One of our goals this year has been to increase our reach and engagement on Instagram. We fully recognize that Facebook has been an amazing marketing tool the last few years – but let’s face it: it’s no longer a business-friendly social media. Anyone who has had a business on Facebook since it sprang into popularity a few years ago remembers the good ol’ days of “fans” and actually having your fans see what you shared. Brands grew by hundreds and thousands of followers, because people could actually see what was going on with your work.

Sigh, it would seem that those days are just a memory now.

But rather than pout about those good ol’ days, we’d rather focus on what we CAN do to reach our “tribe” of fans … and that, right now, is Instagram.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been participating in The Instagram Lab and we’ve learned so much, you guys. We won’t dig into everything we’ve learned from Jenna’s course, but we will share with you something that our friend, colleague and fellow Labber Katie McGihon brought to our attention:

Instagram Marketing Hack:

Curate the Grid

We are artists, right? And like art in an art museum, we have to be very selective in what we showcase. We don’t want to overwhelm (or yikes – underwhelm!), we don’t want to showcase something that isn’t authentic to our brand, our lives or our art (side note: can you ever just be, like, whelmed? 10 cool points if you get the movie reference!).

Instagram, friends, is our social media art museum.

So what is this ^^ about?

We want to make sure that we not only are showcasing beautiful work and inviting people into our tribe on Instagram through our words, but that it’s done in a manner that is reflective as our career as fine art wedding photographers.

We took a look at some of our favorite weddings and sessions, and our branding colors and we realized that they coincided!!

Our favorite wedding palettes would include creamy whites, blush and dusty rose pinks, gold, navy blue, succulents/greens, natural wood elements and touches of gray. Holy smokes, guys: those are our branding colors, too!!!

So we put together this little cheat sheet grid of our favorite branded colors from recent weddings and sessions … and we’ve been keeping it handy to make sure that any images we share fall into this color palette. Not only does it make it cohesive, but, it also falls right in line with our branding.

Why does any of this matter?

Because, you guys: consistency is everything and let’s face it … our photos sometimes need to speak for themselves. When was the last time you followed someone on Instagram who had a displeasing-to-the-eye feed and grid?

We realized that when potential followers (which means potential clients) were looking at our grid – it was all over the place. Sometimes we’d share these amazing wedding photos, and sometimes we’d share behind the scenes photos and sometimes we’d share just random iPhone photos of us or our kids or things in our house.

Before:

Basically, we had no marketing strategy when it came to Instagram. We were all over the place.

Once Katie inspired us to curate our grid with our color palette … we gained almost 100 followers in a week. Now – that may seem like peanuts to some of you, but to us: that’s HUGE. That’s a nearly 7% jump in followers.

And our interaction (comments/likes)? It’s doubled in percentage.

After:

This micro change has created macro results!

We’d love to have you follow our adventures on Instagram!! Follow us at @xoashdurham!

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