Home » Misc » How to build a brand on instagram

How to build a brand on instagram


Instagram Branding Step-By-Step For A Business

Want to learn how to build a brand on Instagram … and keep it thriving?

Instagram is one of the most exciting and hottest social media platforms.

A few years ago, I decided to take Instagram more seriously. I started Short of Height, a brand new lifestyle blog and I wanted to get more exposure for it. I saw Instagram as the perfect fit for its visual-centric approach to social media.

Since I had zero fashion/lifestyle connections and didn’t know where to start, I had to grow that brand from scratch and develop an Instagram strategy.

After multiple failures, I’ve learned how to build a new brand from zero to nearly 74,000 Instagram followers in just over a year and a half. And now in 2020, it’s 61.1K followers.

Today, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned from building a brand from scratch. You’ll learn all my time-tested tricks to help you grow your brand on Instagram.

1. Define Your Goals

Before you post your first post on Instagram, ask yourself why you want your brand to be there.

What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish using Instagram?

Purpose of your brand on Instagram

Are you:

  • Trying to spread brand awareness
  • Trying to grow a community
  • Acquire new customers
  • Planning to connect with current customers
  • Trying to increase blog traffic
  • Planning to increase social media impression
  • Improve your current KPIs

For me, it was brand awareness. My focus was finding and helping other short men like me.

Goals and objectives can come in many different forms, depending on your brand.

The good thing is, goals change as you grow. I recommend having one to start. 

2. Find Your Focus/Theme

Once you have established your goals, you need to find your focus or theme on Instagram.

The mistake I see is individuals and businesses not having a theme. All they do is post quotes. That is a recipe for disaster because you won’t be able to stand out that way.

Find a theme that suits YOUR personality. I focused solely on style at first. I shared the clothes I wore daily. Now I’ve slowly moved to share photos of food, too.

Stick with a theme that fits your brand. Don’t try to be everything at the beginning. We want your followers to know who you are and what you do.

Example of building a brand on Instagram

Coffeenclothes is an excellent example of this; they share pictures of … Well, you guessed it, coffee and clothes. It’s a really good theme and it fits with what people are already posting on Instagram. When I first saw it, I asked myself why I didn’t think of that sooner.

If you don’t know what your theme should be, just searched through Instagram to get inspired on how to build a brand on Instagram. They have so many great accounts for you to get inspired. If you’re a yogi who travels a lot, you’ll be the yogi traveler.

3. Create a Style Pattern

What’s a style pattern? A style pattern is your signature style on Instagram. It’s a style that you follow throughout your Instagram.

Some Instagrammers follow the white look only style. Some have a darker theme. Some choose to incorporate a quote after every two posts. It’s a good way to stand out and mix it up a little.

Some call it a theme, while I call it a style pattern.

Example of a brand rocking it on Instagram

Here’s a great example from Foundr. I love how they use white space after every picture. When you look at their profile, it stands out really well.

4. Publish Quality Content Consistently

Regular posting on any social media site is a must. Instagram is the same.

If you want to stand out, you need to publish content regularly.

When I first started, I was posting every single day.

Schedule your content

The way you can do this is to have a posting schedule and plan ahead. I recommend you post once daily and have at least two weeks’ worth of content before starting.

If you want to post fresh content, just move your content ahead. That is what I do, and it works tremendously for me.

A social media management tool like Agorapulse can help you line up your posts in advance.

I’d recommend using their new direct publish and schedule function.

It’s simple to use and lets you publish, or schedule, to an Instagram business profile from the desktop without breaking any of their rules (unlike some other apps out there that put your profile at risk). It can save you a lot of time posting everything you’ve got lined up manually.

Boom. You now have no excuse for not posing on the regular. Easy as that!

Build a brand on Instagram: an example from my account

5. Be Active to Build a Brand on Instagram

To brand your Instagram, you need a community. The only way to do this is to be active.

You can do this by:

  • Following others
  • Commenting on other profiles
  • Liking other people’s photos

It may sound basic, but it works!

Secret tip

One trick that I learn to stand out is to like 2-3 photos of someone then leaving a comment on the third.

It’s a surefire way to stand out and get them to follow me back. And it beats using Instagram bots — it’s much more personal and doesn’t jeopardize your Instagram account!

6. Take Advantage of Hashtags

For maximum impact, you need to use hashtags. I recommend you maximize all 30 hashtags if possible.

If you don’t know, you can in fact secretly post 60 hashtags on Instagram.

