How many times have you tried to brand your Instagram? If you are here, you might be wanting to brand your IG for the first time, or motivated to make a change that suits you better. And why wouldn’t you? Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. Plust, it is lovely to scroll through branded feeds!
Even though we’ve cut back on our social media efforts, to focus on other marketing strategies that work for us better, we’re still fans of Instagram. We still visit and scroll through the beautiful and inspiring accounts that we enjoy following, and above all, we love to connect with other people on the platform.
Honestly, the most important part of Instagram is the connection: you can engage with others, and hope for others to engage with you. You can showcase what you’re working on, share inspiration and motivation, sometimes vent, sometimes celebrate. And on Instagram, you can do these through many different ways: posts, stories, lives, reels, and more.
But some of us, especially those working in very visual fields, also want to be a bit vain sometimes, and want to make sure our account’s feeds feels cohesive, on brand, as in, people see it and will know right away that it belongs to us.
Whether you’re aiming for a gorgeous, dream-like feed, or a messy and authentic one, I’ll share with you some tips and tools that can help you brand your Instagram!
The images above are from our bussiness account, @stargazed.studio. It doesn’t always look like this, but when we actually take the time to curate and edit our images properly, the results can be beautiful.
Brand with Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is one of our go-to mobile apps for light/color changes. We use it all the time for changing exposure, contrast, saturation, and other settings that help us get the colors I want for my images. You can also save your go-to edits in “My Looks” for quick editing.
We used Photoshop Express when we first started our design account on Instagram. All images would first go through the app to adjust to the round frame. And you may want to know that, unlike its big brother Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Express is actually free! You do have to sign up to unlock some of the features, but there is no cost for it.
Now, who doesn’t love filters? I get filter-fever as well and have two different apps that I love for them:
Brand with VSCO
First, VSCO. I love this app. I do not have the paid version and have only worked with the limited filters, but that’s been more than enough to keep me happy. The cool thing about VSCO is the recipes from the community: with a quick online search, you can find specific instructions on how to get a certain look using the filters and settings that VSCO provides. If you look for the term “VSCO” on Pinterest, you will get hundreds of collages, each one with the step-to-step guide on how to get the look. To be more clear, it tells you the combination of filters and settings you need to follow to get that same look on your images.
When you look at the first image on this post, you can notice how bright the feed looked like. Well, last year I decided to brand my Instagram with a darker feed. So, I looked for a free VSCO “recipe” that I liked, tweaked a few things, and ta-daa:
Brand with A Color Story
Lastly, A Color Story, a beautiful photo app that offers free and paid filters and effects. I use A Color Story a bit more sparingly, since I love it for its bold filters and effects, but I don’t like using them on all my IG posts. So, instead of a feed, let me show you a before and after, using two filters and two effects.
I recommend you to take a look at their website and go through their filter collections or Instagram account. You’ll understand why I say that they seriously have the most beautiful effects.
You’ve got this!
If you have dreamed about branding your Instagram, now is your time to do it! Do not hesitate to display the feelings you want to evoke into your social media. Don’t wait for it to be perfect: experiment, put it out there, see how you like it, and most importantly, start! With these suggested apps, you can quickly build up the social media profile you desire.
Work with us in a Design Project
If you want to take an extra step to greatly enhance your online brand, you can book a project with us! Design In a Day is our signature service, but feel free to check out other services we offer that might suit you best.
