How to curate your Instagram feed.

Because yes, a curated Instagram feed matters. Not the “curated” feeds in terms of only professional images or just one particular color for your Instagram feed, but rather a cohesive collection of both images and content that tells your brand story (and converts to dollar bills). You should curate your Instagram feed if you want to:

• Effortlessly post more frequently….
• Save you time (and the headache) of “What do I even post about?”…
• Choose on-brand images and content to make you look like a pro…
• Attract your ideal client…
• And build your following!

It just takes 3 basic steps.

Let’s talk about why you should even curate your Instagram feed first.

Curating (ie: choosing imagery and content) your Instagram feed allows you to present a digital mood board to your potential followers. It gives them “all the professional feels” at a glance and lets them know what following you will be all about in a matter of seconds.

Have you seen my feed? If you have, you know I’m all about keeping my black and pink grid intact. And guess what? Want to know what my most recent lead’s brand colors were that applied for my program? You guessed it- black and pink! We even had the same fonts!

That’s not a coincidence my friend, that’s the power of a curated feed and attracting your ideal client. By setting the tone for what your brand is all about in your feed, you not only grow your following, but you attract your ideal client. Cha-ching.

Now I’m not so shallow or naive to tell you that all “uncurated” feeds aren’t successful, but I do believe that a curated feed has many more benefits than an uncurated version- especially if you’re new to this entrepreneur space! Curated feeds provide benefits like:

• Knowing what type of content to post at all times
• Having a go-to list of imagery ready to publish without hesitation
• Confidence to actually post most frequently
• Showcasing what you want your brand to be known for
• Conveying “on-brand” content and imagery for your clients to “feel” and get what you want them to
• Brand recognition for users to easily identify your image in the feed, stand out, and stop the scroll

and more!

So let’s build that following and ideal clientele for you too, shall we?

3 super easy steps for “How to curate your Instagram feed.”.

Step One: Choose your Instagram “theme”.

The “theme” of Instagram is the pattern that you first notice about those squares. Some common examples of themes are:

• Color block (alternating squares of brand colors)
• Checkerboard (every other square alternates with a similar pattern)
• Quotes
• One subject (the same subject in every image)
• Colored Borders (border around your images so they pop in your feed)
• Rows (3 similar images in a row)
• Columns (3 similar images in a column)
• Monochromatic (all the same color or different shades of the same color)
• Black and White/Grey Scale
• Puzzle (one image cut into multiple photos)
• Vertical images instead of squares (so you’re images stand out and don’t touch each other!)

The list of possibilities is endless! The most important part is that the theme best represents your brands aesthetic. Don’t pick black and white just because you like it…..like especially if you’re pitching bright and colorful products, na’mean?

Step 2: Select your Instagram “categories”.

This single-handedly has saved me SO. MUCH. TIME. I like to plan my Instagram feed in advance so I don’t have to spend 30+ minutes crafting posts and selecting hashtags the day of. Having a go-to list of “categories” for my brand lets me know exactly what topic to be posting about and what images I should be choosing.

Everyone always talks about the “top 9” squares in your Instagram profile, so I recommend coming up with 6-9 categories that best represent your brand so when someone lands on your profile, they’ll know what you’re all about within just a few split seconds.

For example, mine are marketing tips, faith, mom life, fun/party, motivation, mindset, and creativepreneurship.

That means I post pics of party props, smiling faces, scripture, kids, info-graphics, etc.  That also means that my captions also incorporate these categories–even when the photo is totally unrelated. (PS. Yes, that’s occasionally acceptable IMHO!)

Your Instagram categories should be the topics and subtopics that make up your brand and can also be your brand values.

Once you’ve selected your Instagram categories, you don’t have to sit around staring at the blinking cursor or library of stock photos wondering what on Earth to post. Wouldn’t that be nice??

Pro tip: You can use your “categories” as the titles of your Instagram highlights as well.🤗

Step 3: List out your Instagram photo “types”.

Think of “types” as a category for the photo “categories” we just talked about.

“Types” of photos helps you answer “What type of picture should I post?”.

Take my category, “Marketing tips” as an example. If I choose to post an image and/or caption about marketing tips, I now want a go-to list of photo “types” so I’m not constantly posting the same old flat lay or quote every time.

You can use a list of photo “types” like:

• Behind The Scenes/Desk life (ex: working with a kid in my lap, piles of laundry, colored on walls, a pile of vaseline on my floor…)
• Portraits ( my husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, all of us…)
• Client/Portfolio Work (clients, quote images of testimonials..)
• Flat lay (my desk, my dirty desk, tools I use for clients, outfit of the day, tacos…nutella…you know, normal things like that)
• A product you use (my planner, my planner for my planner, my go-to pens, my Kate Spade post-its)
• Quotes (from books, the bible, friends, clients, inspirational ones, facts to support my data enthusiasm…)
• Travel (or in my case, my lack of)
• Video (I’m working up the courage for this one)
• Gifs ( like my favorite Will Ferrell ones…and for all those times I’m afraid of self video…aka always)
• Slideshow (for the multiple images you can say “swipe left” to see more of)
• Reposts (sharing other’s images)

So you can keep a fresh feed of images at all times and not bore your users.

And hey, if you have something unique to your brand- show it off! Maybe you are obsessed with presenting your messages on a letter board or want to create a consistent post-it note themed feed or you like to share your #mondaymotivation with the same photo “type” each Monday…using that consistent/routine photo “type”  will create instant brand recognition and the users will know it’s you in their feed without even having to see who the caption is from. #brandingdoneright

With these three steps you now have a go-to instagram plan to:

Dress up your feed.
Build your following.
Attract your ideal client.
Save you some serious time with those pics and caption planning.

Boom. You’re a pro.

Still want some more Instagram curation ideas and tips? Make sure to join us live this week for “Instagram Stories 101” or catch the replay in our exclusive Facebook group. Sign up for our always free membership to access that group right here. Hope to see you there!