If you don’t know what hashtags to use, a trick is to watch what successful Instagram influencers or your competitors in your industry are using.

Using hashtags is important because it gives exposure when people are browsing through the hashtags to look at photos.

7. Create a Branded Hashtag

What’s a branded hashtag? It’s YOUR hashtag.

Creating a branded hashtag is a great way to build instant engagement.

A branded hashtag is when people use your hashtag to stand a chance to get featured on your Instagram account.

People LOVE tagging pages and using hashtags on Instagram to get featured; I’m one of those people. It’s a way to get exposure and get more followers.

I do it all the time, and I’ve been featured on some pages. It’s one of my secret tricks.

First, mention on your profile that people will get featured if they use your hashtag.

Next, search for a moderately popular hashtag that has less than 50,000 posts, go to those photos, and start liking the pictures. This is a surefire way to get people to get notice of your account.

This will get your followers and the people whose photos you’ve liked to use the hashtag and post images of them because they will want to be featured on your page.

Here’s a clever hashtag branding from the team at The Infatuation.

At first, you’ll be thinking. #Eeeeets? what?

I did too! They wanted to stand out, so they created their own hashtag that stood out and wasn’t used. Clearly which foodie would have thought of using that right? Today they have over 774K Instagram followers.

8. Repurpose Content From Other Accounts

If you don’t want to use the branded hashtag option, you can use this method too.

Search for posts that meet your style pattern and feature them on your account. This is a surefire way to increase engagement and connect with people at the same time.

To ensure the quality of the photo is great, reach out to these people and ask them for permission for you to post on your account. Get them to email you a high-quality photo. It’s an excellent method to connect with people.

Here’s the content that was repurposed by this account.

9. Find Branded Hashtags/Accounts

Earlier I mentioned about posting branded hashtags/accounts, if you’re looking for exposure, you can find branded hashtags or accounts in your industry to get featured on.

To do this, search for a common hashtag that is used by your demographic and see if they have tagged or used any hashtags to be featured.

If you share recipes on your account, there are many accounts that share recipes from others. Look out for them. You can even try sending them a direct message on Instagram to get noticed.

10. Partner With Other Accounts

One of my favorite tricks to brand my account and grow my account simultaneously is to partner with other accounts with similar following and engagement as mine. It’s also called SFS, S4S or shoutout for shoutout.

What we’ll do is post a photo, and in our caption, we’ll say something like ‘if you’re looking for more style tips like this, follow my friend @username.”

Guess what? It WORKS! I wished I did that sooner.

To show you how it works, here’s an example of one.

See how Eric mentions the two Instagram accounts at the bottom?

When I visit the other, he recommends following Eric, too. It’s really smart because it’s a win-win for both of them.

In Conclusion

Patience and commitment! Those are the two most important qualities that you need to succeed on Instagram or any social media platform.

Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Check out our free trial of Agorapulse to help you schedule, track, and measure all your social media efforts.

Prev. postBack to homeNext post

How to Build a Brand on Instagram? *Only read if you’re serious*

Alexandra | Jan 21, 2020

Ready to build a brand on Instagram?

You want to be recognizable.

You want to stand out from other Instagrammers.

You want to look legit.

You want people to trust you.

You want to build a brand on Instagram.

Your brand.

I’m going to share 15 Instagram branding strategies: from your feed to your captions, Instagram Stories and your key message.

And at the end I’m going to share an unexpected… twist.

Ready?

Let’s start.

1. Your Key Message

Your Instagram branding strategy starts with your “key message”.

Think of your key message as your slogan.

It’s what you stand for.

It’s what people are going to know you for.

Think about this:

What is one word you want people to use when they think about you / your product or service?

Write it down.

Examples of key messages:

  • Fun
  • Easy
  • Fast
  • Useful
  • Quality over quantity
  • No stress
  • Feel beautiful
  • Powerful
  • Relaxing
  • Motivational
  • Expert
  • Friendly
  • Special
  • Balance
  • Happiness
  • Growth
  • Profit
  • Fit
  • Healthy balance
  • Unique
  • Delicate

You get the idea.

In every single post you are going to make: always infuse your key message.

  • Show that it’s easy.
  • Show that it’s relaxing.
  • Show that it’s useful.
  • Show that it’s unique.
  • Show that it drives results.
  • Show that you’re all about achieving a healthy balance.

If you are building your personal brand, stay true to your personality.

Your personality + key message = a match made in heaven.

