With hundreds of millions of users worldwide, Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platforms on the planet. For content creators and businesspeople, it offers access to an incredible audience that can aid in the monetization of their craft and the building of communities. For everyday people, it acts as an easy way to stay in touch with friends and family and document their special moments.
As such, your Instagram feed says a lot about you as a person or about the brand you are representing. Therefore, Instagram feed curation is one of the most important parts of online marketing success. Few people are as experienced in Instagram feed curation as Yanis Bargoin, a French model and influencer. Yanis has over 20,000 followers and is an ambassador for multiple brands and as such, his feed is always kept clean and appealing. While not everyone is a Lacoste-sponsored model, but we can all achieve an Instagram feed similar to Yanis’, with a few tips from the man himself.
If you are trying to launch a career or business through Instagram, Bargoin says that Instagram feed curation is particularly important, among others.
“At the beginning, it was easier to gain followers but since Facebook decided to buy Instagram, things have been so different. The first thing to know is that Instagram often gives penalties without telling you. A penalty gives you less visibility and engagement so Instagrammers have to be careful,” he says, “the most natural way you can grow is the better way. Of course, high quality and creativity photos, a maximum of 7 hashtags, and minimum text. The better way to grow is to be relevant, to be shared by other influencers and to be mediatized.”
To start, it is important to take a look at Yanis’ feed and make some quick observations. His feed is very eye-catching and most importantly, it has a defined theme to its content and presentation. Yanis’ feed is primarily travel, lifestyle, and fashion pictures and this means that anyone visiting his feed will be informed immediately of what his brand entails and what his content is primarily about. The very first step in Instagram content curation is deciding what type of content you intend to post. If you post lifestyle content one day, comedy the next, and then food, your audience might be confused. Decide on what type of page you want to have and mostly post content that is in line with your vision. In your posts use hashtags to get more exposure. For hashtag tracking and monitoring out of Instagram posts Flick is considered to be a great tool. You can read the Flick review to get more knowledge about the tool.
The next thing to decide is the setup you wish to utilize for most or all of your pictures. Yanis, for example, features mostly images of himself in various locations doing various things, whether it be having a meal or exploring the location. If your pictures will mainly feature pictures of you, then decide on that. On the flip side, if they will mostly be pictures of other people, inanimate objects, or the outdoors, decide on that as well.
The filters to be used also matters a lot as well. We’ve all seen Instagram feeds that evoke a similar feeling or have consistency in their tone. Make sure to use the same filter across the majority of your Instagram posts in order to have a consistent ‘feel’ to your feed. Also, try to organize your posts by color where you can. Instagram feeds are arranged in groups of three and some people opt to post three sets of similar pictures to ensure a level of organization with regards to their content. Finally, it must be noted that Instagram feed curation does not apply only to the posts put directly on the feed but also Instagram stories and bios as well.
On Yanis’ page, there are multiple story buttons that organize his previous Instagram stories by niche. These include travel, media, restaurants, and tech. At the end of the day, Instagram curation involves all aspects of the platform.
Finally, when curating an Instagram feed, it is important that you look at each post as contributing to a larger project as opposed to a singular upload in itself. Some people choose to create larger collages out of their Instagram feeds. Often, this requires adhering to a strict posting pattern and schedule, but the final results can be very interesting to look at.
Curating an Instagram feed is a complex and long-term commitment but as Bargoin has shown, it can be done with the right tools and a bit of knowledge.