Instagram is the picture-first social media platform. Instantly recognizable with its square aspect ratio, mouth-watering food pictures and stylized overhead shots, it's the channel where users seek visual perfection. Making a beautiful Instagram account for your brand is about more than picking out great photos — it's also about creating a consistent image and a pleasing aesthetic that your followers instantly recognize.

When you start thinking about your Instagram presence as a complete user experience, where every image presents a similar look and feel, you can build a truly branded account. Every visual gives your audience a sense of who you are as a company, and followers will discover your unique perspective every time you post.

In this guide, we'll discuss several tips to help you polish your corporate Instagram aesthetic, gain more followers, and engage your audience.

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Choose a Theme

The theme of your corporate Instagram feed will stem from your brand identity. Choosing a consistent Instagram theme for your account is the first step to creating a unified, engaging aesthetic. It helps you create content that fits your brand personality and caters to what your target audience wants from your feed. Your theme gives visitors a reason to follow — for more content like this.

To post aesthetic pictures on Instagram, you should focus on similar subject matter. For example, you might focus on product pictures, people or experiences:

1. Product-Focused Theme

If you are a product-centric company, your theme will be related to your product line. Your idea should go deeper than your product itself. If you sell athletic wear, your theme might celebrate an outdoorsy lifestyle — your feed might then feature sneakers surrounded by breathtaking mountain views and joggers at the beach. Or, you might focus on self-improvement, and showcase your product next to a set of weights at the gym. While the product will usually be at the center of your posts, the textures, environments, and colors you use will enrich the experience.

2. People-Focused Theme

Another option is to feature people and smiling faces. A face-focused approach is a particularly savvy option, since Instagram photos with faces are 38 percent more likely to get likes.

You could share photos of happy customers captioned with testimonials. Or, you might focus on the team your customers will work with when they choose your company. Employee spotlights allow your followers the preview your customer service. They might also imagine the relationships they could build with your team members.

You might also work with influencers that fit your brand's image and lifestyle. Or, you might choose to leverage your CEO as the face of the company, turning your founder into an influencer in their own right.

3. Experience-Focused Theme

Most companies, whether they offer products or services, provide a unique experience. A travel company offers adventures to exotic locales and undiscovered gems. A skincare brand might evoke a luxurious, clean feel or a relaxing night inside. A PR agency projects their fast, professional service from start to finish.

No matter what you sell, your customers receive an experience they can't get anywhere else. You can give your Instagram followers a sneak peek of that experience through your weekly posts.

Know Your Audience

When you create an Instagram account, you're essentially creating a curated experience for a specific group of people. Of course, you need to understand those people to make engaging, relevant content for them. To make your corporate Instagram aesthetic, ask yourself three critical questions to better understand your audience:

1. Who are you targeting and why?

You should know as much as you can about your target audience. Anything from where they go on vacation to what they like for breakfast can help you create an image that appeals to your customers. It can be helpful to distill your target audience into a single persona — a 29-year-old dog owner who works as a journalist, for example. The audience you target should be based on extensive research. Your potential followers should be likely to buy your product or work with your company. Once you have a clear picture of who you are creating content for, the images you choose can each be targeted to these individuals.

2.What do people in your target audience look at on Instagram?

Once you know who you're targeting, you can do some digging. Find some Instagram users who follow similar brands or pages and fit your target demographic. Then, look at the other pages they follow and the content they like and comment on. Look for patterns in color, subject matter, camera angles, texture, contrast, and more.

3.What are the relevant hashtags in your industry?

Knowing what hashtags other brands in your industry use can also help you understand your audience. Finding the right ones for your brand helps you expand your reach. Plus, understanding relevant hashtags can help you better understand your followers' interests.

Focus on the Grid

When posting on Instagram, we often think about each post individually. We picture it appearing on our follower's feeds amid a stream of pictures from other accounts. While, of course, you should perfect each post before it goes live, it's also crucial to think about how each post will appear on your grid. When a user visits your page, they see the collage of all your latest posts. Instagram photos are only as important as the cohesiveness of the grid.

Some brands and influencers alternate photos and text graphics to create a checkered pattern across their grid. This design creates visual consistency with every post. It allows brands to incorporate their graphic identity, logo or color scheme into their corporate Instagram aesthetic with ease.

A more subtle way to build a cohesive grid is to alternate between two different types of photos. You might switch between close-ups of your product and other images that fit your brand's vibe. A restaurant might alternate between overhead shots of plated meals and angled photos of diners enjoying them. Having a few main types of pictures which you go back to again and again make your grid visually-pleasing and unified.

Creating content with the grid in mind means you'll need to plan out your posts from month to month. You can use a photo editor, or a free Instagram grid tool, to help you visualize your grid and rearrange your photos until they look their best. From there, you can plan your captions and hashtags for the whole month. There are several free and paid tools you can use to schedule posts on Instagram. They'll send your posts straight to Instagram, and you won't have to think about posting every day.

Choose a Consistent Color Scheme

Another critical aspect of designing an aesthetic Instagram feed for your business is your color palette. Some accounts receive wild success for their monochromatic photos in their color of choice. Others stand out with a pop of color against a neutral background. For a brand, the color scheme you use in your photos should reference your pre-established brand colors.

Color plays a significant role in engagement, as well. Research shows that predominantly blue photos outperform red photos by 24 percent, and Instagram posts with one dominant color receive 17 percent more likes than pictures with multiple dominant colors.

However, you don't have to make sure every picture has the same hex code as the colors on your products and website. Many of the images you'll want to highlight won't have the exact hues as your branded color scheme. By sticking to a color family that plays off your brand, every photo you post will be recognizable to your followers.