How can you share your key message?

With your content.

2. Your Content

To build a brand on Instagram, you need to be clear about the content you post.

Action: Choose between 1 and 5 different topics you wish your account to be about.
And yes, you can totally choose only 1 topic. I call these topics “content buckets”.

Here are some examples.

Example 1: Personal Trainer

Key message: Transform yourself.

3 topics:

  1. Transformation: Before and Afters of clients
  2. Workout ideas: Workout videos only (or “Workout with me” videos)
  3. Motivation: Motivational quotes

Example 2: Social Media Manager

Key message: The Power of Planning to Profit

3 topics:

  1. Results: Show your clients’ results (ROI)
  2. Tips and Tricks: Share tips and tricks to show your expertise
  3. About you: Share personal posts to build trust

Example 3: Interior designer

Key message: Create your dream home

3 topics:

  1. Tips and tricks: Write about mistakes to avoid or your favorite designing tips to show your expertise
  2. Sneak peeks or Big Reveals: Show your work
  3. Inspiration: Show photos, videos or moodboard of interiors, places, architecture and texture that inspire you

Example 4: Handmade Jewelry Designer

Key message: Unique pieces for unique moments

2 topics:

  1. Products: Photos of your jewelry with caption describing the ideal gift situation
  2. Behind the scenes: Don’t just say it’s handmade. Show it too. Share photos of you creating the jewelry in your creative space. Or photos of your hands creating the pieces.

Your turn:

What are core topics you can share with your followers?

Tip: If you’re not sure what to post on Instagram, click here. I’ve helped some people figure out what to post on their own accounts in the comments section.

3. Choose a Grid Layout

This is optional.

A Grid Layout can help you design a beautiful feed for your brand.

If you sell products, you can design your Instagram grid based on the colors of your product.

If you share tips and tricks, you can design your Instagram grid based on the topics you cover.

There are 9 types of Instagram Grid Layouts.

Here are some examples of brands using grid layouts:

@skims is using a Row-by-Row grid layout. Each row is dedicated to a specific product color:

@profitforpassion uses a Tiles grid layout. She alternates between a photo and a quote:

@aandssocial uses a “Line in the Middle” grid layout:

Could you use a grid layout for your brand?

4. Use the same filter

This will take your Instagram branding strategy to the next level.

As you know, Instagram is an extremely visual platform.

Creating a cohesive visual – a cohesive Instagram feed – is how you are going to make an impact.

People use Instagram filters and presets to make their Instagram feed and colors look cohesive.

A filter / preset is your visual signature.

It is part of your brand.

Even a simple, natural, filter can make a huge difference to the overall look of your feed because it makes all your photos look like they belong together, as part of the same brand.

Here is an example of a feed using Filter S4 in the “Cream” filter pack. Can you see how soft and creamy the feed looks like?

Action: Use the same filter for all your Instagram photos. You can use your Preview App to edit your photos and preview your Instagram feed before you post on Instagram. The most popular filter packs are: the “Winter”, “Blogger”, “Retro” and “Cream” filter pack.

Filter advice:

  • Natural look: “Cream” filter pack
  • Beauty (nail artists & hairstylists): “Cream” filter pack
  • Clothing / Fashion brand: Cream filter pack + Retro Filter Pack
  • Jewelry brand: “Cream” filter pack + “White” filter pack
  • Baby shop: Filter T5 in the “Retro” pack (used by mom bloggers) + “Cream” filter pack
  • Everyday photos: “Cream” + “Blogger” filter pack
  • Food photos (restaurants): Cream + Blogger filter pack (filter P3)
  • Edgy brand (like fashion): Retro filter pack (filter T3, T4 and T7 are the most popular)
  • Fitness: “Winter” filter pack + “Dark” filter pack + “Moody” filter pack + “ Retro” filter pack + “Teal and Orange” filter pack

5.

Use your brand color(s)

Colors are an important part of an Instagram branding strategy.

Make your brand stick in people’s mind: use your brand colors.

Choose one (or more) colors that reflect your brand.

  • It can be a color from your logo, or
  • It can be a color that resonates with your ideal customers, or
  • It can be a color you choose that fits with your products.

Include your brand color(s) in:

  • Quotes
  • Objects
  • Walls
  • Props
  • Clothes

Example 1:
@thecontentplanner has 2 product colors: yellow and blue. You can see they use these colors in their quotes and clothes. Can you see the founder is wearing a yellow dress? #onbrand

Example 2:
@gotoskincare brand color is peach, which reflects their logo. The color appears in quotes, images and products.

