
Whether you decide to design them yourself, reach out to a graphic designer, or buy some of the
templates available online, this is a sure way to give your feed a professional, cohesive look.
I have a whole video where I show how you can create your own templates in Canva
so if that’s your kind of thing, I highly recommend you watch it.
One thing you should always pay attention to is the sizing. With the multitude of formats on
Instagram now, it’s easy to get lost and not post correctly. For image posts, always use the 4:5
ratio which is 1080 px by 1350 px but keep that classic square in mind when designing your post or
choosing a photo. With this portrait ratio, you’re making the most of your real estate and grabbing
attention easier, but make sure you don’t cut off any faces or important elements when on your feed
because you’ll still have squares on your profile no matter what. Same goes for your Reels. These
are in the vertical video format so 1080 px by 1920 px but the most important information should
be contained within that 4:5 ratio because that’s how your followers see them when they
scroll through their feed. And of course, whether it’s Reels or feed videos always always always set
your own cover and change what it looks like on your feed. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine and I’ve
recently shared a post about it which I’ll leave for you in the description box. It’s worth a watch
because it’s a common mistake you may not even be aware of making! Back to our covers, here’s where
you can actually adjust what the cover looks like on your profile. Before you post, hit Edit Cover,
choose one from the frames or add one from your camera roll, then click Profile Grid. From here,
you’ll be able to drag your cover so that it looks good on your profile too.
If you post photos and edit them, I would try developing a cohesive style of color correction
for your profile. You can use apps like Lightroom or VSCO to give your photos a united look.
This way, you’re creating your own personal style of editing that’s making you stand out from the
IG crowd. Again, plenty of free and paid presets you can use on any of those photo editing apps!
Another tip would be to develop your own style of text, captions and anything you add to your
Instagram postings natively on the platform. Very often, we’ll have to resort to what
Instagram has to offer instead of using our own fonts and that’s going to be especially
true with automated captions on Reels and your Instagram Stories. It’s better to stick to one
or two of the fonts you have available through IG and always choose your own colors for them.
You can select them from the palette but my favorite tip that I’ve shared many times
before with my Canva tutorials is to create a mini-palette image that you can add to your
stories through the stickers sticker (stickers sticker, honestly, I hope you get me, but I’ll
add some B-roll here for you to see it just in case). When you have your palette in the editor,
you can use the color picker and choose your colors easily. And that’s perfect because it
lets you stay consistent with your brand image across the board. It’s quite useful because I
like to use the Story editor to create my Reels covers (one because it’s easy, and two because
it feels more native to the platform that way) and I can stick to my branding this way too.
Now I’m curious about your approach! Where do you stand in this perfect
feed vs just posting debate? How do you approach your feed?
Let me know in the comments, honestly, I’d love to know your thoughts about it!
Since we’re on the subject of making things look good, I can’t not mention this video here which
is all about the most common design mistakes on social media. Honestly, I see those made all. the.
time. and sometimes they can really ruin your posts so make sure you watch this one next. To
make your feed super clear and turn your visitors into followers, you have to have the perfect bio
and I’m confident this video here is going to help you achieve that. I’m explaining what you
need to include in yours each step of the way so it’s a really great one for instant results.
If you’ve enjoyed this video,
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Thank you so much for watching, have a wonderful day and I’ll see you... next time.