Ro&Co is a new series on Xoxo, Rosana where I am teaming up with some of the incredible women in my life to share their perspectives every Monday in January. In this week’s installment Becca Welch is sharing how she uses her Instagram to develop her personal brand.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, an Instagram feed is a fortune when it comes to building your online presence and brand. I like to consider myself an amateur photographer because I’ve only been doing it for a little over two years and mostly for my friends, but it has definitely given me a new perspective on building a brand as a college student. Something I once found to be just a creative outlet is now something that I can one day show future employers.
In the world we live in, I honestly believe that your social media is just as important as your resume and having an Instagram that portrays your brand (either for a product, blog, or just your self-branding) is essential. I’ve put together my top 5 tips for expanding and growing your Instagram feed to help boost your brand and make it more than your typical college student’s feed.
Don’t Kill Yourself to Perfectly Match Your Feed
Telling yourself that all of your pictures absolutely have to be in a shade of green or only in black or white will seriously limit you in what you can post. If you decide to stick with something more general like pastels or neutrals, you don’t limit yourself as much and can better find a cohesive flow in your feed. Personally, I had a time where I posted mostly landscape, soft colors and neutrals and am now moving into posts that are within the red/pink color wheel.
Take Good Quality Pictures
Photo quality can make or break your feed. When all of your pictures are taken with the same camera (or phone) you are able to really show off your pictures. Plus, when you have high quality pictures, people assume that you have a high quality product (or brand).
Use Your Story as Much as Your Feed
Instagram stories are my FAVORITE thing. Use them to take your followers on a day with you and show them your favorite things. I love to do stories when I travel and when I go shopping because it makes your feed more personal and not so stiff.
Give a Variety of Posts
Throw in different kinds of pictures to shake up your feed. Selfies are great, but a feed full of them gets to be repetitive and lacks creativity. Post selfies, prints, and landscapes to mix it up and make it something for a larger variety of followers as well.
Network, Network, Network!
The best way to increase views on your Instagram is to view a lot of different profiles. My favorite way to do this is to go on the explore page and follow the top 15 profiles that pop up. That way, you get to see profiles you might not have heard of and find smaller pages that will most likely follow back. I typically get 5 followers for every 15 accounts I follow. Commenting on pages can help even more so make sure to drop a simple comment as well as liking a post.
Sometimes brand building can seem intimidating (and it still is for me every now and then) but in the long run, it only helps you. Go that extra mile and put effort into your Instagram and pictures so that one day you will be able to look back and realize just how far those simple posts got you in having your best self-brand.
You can follow Becca on Instagram @aurevoir_yall!
Ro&Co is a series of guest posts by some of the amazing women in my life. You can read more about my reasons for starting the series here.
How do you use your social media to create your personal brand?
Let me know on Twitter @xoxorosana_blog!
Xoxo, Rosana