6. Pay attention to the background of your photo

This might not be a requirement for your account in particular.

But if you are showing products or sharing video tips, then 100% pay attention to the backgrounds of your photos and videos.

The background shouldn’t distract people.

It should be clean and simple.

Or it should give context to your product (for example if you have a swimwear brand, then take photos at the beach = the beach is the right context for your products).

Bonus: You can keep your background the same to make your whole Instagram feed cohesive, and therefore branded.

Here are some examples:

@giseleblakerdesigns keeps a white background. This way you can clearly see her products:

@pao_note also keeps the same white background for her photos to focus on her outfits:

@theliteraryllama uses the same blue background for her bookstagram feed:

@chupi always uses a pink, grey or beige background color:

@wearepoolside takes photos of their product in context: on the beach:

7.

Use the same fonts

If you are going to share quotes: use the same font(s) all the time.

It will make your Instagram look branded and cohesive very easily.

8. Your Instagram Story style

Your Instagram branding strategy goes beyond just your feed.

Pay attention to your Instagram Stories too.

Here is how to brand your Instagram Story:

  • Use the same color(s) all the time
  • Use the same editing style
  • Use the same Instagram Story filter(s)
  • Use the same GIFs
  • Use the same font or font combinations

For example, here is how I would create my Instagram Stories if my brand color was “pink”:

9. Instagram Story Highlights

Your Instagram Story Highlights are one of the first things people will see when they visit your account for the first time, just before they start scrolling on your feed.

Keep them on brand.

Create Instagram Story Highlights that:

  • Fit the colors in your feed, or
  • Fits the colors of your logo

@preview. app Highlights fit the color of our logo:

@kyliekatich Highlights fit the color of her feed:

@blonde_seashells Highlights have a consistent style:

Tip: How to Create your own Insta Story Highlights

10. Your profile photo

Edit your profile photo using the same filter as your Instagram photos.

Use a profile photo that reflects you.

If it is your personal brand, show your face:

Or show your face with something (or other people) that plays a big part of your life and Instagram life.

For example, @laurenastondesigns is known for taking fun photos of her products with her business bestie: her dog. They are both on her profile photo, dressed in her signature knitted jumper:

Photography tips:

  • Take your photo in natural light
  • Stand in front of a clean background
  • Use a high quality photo
  • Bonus: Include your brand color in the background of your photo (like a wall) or in your clothes

If you have a shop/business: Use your logo.

11. Your captions

We’ve talked about your key message.
We’ve talked about your visual brand.
We’ve talked about your Instagram Stories.

Now let’s talk about your Instagram captions.

Here is how you can brand your captions:

  • Use your brand voice: how do you sound? Funny? Professional? Mysterious? Inspiring?
  • Start your captions the same way all the time (example: Start a caption with a question, a statement, a cliffhanger or a title)
  • End your captions the same way (example: with a call-to-action)
  • Use the same emojis
  • Personal brand: Write as you would talk to a friend

@nistha_trivediofficial starts her captions with a title / header:

@delightinthedesert starts her captions with a witty sentence that relates to her photo:

@blonde_seashell starts her captions with a cliffhanger, which makes you want to keep reading:

12.

Create a your own hashtag

Could you create a hashtag that fits with your brand and account?

For example:

Travel blogger @heleneinbetween created a hashtag for each country she visited. This way people can search her hashtags to read her experiences and reviews, country-by-country:

Content Creator @paigearminta created her hashtag #weARMINTAcreate for her community of fellow creativity and photography lovers:

13. Interact with similar accounts

Now that you’re building a brand on Instagram, you need your ideal followers to see your amazing content.

Here’s trick:

  • Find accounts that are related to your brand
  • Leave genuine comments on their posts

Why?

Because their own followers will get used to seeing you in the comments section. They will get curious to see “who is always commenting awesome comments like this”.

They will eventually check out your account.

These will be high quality (potential) followers: people who would actually care about your account.

14. Use the Hashtags related to your Brand

Another way to get your posts seen is to use hashtags.

People search through hashtags to find things and people.

Use 4 types of hashtags:

  1. Location hashtags (if you have a local business)
  2. Hashtags your ideal followers / customers (so you can get closer to them)
  3. Hashtags that describe what you do / offer / sell
  4. Hashtag Combination: Location + Descriptive Hashtags into one (so people can find you if they search exactly for someone like you)

Example:

Let’s say I’m a website designer in Sydney, Australia, and my ideal customers are mom entrepreneurs.