How to Pick a Color Family

Starting with your branded color palette as a jumping-off point, you'll want to decide how to incorporate these colors into your Instagram aesthetic. You can develop a color family by selecting a range of acceptable colors and textures that are close to your original brand. Consider these tips for picking a color family:

Make a mood board: Choosing a color palette for Instagram starts with inspiration. A mood board consolidates all your inspirational photos into one cohesive document. Add squares of your branded color scheme at the top of the page and populate the rest of the board with photos that bring these colors to life. You might find yourself drawn to bold backgrounds that explode with pink and orange. Or, you might prefer a more toned-down look — neutral grays and browns twinged with a hint of purple or blue. Your brand's vibe might also influence your Instagram color scheme. For example, A nature-oriented brand might find their photos blooming with succulents and ivy, bringing green to the forefront of your page.
Use Pinterest: Pinterest is a great tool that can help you find inspiration for almost any project. You can build your mood board by pinning photos of a particular color. You'll find new ways to incorporate color by searching for images related to your brand. For example, a spa might pin images of a calming lagoon, featuring blue skies, turquoise water, and white and beige sand. As you search for visuals that fit the mood of your brand, you'll start to reveal some consistent color choices.
Create a branded color palette and style guide: Once you have decided which colors to use, it's essential to apply them consistently. One of the best ways to keep yourself on track is to create an Instagram style guide. You'll keep your branded color scheme alongside some example images of how to incorporate them. You might even set some rules for your brand — for example, yellow must never take up more than 25 percent of the picture or bright purples must be reduced to 50 percent saturation. Make sure to reference this style guide as you plan your monthly content.

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How to Incorporate Your Chosen Colors Into Your Photos

Photos offer so many ways to bring a pop of color and texture to your brand. To incorporate your color family into your photos:

Plan your background: The background you use ensures a branded color palette, no matter what color the subject is. Creating a branded photo moment or installation at your corporate events provides the perfect opportunity to photograph people against an Instagram-approved background. Flowers come in any color — even blue — so subtle floral arrangements can help you sprinkle that perfect pop of color into your photos.
Use consistent lighting: Color in photography looks much different from what you might find in a digital graphic. The interplay of lights and shadows and the color of the light you use impact the look of the final image. Using consistent lighting for each of your photos gives your photos the same mood. If you're using a lighting kit in your photography sessions, make sure to adjust your lights to the same brightness and color temperature every time.
Strategically place objects, clothing and buildings: Whenever the main subject of your photo isn't a branded color, you can strategically place objects around it to get a consistent visual effect. A green desk plant, a red notebook or a purple sweater can all help you get your color scheme just right.
Incorporate color into your events and office space: By incorporating color into your office décor, branded statement walls and tablescapes, you always have a wealth of on-brand photos to pull from for your content. Check out our event design and production services to see how B Floral can help you activate your brand at your next event.

Edit Your Photos — Even From Your Phone

Every once in awhile, you get a gorgeous snapshot that's ready to post right then and there. For the other 99 percent of pictures, you have photo editing. You don't have to be a Photoshop extraordinaire to edit your photographs. Instagram has a wealth of editing features right in the app you can use to apply filters, adjust the brightness or even add a tinted overlay.

Just as with lighting, you'll want to have some consistency with how you edit your photos. Instagram's presets feature lets you apply the same custom filter to every photo you post. On average, the more followers an account has, the less likely that account is to use filters. So, custom-editing your photos is even more crucial for making them look their best. Instagram presets let you apply the same settings to a picture with the tap of a button. You can design your own presets or download ready-made ones from across the web.

You might also consider editing your photos before they reach your Instagram editor. Hundreds of photo editing apps let you edit photos straight from your phone. You might prefer this method if you use a social media scheduler since you can upload ready-to-post images without worrying about playing with them in the Instagram app each day. Some apps let you play with color, apply filters or touch up someone's smile and complexion.

Tips for Creating Cohesive Instagram Stories

Another way to improve your Instagram aesthetic is to revamp your Instagram stories. These updates, which disappear after 24-hours, offer a more informal window into your brand. There are many things you can do to get the most out of Instagram stories, including:

Interact with your audience: Instagram stories offer a host of interactive communication tools you can use to communicate with your audience quickly. Let your followers vote via polls and sliders or send you messages directly with story chats.
Design your highlights section: While stories disappear after 24 hours, you can keep the best ones up on your highlights reel. You can create highlights for categories such as testimonials, corporate events, employee spotlights, and more. To complete your cohesive Instagram aesthetic, you can design branded covers for each of your highlights categories with icons and branded colors.
Create Instagram story templates: You can incorporate your graphic identity by using story templates. Many free tools allow you to create graphics and photos to your story templates. You can post stories featuring your branded color scheme, logo, and more.
Showcase your corporate events: The temporary nature of Instagram stories makes them perfect for sharing quick updates. A corporate event can wow your audience and give you a chance to showcase what your brand has been up to recently. With an event scattered with branded photo moments and custom-built installations, you'll bring your Instagram story game to the next level.

Launch Your Event Aesthetic With B Floral

Plan an Instagram-worthy event with B Floral. Just like your Instagram feed, your next corporate event should be carefully branded and visually stunning from every angle. With B Floral, one of our dedicated event design specialists can help you create a branded event experience from floor to ceiling. Whether you need Instagrammable moments, interactive activations or floral design, B Floral can help you bring your brand to life. We offer full-scale event design and production, so we can help you bring your ideas to life or brand your event from scratch.

Contact B Floral to share your vision today!

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