Having trouble curating and producing photos that are ‘Instagrammable’? Keeping up with the current trends in social media can be difficult. Especially when you’re trying to model generate engagement similar to the likes of an inlfuencer. Here are some tricks of the trade, that Node has found to be the most successful in producing quality content.
Having an engaging feed is key for influencers and content creators when it comes to getting product sponsorships and partnerships. Learn more about how you can get more brand collaborations as an influencer here.
Organization is key
It’s important to conceive a clear plan and theme that will represent your brand. You want to plan out your goals with your content in mind. Think about questions like:
- What is your target audience? (Think: the who, what, and where of your content!)
- What are you trying to achieve with your content?
- What do you want your content to really say about you/your brand?
These questions can be difficult to answer, but it’s all about focus. You need to figure out how exactly how you intend to represent your brand visually.
Another important aspect of organizing is making sure your content follows a clear theme. Think: your content is your message, and your theme is the most effective tool to make your message as cohesive as possible for your audience. Your theme consists of color schemes, POV, photo ideas, caption ideas, etc. Basically, everything that you need to aesthetically stay on brand and on topic. I recommend using apps such as Planoly, Feedr, or Unum, to help drive your brand forward!
Using the Right Editing Tools
Editing is a powerful tool to help you produce content that will resonate with audiences. Often times people equate editing to erasing all the imperfections – but that is not always the case!. With editing tools you can create consistent tones and color palettes that will define your brand identity to audiences. Some of our favorite editing apps are VSCO, Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom.
Photo: eatandtreats
How to Shoot Content
For many, the most time-consuming aspect of creating content is the process of shooting and making use of angles, lightning, and ambiance. Today, we will be talking about two categories; lifestyle and food.
Food Photography
In most cases, enclosed detailed shots are the best for shooting food. Because food is usually still, and can involve a lot of shadows the best photos are captured with natural lighting. You should reduce shadows and make sure your food is on a neutral backdrop. Shadows and clusters can be distracting and messy and can really take away from the content that you present. That’s why it’s usually best to avoid flash for food photography.
Lifestyle Photography
Lifestyle shots on the other hand can be more fun and versatile. The trick is to create unique content that is eye catching and different. If you want your instagram photos to be engaging, then you need to be original and stay true to your brand.
The atmosphere needs to really get across in your photo, and your surroundings and location can play a huge role in that! If your brand is targeting city-dwellers, and on the go types – maybe you want to shoot content focused in the city.
If your brand focuses on wellness and being holistic, maybe you want to try shooting in the wilderness or out in nature. That is all to say that, it is important to have lifestyle shots that accurately reflect the brand and audience you’re targeting.
Photo: @sarahmian
Write Engaging Captions in Your Posts
On social media, most of your content will be judged in the view-time of a fraction of a second, and that goes for what you write as well. When your audiences scroll through their feed, your visual content will peak their interest, but your written work is what will keep them engaged.
You want to make sure your caption assists in maintaining viewership as best as you can. It’s best to keep your audience engaged in a way that makes them feel like the time they spend looking at your content and reading it, is not time wasted. Asking questions, or leaving room for comments, directed towards your followers is a sure-fire way to get responses and gauge interest! Another helpful tip is maintaining relevance.
Keep a flare of your personality – whether that be your humor, or inquisitive nature. Anything that demonstrates that you have taken the time to truly think about your content, will help show your audience that you put in effort into create quality content that you believed they would like most.
Stay Authentic with Your Brand
These are just a few things to keep in mind when exploring ways to create quality content. Making sure you stay on brand and true to yourself is what is of the utmost importance! If you have any tips or tricks yourself that you would love to share with me, please comment below and let me know what has worked best for you!
Does it make a difference if my hashtags are in the caption or comments?