I would use these hashtags:

  1. Location hashtags:
    #sydney #ilovesydney #sydneylocal
  2. Hashtags your ideal customers use:
    #mompreneurs #momboss #momswhohustle #mumswithhustle #bossmom #mombiz #mumbosslife #businessmumnetwork
  3. Hashtags that describe what I do:
    #websitedesigner #webdesigner #webdesign #webdesigner #brandstrategy #branddesigner
  4. Hashtag Combination (Location + Descriptive Hashtags into one):
    #sydneywebsitedeveloper #sydneywebsitedesigner #sydneywebdesign #sydneybrandingstudio #australianwebdesigner

Tips:

  • Save time: Save your Hashtag Groups in your Preview app
  • Use the Hashtag Finder in Preview App to find hashtags

15.

Be Consistent + Be Patient

And the last tip is: Be consistent and be patient.

Keep talking about what you stand for.
Stay true to your personality.
Post consistently.

Show up.

Research has shown that consistency increases trust.

If you want people to trust you and you want to build meaningful relationships with them, you’ll need to post consistently.

Get into the habit of creating content. And have a ton of fun doing it.

Don’t freak out. Don’t be overwhelmed. It doesn’t have to be stressful.

In fact, the more fun you’ll have, the more you’ll attract people to your account. #FACT.

Here are some tips:

  • Plan in advance – it helps a ton (one week in advance is good).
  • Find a day and time when you can plan some Instagram posts.
  • Don’t force Instagram into your life. Fit it into your life.
  • Use these Instagram post ideas for business
  • Use these Instagram post ideas for personal posts

Tip: Be one step ahead. You can use Preview app to plan your posts super easily and quickly.

That’s it!

This is how you start building your brand on Instagram:

  1. Your Key Message
  2. Your Content
  3. Your Grid Layout
  4. Use the Same Filter
  5. Use your Brand Colors
  6. Pay attention to the Backgrounds of your photos
  7. Use the same fonts
  8. Your Instagram Story style
  9. Instagram Story Highlights
  10. Your Profile Photo
  11. Your Captions
  12. Create your own Hashtag
  13. Interact with similar accounts
  14. Use Hashtags related to your brand
  15. Be consistent + patient

The twist:

I have to say it:

Embrace your uniqueness.

You don’t have to follow all of these branding tips to succeed.

You can create your own fun, different, personal, unique brand.

Some of the biggest Instagram accounts (like the awesome @celestebarber with 6.8 million followers) don’t have a brand color, don’t use the same fonts, and don’t use a filter.

But what they always do is, they:

  • Always stay true to their passion
  • Always keep the same kind of captions
  • Always post consistently
  • Always have fun

Now it’s your turn to take action.

Start posting. Start somewhere.

It doesn’t have to be perfect on the first day, all day, everyday.

Progress is 1000% better than perfection.

Go. Go. Go.

And have fun.

Alex

Click here to use it

​Personal brand on Instagram - does it make sense in 2021?

Hello friends. I continue to develop with you the topic of creating and developing a personal brand.

Almost everyone is familiar with the social network Instagram*. Someone joined the service at a time when the photos were edited in old programs, such as retrick. Then there was no talk of advertising, creating thematic blogs. People published what they wanted, did not think about the content. Someone joined already in the era when the first bloggers appeared.

Times have changed. Instagram* has become a platform for advertising a business, selling goods and services.

The content is so diverse that it begs the question, is it worth it to try to go through the possible difficulties and develop your personal brand on Instagram*?

If you want and are set, of course, yes!

Why you need a personal brand on Instagram*

Having a promoted personal brand means increasing the number of sales, your authority and profitability. In addition, the rest of the products that you create in the future will be partly charged with success, because the name has already established itself and has proven itself.

The success of a business depends on its popularity on the Internet. Everything is hot right now on social media. People there learn news, make purchases, communicate and develop. That is why it is so important to promote your personal brand in social networks, and one of the leading platforms is Instagram*.

How to create a personal brand on Instagram*

Before creating and promoting an account, you should understand the following points:

  1. Define your target audience.
  2. Identify the key purpose of the blog. Raise awareness or something else?
  3. Develop a strategy, understanding and presentation of the personal brand concept.
  4. State the key benefits of your product or service. Why should a client choose you?
  5. Understand what level you have reached in your niche, whether you are able to teach others.
  6. Designate your life position, form a worldview.
  7. Write a history of personal development.
  8. Show results achieved. The user must see them. A person will follow another only if he sees in him an authority, a leader.

