Hey sisters!
Nadia here.
Your favorite marketing major, art minor, and Instagram freak.
I love Instagram. It’s one of my favorite ways to express my creativity while also connecting with others! Instagram is why people think I’m cool, so you know I can’t let them down.
If you’re looking to rebrand yourself from the crazy 13 year old who would post on average 5 times a day with Instagram made Insta filters, here’s how.
Take good photos
You don’t need a DSLR to take good photos. iPhones have great cameras and when used correctly, they can snap amazing shots! Posting a low quality photo on Instagram ruins things quick. No matter how great your editing skills are, a bad photo is going to overpower them. Put effort into your photos if you really do care for building your personal brand!
Presets
Please, if you’re going to choose to do one thing from this article, use presets.
Presets are just filters, and they help tremendously in helping all of your photos on your feed match each other! I use the Tezza app, which you can download from the App Store and pay $1.99/month for the presets. Honestly, it’s not a bad deal. My favorite Tezza preset is Toasty, which gives my photos a bit of a brown vibe. There’s 15 to choose from and you’re bound to find one that you determine is worth the $1.99 a month! I live by presets and haven’t posted a photo without some sort of preset on it in over 4 years.
Illustrator and Photoshop (or similar types of programs)
I love when people add cute little flourishes to their photos! The mix of graphic design and photography can help make your feed look more sophisticated and well thought about! I personally have a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud for school, which is about $20/month. I don’t suggest subscribing just for your Instagram, but if you want to, go ahead! I use Illustrator go to town with it. YouTube is a great source for teaching yourself certain techniques in Illustrator if you decide to use it. However, if you don’t want to subscribe to Adobe, which is the only way you can get a legal copy of Illustrator, apps like Superimpose and Canva are great too!
Planoly
Once you’ve got your photos nice and edited, it’s time to make sure they look good next to the others you’ve already posted, before you post them. Planoly’s got your back. It’s an app that lets you rearrange and schedule your Instagram posts! This step isn’t essential for a good feed, but it’s another fun little tool you can use.
Unfold
Thought your feed was the only thing you could make cute? Wrong.
Unfold is an app meant for creating Instagram stories. This app isn’t a subscription app, but it’s a pay per package app. You get a free package or two but for more options, you can buy packages ranging from $0.99-$1.99! With these you can collage photos together, add text, borders, and more.
Phonto
If you want to add text to your photo, Phonto is the best tool on the market. It’s super simple and easy to use. However, the fonts aren’t all great, but you can just download fonts from dafont.com and easily install them into Phonto!
I swear by these tools and would not have a ~nice~ Insta feed without them.