Instagram is the king of imagery-based social media. I tell my clients it’s a different kind of animal in the marketing world. A post that may convert wonderfully on Facebook isn’t going to go over well on Instagram. That’s because Instagram relies heavily on beautiful imagery and genuine connection between users. One way to stand out from the crowd and get more engaged followers is to create a cohesive Instagram feed that extends past perfectly curated photos.

How do we start creating a cohesive Instagram feed?

First, we need understand why your current audience follows you. The easiest way to do that is to look at your Insights. If you’re on an Instagram Business account then the Insights inside the application itself are great! If you’re on a personal profile then I would recommend using Iconosquare.

Over the past 3-6 months, what you’re top engaging posts? Is it your portfolio posts? Is it personal pictures of your life? Is it encouraging quotes? We want to put our top performing posts into categories so we can start to create cohesion into what we’re posting about on Instagram. For me, my top posts are ones about my entrepreneurial journey, images from my portfolio, and motivational pep talks with an image of coffee. Write down 6-12 different categories and images you can post about on Instagram.

Create a Cohesive Instagram Feed

What’s your posting style?

Scrolling back through your past posts what style of imagery are you posting? Are you drawn to more crisp, bright imagery or more dark, rich imagery? One of the easiest ways to create a more cohesive Instagram feed is to stick to one style of photography.

If you’re a photographer that means don’t post a dark, editorial post one day then the next day post a bright outdoor wedding. If you’re not a photographer, I would recommend investing in a stock photography subscription so you’re photos are more cohesive.

Choose a color palette

When planning your feed it’s best to stick to a color palette of 3-6 colors that will be seen throughout your grid. If you brand colors, it’s a thought to use those consistently, however, it’s not necessary. Using the same color palette throughout will automatically start to make your feed look more visually appealing.

Creating a cohesive Instagram feed is more than just choosing a color palette and posting the same type of photo day-in and day-out. Have you ever gone to profile and seen 30 stock images of a desk posted back-to-back? Not very interesting, right?

People care about what your caption has to say

You can also start to create cohesion in what you’re talking about on your Instagram. Similar to what you wrote down for your image categories, we need to write down 6-12 topics we will talk about on Instagram. For photographers, it may look like this:

Instagram Post Topics

1. Past Wedding Clients
2. Importance of Wedding Album
3. My personal Love Story
4. Engagement Session Tips for Couples
5. My dogs (a.k.a My coworkers)
6. Netflix tv shows
7. Passion for traveling

Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record by posting about the same topics over and over again. 70% of Instagram posts never get seen by your audience. That means they won’t see every week you post about your husband and your own wedding experience. Keep in mind when creating these topics what does your ideal client care about seeing and hearing? You want to draw your ideal client in so make sure you’re posting what they will find interesting.

If you put all these strategies into practice you should over time start to see a more cohesive Instagram feed start to emerge. Remember, Instagram progress doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow process that pays off after time.