The next step is to fill and develop the page. This includes: avatar, profile header, photos, texts for publications, stories, design of the feed and current stories (highlights). You can find designers, SMM specialists, copywriters for development assistance.

As I wrote earlier, the competition is high, there are so many brands that a lifetime is not enough to get to know each one. But in all this flow, you need to be able to hook the user so that he stops and stays.

How to keep the attention of followers on Instagram*

First. What do people initially see? Is this a general view or a specific photo. It is necessary to fill your personal brand account with photos and videos so that you want to scroll and view the feed without stopping. By the way, now people are actively responding to short but live videos. Followers are tired of perfect photos, they want more naturalness. Video is a great format to show a little bit of life, such as the process of creating a product.

Second. Create original small texts, but written from the heart, in a simple and understandable language for everyone.

Third. It is important that publications are related to each other. So the user is immersed in the story and is interested in its continuation and development.

Fourth. Once you've got blog followers, try organizing a meeting. Not everyone practices this, but the effect will be positive. Each guest will see the person who created and represents the brand live, and will hear it not through the screen. Attitude and interest will increase several times, because nothing can replace real communication. Meetings can be thematic, or they can be in a narrow circle “over a glass of wine”. Of course, make a mini-report about the last meeting in your profile later. Other followers will be interested and want to visit the next one, thus they will be active on the page.

Fifth. A common feature is the creation of a book. This suggests that you already have extensive experience in the field, developments that you are ready to share not only in a blog, but in a whole book. In addition, if this is a paper version, then the publisher will distribute the book and thereby further develop a personal brand. But the book should be interesting and worth reading.

Sixth. Consult. It can be either free or paid. By helping people, you will earn an excellent reputation and gather grateful people around you. You can conduct both individual phone calls and meetings, and group ones.

Experiment with formats

Promote your personal brand on Instagram*

In order to expand and attract an audience on Instagram*, there are several options.

Let's start with free and fairly simple ones.

  1. Instagram hashtags*. Under publications, you can put tags on the subject of a personal brand, post. This is how the posts will be displayed in the tag's general stream.
  2. Location tags in stories and posts. Similarly, as with hashtags, the material will be displayed in the GEO stream.
  3. Comment and chat on the pages of other bloggers. In the thread of discussions, they can go to your page and subscribe.
  4. Mutual PR. Find accounts with a similar theme and about the same number of followers. Another blogger and you can "swap" followers.
  5. Develop other social networks in addition to Instagram*, such as TikTok. From there they can go to you on Instagram* or vice versa. But in any case, popularity is growing.
  6. Draw. Have a little competition. One of the conditions may be a repost of the post and a mark of your personal brand. A method proven over the years :)

Now let's turn to paid tools.

  1. Buying ads from an influencer. Find an active profile with the desired target audience and agree on cooperation. Be sure to evaluate the activity of the page, the reviews of other people who took advertising.
  2. Targeted advertising. Great and efficient tool. I’ll make a reservation right away, it may seem that its settings are simple. But believe me, it's better to pay a specialist and run it right so as not to drain the budget.


What's in the trend

Without a doubt, there are trends in 2021 that should be followed at least partially. This is what will keep subscribers or attract new ones.

Here are some of the current ones.

Communication. It is worth focusing on communication with the audience, building contact, so go live, record ordinary everyday stories. Also create polls, swipe to interesting articles to exchange opinions. Add a link to the telegram channel to continue discussions there. This is more convenient, because you can see the answer of each person under the message, and in direct it is easy to get lost in the message flow.

Another trend follows from the previous one - honesty and sincerity. Therefore, there are fewer professional retouched photos, texts that have been worked out from point to point. Create more live photos, stories without masks. Many use masks that do not show the beautiful human features. Are there bags under the eyes? Don't worry, you've been working all night to deliver the merchandise. And this is very valuable!

About masks. The fact that they promote the blog. This is an unbreakable chain: a person recorded a story in a mask, 10 other people liked it. But, as I wrote, we are moving away from masks that radically change the color of the face, eyes, hair, and so on. Mask games come in cool. Let's remember this one from T-killah. She randomly showed the amount of money, and he allegedly could transfer it to the card. A week or two trend was on the hearing. So if there are viral ideas, create a new trend.

Another cool feature. If followers tag you in their stories, then repost. This will be a motivation for other users to tell about you, because it's cool when a blogger notices the marks and thanks.

These four trends may seem insignificant. But if you go through the accounts of major bloggers, you can see that they actively use them in their brand. And they even encourage others to be more open and natural.

To summarize

Does it make sense to develop a personal brand on Instagram* in 2021?

Definitely, yes. This is what will increase your sales and profitability. The sooner you create and start developing a personal brand, the sooner you will achieve better results.

Yes, the competition is high, a huge number of blogs with really high quality, interesting content. But each of us is unique and original, so find your submission form. To get the most out of it, learn promotion tools. If possible, create a small personal brand development team on Instagram*. You will definitely succeed.

Have a great mood everyone!

* A social network owned by an organization whose activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation

what is it and how to develop - LiveDune Blog the added value of his company, products and services. Therefore, for those who have a strong personal brand, it is easier to sell more and more expensive. A couple more decades will pass, and everyone will have to think about creating a personal brand on Instagram.


More than 50 metrics for analyzing the effectiveness of promotion on Instagram ------ will help you make the right decisions ------ based on data

Learn more account

on Instagram with clear conclusions and tips ------ how to promote your account

in social networks quickly and not forget anything in LiveDune.

Free ------ Express audit of your account: on Instagram

7 days free

Why you need a personal brand


Personal brand is your information field, which is formed throughout your life. These are appearance, character, competencies, reputation, manner of speech, beliefs, values, emotions that you evoke. In a word, everything that you associate with people.

Social media personal branding can work for you or against you. For example, if a person is associated with irresponsibility or incompetence, we are unlikely to trust him and want to buy something from him. Therefore, it is important to strive to develop a strong personal brand.

Each person has a personal brand from birth, but not everyone can boast of a strong personal brand . But do not be upset, everyone has the potential of a strong personal brand, you just need to develop it.

Strong personal brand - the ability to influence people and inspire confidence. A person with a strong personal brand is able to encourage the audience to make certain choices, take certain actions, change the worldview. Everyone has the potential for a strong personal brand. The main task is to unleash this potential and further regularly develop our expertise and competencies.

What makes a strong personal brand:

  • Stand out from the competition.
  • Formation of audience loyalty.
  • Sales.
  • Personnel search.

People quickly adapt to new marketing tools (a vivid example is imitation of discounts or retargeting), because of which brand confidence is lost, and positioning becomes impersonal. It is easier to develop trust and loyalty to a specific person than to a company, since the audience is more willing to communicate with a person.

Even with the same product quality, people are more likely to buy from someone they trust and whose name is well known. This applies not only to experts, trainers and entrepreneurs, but also to large companies. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Pavel Durov and Oleg Tinkov can be striking examples of promoting a business through a strong personal brand.

It is a big misconception that only public people (politicians, athletes, artists, etc.) need a strong personal brand. Almost every entrepreneur needs to develop a strong personal brand. Except, for example, the owner of a shawarma somewhere near the airport. First of all, a strong personal brand is needed by people who are engaged in the promotion of intellectual services (for example, SMM promotion, SEO audit, legal advice, etc.), personal activities, most often individual projects of bloggers and expensive products.

Promotion through a personal brand has its downsides. For example, constant publicity and responsibility for the reputation of a personal brand, spoiling which can greatly harm your business.

A strong personal brand should not be a fake image of a person created only for marketing purposes. It is important to be real everywhere – online and in real meetings.

That's when people will start to be interested in you, and after some time your name will be associated with the services/products you sell.

The positioning of a personal brand must necessarily resonate with the goals and ideas of your company. Before moving on to the steps to building a strong personal brand, take a piece of paper and write down at least 5 goals that your personal brand will help you achieve. For example, to increase your status as an expert and thereby increase income from educational products.

And now let's look at the main stages of building a personal brand. By answering the questions at each stage, it will be easier for you to form your strong personal brand and main content topics.

Development of a personal brand on Instagram

Each of us has the makings of a strong personal brand, it is important to develop this potential. This is a long and laborious process associated with painstaking work on oneself. First, you need to invest time and effort into obtaining certain skills and professionalism in order to become an expert. Without the status of an expert, you can quickly ruin your reputation, which will take a lot of time and effort to restore. And only after that start building a personal brand.

Self identification . Describe your interests, desires, beliefs - personal qualities that you will broadcast with the help of content.

