Feb 24, 2020
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6 min read
How to Create an Engaging Instagram Theme
Instagram is all about image. Whether you’re an individual giving a sneak peek into who you are and what you enjoy or a brand looking to engage with new customers, Instagram is the perfect platform to showcase what makes you unique. Keeping the wordcount minimal, you may have noticed that this social platform makes photos and illustrations a priority. Instagram is an entirely visual medium that, if used correctly, can hook audiences so that they become loyal followers. One way to engage your customers is by creating an Instagram Theme.
We believe the most successful Instagram accounts are ones that keep to a particular theme. A theme helps to emphasise a brand’s identity and it also adds to the visual appeal of an account. This helps followers so stay intrigued and engaged.
Further read from our blog – https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-take-perfect-food-image-for-instagram/
Before we delve into how you can create an engaging Instagram theme that will work for your business, let’s review what an Instagram theme is, exactly.
What Is an Instagram Theme?
A theme allows you to add consistency to your profile. It’s all about being deliberate with your posts so that you create a “personality” on Instagram that best reflects who you are and what you want to share. To develop a theme that will work for you, first consider what your audiences will find appealing as well as what will best reflect the personality of your business.
Think of your brand’s colours and the type of messages you would like to communicate (for example, are you a restaurant that likes to keep things fun and trendy or are you an accountant who needs a more formal and serious approach)? Once you know what type of theme you should have, you can use Instagram’s tools to create it. You can use filters and other effects to design a style that works for you.
To help you to draw some inspiration for your own account, we’ll take a look at some different Instagram theme ideas and how they can be applied to engage your customers.
8 Instagram Themes to Make Your Feed Unique and Engaging
Theme One: Consistent Colour Palette
This is probably one of the easier themes to create and requires little work other than ensuring you stick to a certain colour palette when designing your posts. A consistent colour scheme will automatically present your feed in a cohesive way whilst enhancing the overall aesthetics of your feed.
When executing an Instagram colour palette theme, it does not mean that every post needs to be one colour only. Instead, you can post content that always contains an element of the same colour. This alone will show consistency and generate a theme.
Check out this Instagram account for an example of a consistent colour palette:
https://www.instagram.com/trivago/?hl=en
Theme Two: Grid Tile Effect
This theme requires a little more strategic planning but if you get your layout right, you will certainly knock the socks off of your followers. The idea is to create a larger image or a design on your Instagram feed using individual posts.
This type of theme can have a great impact on audiences and adds tons of intrigue to your account. What’s important to remember with this theme, however, is that each individual post will need to make sense on its own. This way, it will still communicate a relevant message to audiences who have not clicked on your profile.
Find a grid tile effect on this account:
https://www.instagram.com/juniperoats/
As a side note, if you choose to go with this type of theme, you will also need to remember to post in groups of 3 so that your design never shifts out of place.
Special tip: The easier and quicker option to create this grid tile effect is to split one big image into individual tiles.
Theme Three: White Borders
Adding white borders to your posts is a clever hack that will make your Instagram feed look more like a photo album or brochure. It’s also another strategy you can use to create eye-catching patterns.
Instagramers have been using this technique for yonks so that they do not have to crop portrait or landscape posts to fit into the square template. Now it is a thematic option that can be used to add intrigue to a feed.
That’s how the effect of the white borders could look like on an account:
https://www.instagram.com/lady.austin/
Theme Four: Black and White
Posting your content in monochrome is another way to maintain a cohesive Instagram theme. This creates quite a “moody” atmosphere, however, so we would only suggest this theme to alluring brands that don’t need colour to communicate a visual message.
Theme Five: Flat Lay
This theme is great for restaurants who enjoy showcasing their dishes. Here, you don’t have to use colours or patterns to create a theme. Instead, you can use a consistent “flat” style of photography.
You can easily create this “flat” look by photographing products from above.
An example of the flat lay theme can be viewed here:
https://www.instagram.com/aldiuk/
Theme Six: Horizontal Lines
Another way to catch a person’s attention is to create a pattern using horizontal lines that stretch across an Instagram feed.
An example of a horizontal-type theme can be viewed at the following Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/personaljournalapp
This theme (like the grid tile effect), requires you to post in bundles of three again. This means it will take a bit of prior planning.
Theme Seven: Vertical Lines
This theme is applied similarly to the horizontal theme, just, well, vertically! Many prefer this look to the horizontal layout, however, because it draws the eye downwards – which naturally encourages scrolling!
Theme Eight: Checkerboard
A checkerboard theme is created by alternating different types of content. This effect works well if you post a lot of text posts.
View an example of this type of theme at:
https://www.instagram.com/thefemalehustlers
Creating an Instagram account that engages audiences and supports your brand through an Instagram theme, is one way to ensure that your social media marketing strategy is ultimately refined for the best results.
If you want to know more about how you can nurture your social media efforts and draw in followers, why not chat to us here at Stampede about WiFi marketing and how it can enhance your marketing efforts?