How to Build an Attractive Brand on Instagram

Instagram has been gaining popularity lately in business markets. It totally make sense because of the amount of sheer attention that is present in this growing social media.

Everyone wants to be an “Instagram influencer” and bust the mold, attracting tens of thousands of followers. The thought then comes to mind—what do all these influencers have in common? They usually have incredibly attractive accounts (and are very often incredibly attractive people). With just this simple theory, you can start to make your account more attractive to garner a following.

What Makes an Account Attractive?

Obviously this is variable, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, there are generic trends that tend to make accounts more or less, attractive. Not sure if an account is in the “attractive” category? Just take a look at their followers and engagement. The market doesn’t lie. If people like the content and the account, it will certainly show in the numbers.

It’s not just about being pretty, sexy or fun. Attractiveness in social media and the market is gauged by whether or not someone wants your life. I’ll get to this more in a moment.

Attractiveness can me monitored and created. Mostly, it comes down to—do you live a normal life? If so, then I guarantee that you’re “not attractive.” The teens refer to this as a “N.A.R.P.” (non-athletic regular person). Regular people don’t want to see what other “regular people” do on a day-to-day basis. Simply, they’ve experienced it and aren’t interested in consuming content that they live.

The magic—and the attractiveness, comes from living an ab-normal extraordinary life. You may be wondering, what makes an extraordinary life. It’s everything that normal people don’t do. It can be that you’re super hot because you work out like crazy every day, or you have a stellar sense of fashion sense and style. It can be that you travel the world because you’re a journalist, or that you brunch every afternoon with friends and influencers. It can be that you’re an adrenaline junkie, or that you love taking wanderlust, adventure pics.

I just must be different, and extraordinary.

The more unique and EPIC the account, lifestyle and photos are—the more followers and engagement they garner.

Trends to “Be Attractive”

There are trends that are generally “more attractive.” Some of these trends are just themes for your Instagram account: hotness (literally hot models, fitness buffs, etc.), Travel, Food, Coffee, Brunch, Luxury, Fashion, and more.

Great Lighting

If you look at really successful accounts, they almost always have incredible photos with great lighting. The commonality with accounts that don’t garner any attention is that they have dimly-lit shots that are dark and grimy. These don’t do well for obvious reasons.

Shoot your pics during the day (especially in the early morning or evening before the sun sets for that beautiful light-glow). You can also get a couple of soft-boxes for lighting if you’re shooting often in your home to make it look like you’re using daylight.

Fantastic Photos

These are the pics that stop you in your tracks. They inspire others and look amazing. Anything that invokes a sense of “awe” or wonder will fall into this category. The composition, colors and framing are perfect and you can’t stop looking at it. This is what a fantastic photo feels like.

This just involves stepping up your photography game. Research how to make a great composition and how colors work together. Then get on out there and take pics! An easy way to get around being a great photographer too, it so go to beautiful places in nature. I think you could probably point-and-shoot anywhere in at the Grand Canyon and get a great shot. Start thinking like this 😉

Consistent Filters & Edited Photos

All really epic, big Instagram accounts have been using consistent filters and they edit their photos. You can already have a great photo, and it’s just further emphasized by the filters. There’s such a difference between an un-edited pic and otherwise.

For instance, take a look at this photo difference. I took the photo on the left, and then dropped it into the apps Filterstorm and VSCO to edit.

Photo “Theme” (color or objects etc)

The great accounts are all “themed.” They have a common theme through the feed either in subject, format, color, etc. It’s kind of like creating and showing art at a gallery exhibit. When you show, each piece has to be different. However, all the pieces must also look like they belong together as an exhibit. They must have several things in common between the pieces to fit in the gallery. Cohesively, each piece must build on the next and contribute to the overall aesthetic.

Instagram is no different. There’s a reason why the feed in Instagram is called a “gallery.”

Each photo is different, but there is something that ties everything together that makes each pic belong to the gallery. You can do this by applying the same set of filters to each photo. You can do this by using a single or two color scemes throughout the feed. You can theme your gallery by theming it per topic or object—or even by format (placing white boarders, etc.).

Listen to the Market & Respond

Your audience will naturally show you what photos they like best through the process of selection. Look through your feed. There will be photos that have 30% more likes and engagement than the others. Take a look at all the pics in your feed that are doing well. What’s in common? Maybe they’re all your travel pics, or latte shots, or luxury fashion-wear. Whatever it is, you’ll start to see a theme.

After you do this social listening—respond! Start posting more of the content your audience already wants!

Include Brand Values & Philosophy

Know what you stand for as a brand and what’s important to you. Within the guidelines above, create a visual representation of the lifesytle and philosophy that resonates with you. Brands that do the best, represent lifestyle ideas that the audience members can connect to (and that they already feel & live but come to associate living that lifestyle with your brand).

These are the guidelines that create incredible attractive Instagram accounts. You’re gonna want to be as attractive as possible to increase your top line follow count and engagement metrics!

Come say hi on Instagram! Follow me at @ecspinelli.

Have more to add? Let us know in the comments!

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