When we visit an Instagram profile, the first thing we see is the user's feed . If the images are aesthetically pleasing and visually appealing, we're likely to follow them. Having a beautiful and well-organized feed is a common strategy for success on Instagram. If you need ideas, here's a guide on how to create an attractive feed.
What is the Instagram feed?
The Instagram feed is the view where you can see all the posts from the same user. It is sorted temporarily, with the most recent publication appearing first.
At first glance, your feed is nothing more than a chronology of images . However, this platform is your calling card . Many influencers and brands carefully curate their Instagram feeds. Why? Because making a strong impression is key to gaining followers. Having an organized, harmonious, and well-structured feed conveys a lot of information to your audience. Therefore, working on it daily is crucial for success on the social network.
Tips to have a good feed on Instagram
We give you some tips so that you can create an attractive feed and invite anyone who happens to follow your profile.
Planning
The secret to making your Instagram profile look professional is planning every detail . The more complex your feed, the more planning it will require.
If you want to have a very complex feed, you must have a very well elaborated content plan that marks the exact number of daily publications so as not to unbalance the design. And, of course, planning should not neglect other technical aspects such as audience retention or feedback.
Color palette and typography
In general, a good feed has a brand identity . This identity is generated as a result of a communication strategy and a creative concept. You can develop this yourself or delegate it to a professional if you prefer someone else to do it.
In any case, your brand will be defined with a series of colors, fonts, textures, icons and even music if you also make a video. All of these elements will need to work in your feed together for it all to work.
Edition
We've talked about color and typography, but we mustn't forget the images themselves. The same applies to photography and video . It's very important to maintain the same artistic style over time. Sometimes it will be as simple as editing your photos with the same preset and your videos with the same LUT. However, you'll encounter serious difficulties when shooting in different lighting conditions.
You can start with a Lightroom or VSCO preset, but sooner or later you'll need to be able to recreate the same tones and colors in different photos so they don't clash with your feed.
Types of Instagram feeds
There are thousands of ways to organize an Instagram feed. If you need inspiration, here are some of the most popular styles among users of the social network. From here, you're completely free to get inspired and combine styles until you create a totally unique one that suits your needs.
Chessboard Feed – Difficulty: Very Easy
One of the typical problems of maintaining a good feed on Instagram is having to control the number of posts. If you elaborate your staging a lot, you will have to upload a certain number of photos in a row so as not to break the feed.
With the chessboard, there won't be a problem. You'll need to choose two colors that contrast well. Then, each post will be made alternating between those two styles. In some cases, the image can be superimposed on a larger design to create a pattern—as seen in the previous image.
Mosaic Feed – Difficulty: Easy
This other system is very versatile and will allow you to explore a multitude of possibilities without having to follow rigid guidelines. It consists of creating a design where each image is independent but maintains a certain continuity with the rest of the feed . The result is organized and visually appealing. It won't force you to publish several images in a row, and your timeline will look polished. The possibilities with this method are almost limitless, and you can use this style for years without getting tired of it.
Vertical Feed – Difficulty: easy
This style is quite simple and affordable. It uses columns. Typically, photos are posted in the outer columns and text in the middle column. Keeping this feed organized is relatively easy. However, to make it look appealing, it's necessary to maintain a consistent style for the images—using the same preset or editing them according to a common concept—and we should also do the same with the color palette and typography.
The vertical feed can be combined with the horizontal feed that you will see later (one line of each style) or even make each column different. In general, it is a very successful solution if you want to tidy up your feed for the first time.
Horizontal Feed – Difficulty: easy
One line, one theme. In this other feed, each triad of photos will be a different topic. They can be independent photos or you can also connect them through a common background. In the second case, the complexity will be in planning each trio of images and exporting them so that later in the feed they appear as one.
Giant Feed – Difficulty: Medium
This feed is surprising, as each image is made up of a 3x3 square or a larger rectangle, 4x3 or larger. Implementing it is relatively easy. However, it has its downsides. By dividing a photo into nine squares, many of those squares may be meaningless . Your followers won't understand the image and won't like it, causing your account to lose engagement.
To do it well, you will have to pose each square as the puzzle feed that we tell you below. If you manage to make each image separately have meaning, you will have crowned yourself.
Feed Puzzle – Difficulty: Very Hard
If you want to leave your followers speechless, a puzzle-style feed is for you. Basically, it consists of creating images that have meaning on their own , but which, when viewed as part of a larger, continuous image, appear as a single, giant picture.
This requires a lot of planning and a good grasp of image editing. A single mistake will completely ruin the feed—and we know many influencers tried this approach years ago and ultimately failed. If you choose this style, keep in mind that you'll be condemned to never delete a photo from now on. If you do, you'll undo all your hard work.
Feed Remix – Difficulty: Medium
Once you're familiar with some of these styles, you're free to mix and match them to create your own custom version . For example, you could combine the giant feed with a column of varying opacity to add text, similar to a vertical feed. The possibilities are endless. The important, and perhaps tedious, part will be maintaining the desired style.
Tips for migrating from one feed style to another
When you get tired of one feed style, you can migrate to another. You'll simply need to create a smooth transition . If you've been using a puzzle-style feed for years and want to switch to a simpler format, the ideal approach would be to spend a few weeks posting images to create a horizontal feed that still maintains a connection to the overall puzzle-style grid you've established.
This way, the change won't be as abrupt and will buy you a little time to think of a new style that will still work in your timeline.