How to get a cohesive Instagram feed

We love following those who provide awesome content, but a pretty Instagram feed will take you even further when trying to reach your ideal audience. If you’re thinking “well, it’s all in the photos, they sure have an eye to curate their feed”, I’m just going to say that is partially true. But heavy emphasis on the “partially”.

A cohesive Instagram feed can be broken into different areas:

Similar style images

The most obvious one of course, but think about it: When you get some amazing new branded images taken by a professional photographer there’s a strategy behind them (there should always be a strategy!).

When you are incorporating images from your own findings, like stock images, selfies or other photos you’ve taken of your daily life, that’s where most people tend to forget the aesthetics thinking “we’ll this is real life, not a photo shoot”. And I get it, but you can still share your daily life and your selfies taking into account your brand vibes!

Are your images light and airy? Well then shoot them in a super bright space and opt for light backgrounds. Is your feed bright and colorful? Seek to add those brand colors in your images and make sure there’s plenty of light!

See where I’m going? It’s not that you can’t share your own images, but taking a bit of extra care to have them be on brand is going to make it so much easier to have a cohesive Instagram feed.

Consistent tones

Do you love warm and contrasty images? What about cool and airy? Or perhaps moody and muted? Think about it.

Sometimes we’d like our feed to look a certain way and we just can’t point “what” is missing. Something as simple as making sure that your feed is always consistent in the tones (warm or cool) will help you tremendously when creating new content.

Well, what if you’re starting with a very cool image, because it’s perfect on the aesthetics you want for your Instagram feed, but your vibe is usually warmer? Well, it’s as simple as editing that image! And no, I don’t mean you need to open up every image in Photoshop only to put it back in your phone… You can totally achieve the perfect results using an editing app on your phone.

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Here’s a video example taking an image from our stock library and to make it even easier to see how to apply these changes, I’m taking a very monochromatic photo. Most people shy away from these types of images because they think there’s not enough color to edit it, but oh my friend, any image can be edited to get a cohesive Instagram feed!

Find similar elements and objects

Is your feed a nature-loving Instagram feed? Do you share a lot of office elements? How about tech stuff like iPad, phones, computers…?

Well, think about what resonates with the message you are trying to convey on your Instagram feed and have some of those elements handy for the next time you want to share a pic.

You can create an amazing and cohesive Instagram feed by incorporating similar items and it will bring a harmonious feel to your images. And that’s why want a cohesive feed, right?

If possible, similar colors should be included

I know this is the hardest when you are sharing from your daily life as you don’t know where you’ll be moving on next, and maybe that pretty cafe has very warm tones and then the park where your kiddo loves to play in the swings has the coolest blues and greens ever on every possible corner. I get it.

If you take the extra care to try to keep it all in the same color family, your Instagram feed will get that “polished” look. And I’m not talking of taking every photo in the same background, because you need variety to keep an interesting feed to engage your audience.

Let’s say one of your brand colors is yellow, well, try to incorporate any element in that same type of yellow! That way even if you are surrounded by green, when you add that bright pop of yellow you’ll be able to “link” previous images to this one.

And remember you can always edit it! So if you need to adjust it a bit, don’t be afraid to do so.

Most importantly: light, light, light!

No matter what your colors look like or what your vibe is like: You need to have good light. Take your selfies facing a window, take that next pic in the brightest room possible, open up the curtains if needed, but get that good light in there!

Good light is the one thing that will help you incorporate your own photos into your Instagram feed while looking good next to stock photos or branded imagery by a professional photographer. Seriously. That is usually where the disconnection occurs because poor light means a lot of grain, less definition, muted or dead colors… All the no-nos.

Be committed to creating the best possible images with the highest quality with your own equipment, even if it’s just your phone. That will help your Instagram feed look so much better than the rest.

Most importantly: Show up. Be consistent, engage, and don’t forget that it’s called social media for a reason. 💙