How to Build Yourself Up On Instagram

Over the past few months, Instagram has been switching up on us at every chance they get – it has become quite anti-‘people who are trying very hard to build themselves up and get their work out there’. The moment you find yourself getting the hang of things and enjoying posting your content, they change the algorithm. Yikes! Nonetheless, no matter what happens with Instagram’s algorithm, this blog post will help you out in terms of standing out and gaining traction.

Building yourself up on Instagram isn’t necessarily hard, it just takes time and dedication. If you don’t have neither of those or lack even just one, I have news for you! It’s time for you to sit down and figure out what you are about and what you would like to be associated with by your community/audience. I have put together everything you need to get yourself out there and after reading this post, I want you to know that the only thing holding you back now is yourself…

Keep the same profile picture for at least 1 year

Yes, you are human, but you are also more like a brand. Imagine if Starbucks changed their logo every month, just for fun, would people be as loyal as they are right now? Absolutely not. So, don’t sabotage yourself either. Having the same profile picture for a year or longer helps us remember you and trust you. If you keep changing pictures every month, personally, I will have to keep clicking on your profile to remind myself who you are from the pictures on your feed and there is also a huge chance I (and many other people) will get tired of the constant confusion and just unfollow the page as a whole.

Do Nothing Without Intention

If you are a Solange fan, you can already hear that voice playing in your head, repeatedly saying, “do nothing without intention”. Honestly, it’s not that deep, but it is indeed something quite important if you want to level up. Now, what do I mean by this? Every single thing you post, has to have some sort of importance or relevance to you and what you do. The ultimate goal is to be welcoming and not seem robotic, show personality, show flaws, show mistakes you’ve made, show that you are human too.

Have relevant information in your bio

No, actually, let’s start here… Have something on your bio! I normally bump into profiles that just don’t have anything on their bio except their names and the reaction in my head is always, “???????” Do not play yourself, that’s one way of chasing potential followers and brand deals away. Be very specific about what you do. Don’t write out sentences, use one-word descriptions, don’t overwhelm us with emojis, mention your location (you don’t have to be super specific), include your email address for professionalism reasons, include a link to your work even if you are just starting out. Be bold, show yourself!

Have captions on all your pictures

Listen, all your pictures absolutely have to have a caption with it. Yes, sure you can grab a quote and a song lyric but please (I cannot stress this enough), please do not do that for all your photos. Be original, tell us the story behind the photo, how you are feeling, what you recently realized… anything but just quotes. When you don’t post a caption, it just screams, “Oh hey guys, me again, stopping by to ask y’all to look at me. Make sure you like this! Okay bye”. That’s how I personally see it and that’s why I would rather just not post anything if I haven’t yet come up with a good enough caption. Make people want to engage with you, help them get to know you better, optimize your chances of getting connections. Make people see that you also see them.

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Post More Reels

In as much as some of are are enraged about Instagram prioritizing video content when it was initially a photo-sharing platform, if you want to build up your brand, you absolutely have to focus on creating mainly Reels. Yes, creating reels is definitely time-consuming but it is usually rewarding.
Tips: when you are editing your videos make sure they flow with whichever sound you use, research and use relevant keywords in your captions and make sure the sound you are using is trending or at least used often.

Use my presets

I offer a variety of presets/filters that you can use on your photos for an aesthetically pleasing feed. Without a doubt, these presets will help you gain followers and increase the quality of your photos. People are drawn to your page when you have a standard look, it’s only natural. That’s one of the determining factors for me when it comes to following a person – their feed needs to look organized because that convinces me that they know what they are doing hence I can trust them. Head over to the Shop and put yourself on!

Put Together a Content Calendar

No jokes, you have to treat this as a business if you are serious about making it. In as much as some people are strongly against social media and all, I would say Goodluck if you are thinking of running a business in the near future and not planning on using social media, especially Instagram. So, with that said, planning your content is crucial. This also helps with consistency which is the major key when it comes to building trust from your community. Figure out how often you will be posting on your feed and stick to it, I highly suggest posting on stories every single day, but this is all a blog post for another day.

You absolutely need to take advantage of the fact that Instagram is free to use (well at least for now because who knows what they’re going to do next), so market yourself as much as possible, stay consistent, build a loyal community by being trustworthy, do everything you can to make sure that you are seen and heard. I hope these tips were helpful and if you haven’t yet applied any of them, I strongly suggest you start now.

Instagram – imbalenhle_k