We all know her: she’s the girl who has her Instagram feed planned weeks in advance, and she’s always asking you for your opinion on which picture fits her “aesthetic” better. Or, maybe you don’t know her – maybe you are her. As an aesthetic-obsessed girl myself, welcome to the club! There’s a lot of criticism to be found when it comes to personal branding on social media, particularly in regards to Instagram. But I’d like to make a few points in defense of aesthetic-obsessed girls everywhere.
First of all, planning out your Instagram feed can be just darn fun. Of course, there are limits to this; if you’re not posting pictures that you really want to share because they don’t perfectly match your Instagram feed’s aesthetic, you might be taking it a little too far. Personally, I love to find places to take pictures when I go out that I know will match my feed, and it’s really not as much work as it sounds like. To me, having a bright and colorful feed is just another way of expressing my personality!
I totally get where people are coming from when they say that social media is all a façade, and that ultra-cultivated feeds can give the wrong idea of what someone’s life is actually like. However, I think of my feed as what I want my life to look like to someone looking in, and I think that’s totally fine. If my friends and family see my feed and enjoy the bright colors and pretty places, so what if it isn’t a completely accurate portrayal of my day-to-day life? I highly doubt many people would be interested in seeing boring pictures of me lounging on the couch binge-watching Riverdale anyway.
On another note, it’ s no secret that being skilled in social media is a resume-booster, especially in the realm of marketing. Social media marketing, in particular, is a rapidly expanding medium, and guess what a huge part of that marketing is? That’s right, having an aesthetically-pleasing feed. Check out Aerie’s feed, a great example of the power of branding via Instagram:
