Why it is important to design Instagram beautifully and correctly

There's a Ukrainian folk wisdom that says you're greeted by your clothes, you're let out by your mind. It can be applied to Instagram as well - as soon as a person lands on your page, they evaluate it and make a decision to subscribe. Here are the evaluation factors:

• what you write/teach is very necessary/interesting;
• I want to buy something from you or choose and then buy it;
• Alternatively, if you want to laugh or are incredibly annoying, this is your personal Hater for years to come.

By the way, good enemies have to be earned 😉.

Conclusion: The appearance of your account does affect how many of your followers will eventually become your customers or fans. Or whoever you want to attract there.

Let's figure out how to make your channel popular.

How to choose a nickname for your account

Do you run a blog or a creative page? If your name is not Evlampina, then most likely your name is already taken for use. Then I recommend playing with associations: for example, Tanya Kazakova chose the short @fitlife_beauty. The associations are clear if you speak English.

For a business page, everything is also quite simple: you can specify the brand name and line of business. Example: @nikesportswear. More than clear. Or you can make your profile name a query by which people will search for your account: "nails", for example. Just use common abbreviations: Kaliningrad - Klg, not Kal (the names of cities from air travel will help you).

Keep it simple - try not to use too long and complicated nicknames that will be difficult to remember, let alone reproduce without a link.

What you need to remember about indexing on Instagram

You can search by nickname, hashtag, and geotags. Therefore:

• Make your nickname simple and memorable - it should be easy for a user to find you in a social media search.

• Use hashtags in your profile description because they can now be followed and therefore found.

• Specify the geographic location if you are looking for an audience in a narrow location (city, region).

Competent profile description: links, emojis, and hashtags

To describe your profile, choose a language that is close to your target audience. But don't overuse foreign words.

Specify the methods of communication - not just for show, but reliable ones. You should regularly check your e-mail, answer calls by phone, and be ready to meet customers at the address (if you have an offline store).

In the Website section, provide a link to the website.

If you have several promotion channels and track traffic using web analytics systems, create a UTM for an Instagram link using special services. In my opinion, the most convenient tool is Tilda, but you can choose any suitable one. 

You need a UTM tag if you need not only to identify the platform but also to get additional data. For example, when you are interested not only in the fact that the user came from Instagram, but you want to know exactly whether he or she came after a correspondence, went from the profile description or from an advertisement on the blogger's Story. With proper configuration, you can count not only the number of clicks on links, but also the number of leads and payments/purchases.

To make your link fit in the profile bio and look more attractive, use link shortening services, such as Bitly. 

The profile description is limited to 180 characters, so use emoticons to shorten and visually highlight structural sections of the of the description. Emojis also help to add emotion to the text. emotionality to the text. This makes it easier to distinguish phone number, delivery methods (airplane, mail, etc.) to separate with a graphic sign than to write a word.

Sometimes you can skip the hassle, pay tribute to minimalism, and just make your bio look like a list.

What should I write about myself? List the types of products, tell us what you do. Add an offer: offer a discount, free useful material, etc. Or the contacts of your PR specialist, if necessary. Some profiles duplicate communication methods.

Also, recently, the profile description has the ability to add tags and links to other Instagram accounts. The developers claim that this is a new way to express yourself and show what things you are interested in. Such links are clickable: the user can easily go to another account or search for a hashtag. This way, you can use your personal account to advertise, for example, your store/brand, whose ambassador you are. Many bloggers do this.

You can lead not only to the site, but also to the company profile

You can specify your branded/customized hashtag. Or a popular hashtag among the target audience that fits your description. Or, for example, collect reviews by hashtag about your event/product/service so that the user can quickly read them.

There's nothing easier than making a hashtag on the name of a of a bestselling book

Have you seen an unusual font in the description of Instagram accounts? Alternatively, you can try using this technique. You can do this on the Sprezz Keyboard website or using the iOS app of the same name (though the service does not support Cyrillic).    

Stories Highlights: learning how to post archived "Stories"

Highlights are "Stories" that are displayed below the profile description profile description and are not deleted after 24 hours.

Collect your stories into collections and post them to your account

How to make Stories Highlights

To move your Story to Highlights, click after of a post, select Highlight → Add to Highlights. You can create several such sections. several.

For Stories Highlights, you can specify a name and add a cover photo (you can edit it).

The titles of the "Archived Stories" can fit in 15 characters

If you add new Stories to the archives, the updated sections will be the very first in the list.

If you want to edit an archive, go to your profile and hold down the button of the desired archive - a menu will pop up offering to delete or edit Stories Highlights.

Requirements for banners in Stories:

• The aspect ratio is from 1:91 to 4:5.
• Recommended resolution: 1080 x 1920, minimum: 600x+1067.

What to post in Stories

1. Separate catalogs of your goods and services, information about delivery and payment. Promotions and sales, assortment updates. And, of course, publish customer reviews.

2. The headings under which your content is published in Stories.

By the way, in Stories, you can now share posts (your own and others'), so it's easy to make any kind of selection. For example, to collect all the sweepstakes/contests in the archive. Or reviews of books you've read. Or your published articles (if you have the ability to attach links to Stories, you can immediately lead readers from Instagram to the site). Traveling, interviews, renovations, cosmetics - you name it, bloggers do it.

3. Announcements of significant events and activities, if you think they you think it is worth drawing special attention to them.

4. Information about yourself, your team or project.

5. FAQ (answers to questions). For example, how to place order or how to get to the store. In the FAQ, you can answer any questions from your subscribers.

Creating a unique Instagram style: 2 rules and 3 ways to make posts to your profile

There are two basic rules that you need to manage to follow at the same time:

• Everything you do is for the people you consider to be the target audience of the project.
• If you take into account the opinions of all outside observers of the design, you will never hear a unanimous opinion.

This happens everywhere. That's why you can rely on your intuition and the intuition and the experience of competitors.

Now to the methods:

1.Unified color scheme. One filter for all photos is the easiest way to process a photo post. 

Facilitates perception and makes your style/brand recognizable

2. Chess. Everyone is tired of it, but it remains relevant as a way of decorating. You can try to find a more modern version. 

3. Collages. You can do it on individual posts or the entire account (the same notorious Insta landing pages, only cooler). I don't think it makes sense to spend resources on collaging your entire account, but if you do it for fun, why not? 

Making texts for publications attractive: 5 techniques that not everyone knows about

• Now the text on Instagram is hidden under the "Read in full" icon. AND SO MANY PEOPLE WRITE HEADLINES LIKE THIS. Basically, as an option. For example, for the visually impaired :-). I advise you to start with questions and provocations.
• Divide the text into paragraphs. Tip. If there is a lot of text, it is better to put some of it in the first comment. Do you use an auto-posting program? It even has a function for the first comment on a post.
• Put hashtags in the basement or write them organically into the text. The main requirement is that you don't write #this #and #that #is #terrible #annoying.
• Use emoticons to emphasize key information or to add emotion.
• Use visual dividers.

Visual dividers help to set accents

I would like to end this article with the words of Jeffrey Zeldman: "Content precedes design. Design without content is not design, it is artistic design." So pay attention not only to visualization, but also to content - texts, ideas, meaning. Create and inspire!