For example, I like that all issues are resolved fairly; I am not late and do not like it when others are late; I enjoy rock climbing and snowboarding.

Definition of expertise. To get an idea of ​​what topics will be key for your blog, list the areas in which you have expertise.

  • Are you in the TOP 10 famous experts / bloggers in your field?
  • How often do you get expert advice?
  • Remember if you developed your own concepts, theories in one of the areas (new type of content, processing, etc.) in which you are an expert. If not, what could be developed? Make a list of ideas that you can work on in depth in the future. After all, own developments are one of the clear signs of expertise.

External image matching analysis. After you have formulated the ideas that you want to broadcast, check how your current appearance matches them. Evaluate your own ideas about yourself (appearance, character traits, professional competence, social status, environment, self-confidence), and then compare with feedback from friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

For example, if you are a fitness expert, then your body should motivate the audience to look the same. In this example, a good figure is also proof that your products are working (social proff).

Formation of USP (unique selling proposition). Your USP is the answer to the question why you are the best in your field and in what cases customers can turn to you, and not to competitors.

Promotion of a personal brand on Instagram


The main channel through which people can easily and quickly get to know you is Instagram. Therefore, you need to promote a strong personal brand exactly there: you can directly interact with your audience through a combination of photos, videos and text; form the necessary idea of ​​yourself and your level of expertise. Therefore, 80% of the promotion of a strong personal brand will depend on content.

Start by creating an account, and then start generating content. Recommendations for creating an account on Instagram are described in a separate article - “How to design a profile header?”. And a selection of free and paid methods for promoting your Instagram account in this article is “How to promote Instagram on your own?”.

Content for a personal brand

A personal brand is broadcast through self-presentation (everything that you show and tell about yourself), that is, through content. And it is with content that you will have to work most of the time to build your personal brand on Instagram.

The main task in creating a personal brand on Instagram is to convey not only expertise, but also personal qualities. People want to form an opinion about you not only as an expert, but also as a person. This can include your review of the film, a story about your professional ups and downs, summing up the results of the week / month, and so on. But you should not broadcast your personal life, for example, a story about parting with your soulmate or something like that will be superfluous.

In order not to end up in a situation where there is nothing to publish - do not tie a blog on one topic, as its resource may run out sooner or later. And if you stop writing on the central topic, you can lose most of the audience. It is more practical to write about 5-7 topics. If necessary, you can painlessly abandon 1-2 topics and gradually introduce new ones. In this way, you will retain a large part of the audience, losing the interest of only a small proportion of subscribers.

But even when you find topics that engage your followers well, keep testing new ones. You have to be interesting to the audience, like a series. And if the series is boring, boring and predictable, interest in it begins to disappear.

Use LiveDune's category analysis to track the performance of topics.

Analyze categories

The same goes for the tone of your posts: if you write only useful expert information all the time, sooner or later you will bore your subscribers; only positive posts - you will begin to annoy subscribers. Therefore, in order to keep the engagement of subscribers in good shape, it is necessary to mix positive (nostalgia, joy), useful (instructions, tips, collections) and negative posts (sadness, anger, sadness, resentment, pain). That is, to form an emotional "swing".

Conclusion


Developing a strong personal brand is the most profitable investment of resources that will bring results and work for you for many years to come. A strong personal brand helps not only to become a blogger or increase company sales, but also to get a job. Considering that in a couple of decades everyone will have to think about a strong personal brand, do not waste time and start developing it now.

Only important news in the monthly newsletter

By clicking on the button, you consent to the processing of personal data.

What's new in SMM?

Subscribe now and get an Instagram account audit guide

Popular articles

≈ 9 min to read decrease exponentially.

#instagram 07/10/2019

How to make money from your blog on Instagram

Let's look at several ways to monetize your blog on Instagram, and tell you what indicators brands look for when choosing a blogger for cooperation.

#instagram 01.07.2019

Polls in stories Instagram

How to create a poll in stories, what to ask subscribers and what is the use of conducting such an interactive.

≈ 20 min to read 02/14/2019

How to promote your Instagram account for free: step by step instructions

There are no magical tools in the article to quickly promote your Instagram account. But there are recommendations where to start and how to analyze the effectiveness, what methods can be used to promote an account, and which ones should be abandoned.

LiveDune marketing products - 7 days free

Our products help you optimize your social media experience and improve your accounts with the help of deep analytics

Analyze your own and others' accounts by 50+ metrics in 6 social networks.

Learn more