Since starting my blog, I figured that I needed to make some changes to my Instagram page. All the bloggers I followed, from small followings to big followings had very appealing Instagram themes. A few of my friends have actually complimented me recently on how much my Instagram has improved and how good the theme is and they've asked me for tips on how I've achieved this. It inspired me to just write a post on what I did to improve my Instagram theme in case anyone else out there wants to do the same.
I remember watching a video by Lydia Elise Millen and Sarah Ashcroft where they were doing a Q&A about blogging and how to grow your following. Sarah made a comment saying that if you want to gain more followers on Instagram, you have to make your page look like one you would follow and this is a tip I've kept in mind ever since. I've always been someone who loves and appreciates good photography so I was excited to start making mine look more 'professional' if you want to look at that way. In the blogging community, having a good Instagram theme is rather essential, it's like a mini picture diary of your blog and just your interests.
How did I start?
I had juggled between the idea of starting to change my theme gradually and keep the old photos I had or to delete everything and start fresh. A part of me hesitated deleting everything, I felt like I was deleting a chapter of my life I had to say goodbye to.. as sad as that sounds but it's true lol. I went for it and decided to delete all my photos, it was quite refreshing just starting over. I don't have any photos of what my page looked like before but it was all over the place. One thing I didn't want to do with my page is make it look unrealistic, yes the photos might be pretty but I still wanted it to be real. I want people who go on my page to scroll through and get a sense of what I love and not think negatively about it. Fair enough, not everyone will like what you do or share but it's important you're happy with what you do.
Making it happen
This is just continuing from the first point. I mentioned that I deleted all my photos and started fresh but you don't necessarily have to do that. You can have your personal Instagram and then you're professional one if you're also a blogger or just want to go into a certain industry that involves social media. For those who simply want to improve their personal page, go through your photos and get rid of the ones you personally feel like don't need to be there anymore. You'll have to be strict with yourself but if you really don't want to, just gradually start adding photos to improve your theme.
Deciding on a theme
This was relatively quite simple for me, your theme can be anything really but I think it's always nice to see what peoples interest are through their Instagram. For example, I mainly share interior design, quotes, fashion, scenery, seflies (of course lol) and fashion outfits. I like to do a nice mix of all of these but I'm not gonna lie, sometimes you become stuck on what to post next and I'll tell you why in the next point.
Colour scheme?
After doing a bit of research, I noticed that a lot of the people I followed on Instagram had a colour scheme throughout their page. Some people are super strict and stick to one specific colour, for example a very clean, white, light colour scheme, black and white, grey with a hint of colour in each photo to just bright and colourful. I couldn't decide on just one set colour scheme and something I noticed me doing was I would have one colour scheme for a set amount of photos. As you can see in the photo above and below, you can see the different colour schemes I've done for a few photos. Funny enough, this wasn't done intentionally, I just realized it's something I did.
Why is it difficult to maintain a theme?
I sometimes get stuck on what to post purely because I'm so committed to posting things in a way certain way. For example, I can't post selfie after selfie, as I mentioned before I like to switch it up. I also can't post a photo that doesn't go with that current colour scheme until I feel its time to change it.
Extra tip
Before I go into this, I just want to say that I clearly don't have a lot of followers and no where near to having a lot but my followers have gone up a lot since a year ago. One thing I've noticed improved this was hashtags.. yup, for anyone who can't stand people who hashtags a lot, well you might just have to start if you want to up your following. I personally found it slightly annoying seeing so many hashtags on peoples posts, especially when some of them were irrelevant but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do lol. Another thing that's helped is interacting with other bloggers, look for bloggers who have around the same amount of followers as you, give them a follow, like a few photos, comment and you'll be surprised just how many will do the same.
So there you have it, I hope this is of some help to anyone thinking about creating a nice Instagram theme. I know it may seem like a lot but have fun with it, it might seem like a strict routine too but like I as I also mentioned, I enjoy seeing nice photography and I just love seeing how my theme continues to develop.
If you want a better look just search simplysham
Love Sham x
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