“Do it for the gram!”
But what exactly should you do?
Post a picture? Obviously, that’s the whole point.
But beyond the obvious question, here are a few more:
What should my caption be?
What should I write for my bio?
How should I organize my feed? Do I even want a feed?
Should I post Instagram stories?
How should I organize my story highlights?
These are a couple questions that may be racing through your head as you begin to dive deeper into Instagram, especially as an influencer with a large, growing follower count. But even as the average Instagram user, it’s nice to have an organized page for yourself, don’t you think?
I won’t lie to you; I am not an Instagram influencer myself (which explains the state of my current feed). However, after researching processing fluency and looking at different influencers’ accounts, I’ve learned a thing or two that I want to share with you to answer the above questions.
Write a Caption…
Your caption depends on the picture you’re posting and who your audience is. If it’s just a picture of yourself, the possibilities for your caption are endless! But otherwise, the caption should generally relate to what your post is capturing.
Write your captions the way you normally talk; don’t try to be someone you’re not.
#Hashtags and emojis!🤩
Hashtags and emojis are effective ways to increase the number of impressions on a post and catch people’s attention while scrolling, but don’t overdo it! Instagram even allows you to combine the two and make hashtags out of emojis #🤭
Keep your caption short and to-the-point. Ideally, you don’t want the [...more] button to appear when writing a caption (not many people click and read the whole thing). But don’t sacrifice important information for the sake of caption length; keep what’s important in the first few lines!
Account Check-Up!
First things first - username.
For personal accounts, I recommend using your name or any variation of it. Of course, there are millions of Instagram users, so your desired username may not be available. But that’s okay! As long as your username can be easily read and identified as you, you’re good. (Try to stay away from using too many . and _; keep it as short as possible!) Also, make sure that your display name identifies you at first glance, more-so if your username doesn’t do the job.
Your bio should be as short as possible to keep the focus on your posts. (Again, you don’t really want the [more] button to appear...) Whether it be a quote, emojis, other social media platforms (I would save this for the website section), school, important dates, etc., the bio should not fill up all 150 characters!
Instagram has an option to switch to a Professional Account, which provides an option to display a category label on your account right above the bio. This can be a fun way to express yourself, as the options include: ice cream shop, hot dog joint, just for fun, and so much more. There are also some more appropriate categories for influencers such as blogger, public figure, athlete, musician, etc.
“Does my feed match?”
Person A says that your Instagram feed shows who you are as a person and that it is vital to have a clean and organized theme both for yourself and others.
Person B says that it doesn’t matter what your feed looks like, as long as you like what you see and post. Your follower count doesn’t matter since it’s your account.
So, which person are you?
Person A, I recommend that you keep reading!
Person B, you can continue to the next subheading!
Many Instagram influencers will have an aesthetically pleasing feed, whether it be a consistent color scheme, filters, etc. The reason for this is because of fluency, whether they know it or not. Most people have a natural tendency to be drawn more towards pretty things that are pleasing to the eye, and organized feeds are just one example of that.
So, decide whether you want a warm or cool theme, a busy or minimalistic theme, a vibrant or black & white theme, and stick to it!
App recommendations:
Instagram Stories - Yes or No?
YES!!
Especially as an influencer, it is vital to interact with your audience, and stories are a perfect way to do so!
Now, I’m not saying to spam your story with constant updates, but it’s nice to use the feature to repost others’ posts that you found funny, relate to, or think was important to share. Or you can also use it to boost your own engagements by posting a story along with a new Instagram post!
When you post your own story, I recommend making good use of the stickers provided, especially the interactive ones (poll, questions, quiz, rating bar, etc.). This will allow your audience to interact with you, making them more interested in you and your content.
Also, create highlights on your profile for important stories, such as travels, concerts, celebrity encounters, important PSAs, food, etc. Anything that is important to you that you post a lot about can be highlighted!
I always say: simple is best.
Keep your highlight titles simple; no one wants to read long descriptors. Stick to one word or an emoji to capture the essence of the highlight, making it easier to read and thus easier to process.
Overall, being an influencer is no easy feat. Keeping your followers updated and consistently posting content cannot be easy, at least for me.
These are just a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up while researching processing fluency and adapted to fit the context of Instagram, and I hope they help!
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for new posts and updates!
I loved reading this. I love how well explained this page is and it gives a lot of good and clear points!!!!
Great read and well explained! A lot of advice that may seem like common sense at first but some people may not know of 😊