Do you want to have a stand out IG account that allows you to grow your personal brand and get noticed? But at the same time, you’re in this dance of how personal to get or how business only you should be with your personal brand? Branding your Instagram so you can explode your growth can be such a game-changer for your brand.

Today I have 3 tips on branding your Instagram so you can make the most impact to help you grow a strong personal brand. BUT if you’re more of a video person, I’ve got you. You can watch my latest YouTube video:

Okay, let’s jump right in. Going to start off with a bit of bad news but don’t worry there’s good news in this.

Bad news: There’s very little new info out there. There are people out there doing what you do some of them have more experience and larger followings. (Obvs this doesn’t mean you’re never creative and innovative you totally should be).

Good News: You have a crazy advantage. YOU. And I don’t mean just the fact that you have a brand. Your name in your IG handle isn’t personal enough. But when you own being 100% you and show ALL of you, that’s when you become unbeatable. It’s your job to sell people on why they should hear and care about YOUR point of view.

In my humble opinion, IG is one of the BEST places to build your personal brand.

Side note, it’s not the best when it comes to selling. Proofs in the pudding with this, there are too many uncontrollable factors at play like the algorithm, and the fact things last like a day, and the fact you don’t own it. If you’re looking to sell move to email, we want to be efficient

Anyways, like I was saying it’s one of the best places to really get personal, and you have SO many ways to do this. Posts, stories, reels, IGTVs, and lives so you can really show who you are your personality and make strong connections with your audience.

Tip 1: Get personal

But how personal?

So as a general “rule” if you aren’t the face of your brand AT ALL, you have an agency, or maybe a company with employees and you’re more of the behind the scenes CEO then you should have a business brand account.

If however, you are the face of your brand, you have multiple brands and you’re front-facing then you should have a personal brand account.

But even when people identify that they’re a personal brand they wonder how personal they should be. I see all the time people who have 3 accounts for that reason. Their more “business” personal brand account, their fashion account, and a personal account for friends and family.

What should you do? Combine them.

Here’s the thing you are your brand, all parts of you not just the one thing you’re doing. We aren’t one-dimensional people, we have so much to us. If you want to have a loyal community full of your biggest fans you need to build that personal connection.

Think about it this way, if you’re trying to develop a really strong friendship do you get there when by only show a small bit of yourself? Keeping up pleasantries and having everything be super surface level?

Um…. no. Right?

Truth is people are nosy, they want to get to know you. Think about your favorite influencers and celebrities. How their social media accounts and IGs serve as almost a mini reality tv show. You binge their stories and feel like you know them. There’s literally no difference with you and your platform.

Use your IG to take your audience along with you, use your stories as a mini vlog or your posts as a microblog. Show them your morning routine, your workouts, meals, your dog, everything, and anything!

Not only can you show them who you really are but IG allows you to interact back with your community. GAME CHANGER.

How special does it feel when your fav influencer comments back to you? It’s like “oh my gosh they noticed me”. Give your audience the same treatment, do things that prompt response and dialogue. Do fun quizzes in your stories, q+a lives, polls, respond to their comments.

Yeah, it helps with engagement, but even more importantly it shows them you care = stronger connection = brand loyalty.

We need to make our audience feel seen and heard. You need to also be SUPER intentional with the quality of your content. There needs to be a point to them following you.

What is the purpose of your brand? Why is it a disservice to stay silent and not shout your message from the rooftops? If you want to learn more about defining your purpose check out this post on Creating a Brand for Yourself.

And if you want to go in DEEP with working out your purpose and how to position and maximize on your band when branding your Instagram and social media as a whole download your Brand Yourself Freebie:

Tip 2: Know your vibe 

Your brand is how people talk about you when you’re not in the room (if you know the Jeff Bezos quote). Intentional or not people are talking or thinking about your brand. It’s ALL in the perception.

But is the way you WANT to be perceived actually what people are getting on the other end? Perception is everything when branding your Instagram.

What is it that you want people to FEEL when they come in contact with your brand and IG? What can they expect from you? Consistency is everything on SM. The vibe, feel and message of your brand needs to be consistent wherever someone comes in contact with it. Lack of consistency = lack of clarity = lack of brand loyalty.

Not what we want.

So that means with the many ways you’re putting out content on IG, your posts, stories lives, reels are they all radiating the same vibe?

Quick tast for you guys. Create a Pinterest vibe board (so much more than visuals, this isn’t about aesthetics this is about feeling. Pin quotes, graphics, photography, interior decorating, architecture, nature etc. anything that screams you and your vibe.

You can check out mine here as an example.

Also, look at IG post and story inspo, what speaks to you? Add this all to your board.

At the end of the day how do you want your dream community to see you? Are you edgy, rebellious + super polarizing, funny + entertaining, inspirational + motivating, challenging + direct? What is the point of view?

Tip 3: Translate your vibe into visuals

Now, this is probably a huge part of what you’ve been waiting for. Because branding your Instagram goes a LOT deeper than visuals but we can’t deny it’s still a super visually heavy platform.

So how does your vibe translate to visuals? Unpopular opinion, visuals aren’t everything on IG. You don’t have to worry about having the perfect feed and fancy graphics. 

It’s not going to be the reason why you do or don’t have brand loyalty, get personal or connect with your audience.

BUT that being said at a glance of your ideal audience looking at your feed they should by your bio + photos know you’re who they’re looking for.

Visuals translate SO much faster than text so if you were to look at your feed right now does it radiate the vibe you just clarified in step 2? 

Those first 6 pictures are going to speak to them visually about who you are. You have a few seconds to convince them to follow. 

Even if your photography and graphics are of the highest quality but one picture is dark and emotive and the next is bright and fun you aren’t giving off a consistent vibe.

Choose 2-3 consistent colors and 1-2 (legible) fonts (if you don’t use graphics just ignore this) so people start to associate things with you. Your goal is that before people see it’s you they can identify it’s you on their feed.

What colors are in your wardrobe that you gravitate towards? What colors are around your house? What colors keep coming up on your vibe board? How would you label your aesthetic?

This doesn’t mean choosing colors you’re attracted to. This is one of the BIGGEST mistakes people make and why then end up “rebranding” over and over. Your colors need to represent you and YOUR vibe.

You shouldn’t choose them because you think it’s pretty and you’re attracted to them. Pretty doesn’t mean it’s you. If it doesn’t reflect you and it reflects someone elses aesthetics then that’s not putting out your vibe.

This even goes as far as your photography and poses. Do they speak to who you are and your personality? For example, again if you’re super grungy, edgy, and rebellious, having a ton of pictures with you smiling with your laptop might not give off your vibe even though it’s a popular pose.

At the end of the day there’s going to be a lot of experimentation and testing while you clean up, revamp or start your IG account that reflects all of your brand. And a lot of this starts before you even got to Instagram with the inner work of understanding who you are, owning that unapologetically and knowing how you want to position yourself.

If you want to hash out all those details so you can get super intentional and really maximize your personal brand when it comes to branding your Instagram for ultimate growth then download your free Brand Yourself Worksheet!