Social web reputation: how to create a perfect Instagram profile

How to build an effective, well-kept and appealing profile, able to show the world your passion and capture the interest of the public

Every Instagram profile has a story behind it. Experienced emotions, past adventures, special moments with special people.

And in many cases, passion.

This will be the keyword of the article; and we’re not talking about keywords to improve SEO, but about the most important term on which the whole process of building and maintaining your virtual avatar revolves.

With passion and a strong web reputation analysis, you can get great results.

Please take note: if you really want to improve your reputation, you absolutely need to monitor it. And you can do it also for free, thanks to Google Alerts.

The art behind the personal Instagram profile: what does it translate into?

The company Facebook Inc is the owner of the two main social networks of the moment, its homonymous and then Instagram. And the differences are enormous.

We’re not going here to talk about structure, technicalities, content or anything else. The focus is instead on the general view of the profiles.

Facebook is the parent, the authority: the profile must be serious, professional, with information about work, family and various relationships. You share your goals, you express your preferences and you publish your thoughts. Appearing as people, but not too much in reality; that is no longer the purpose of this social network.

And then Instagram as the young teenager, the carefree: do not count friends, cousins and uncles, no matter the girlfriend, wife or single life. And neither work, career and a thousand other information from you.

The only point that matters is what you like, what you love. What for the person is art.

This does not mean that everything that is mentioned above is useless or to be avoided, but simply that it is not required, as opposed to the policy of the Facebook platform.

Starting from this, we can build a path to understand how to develop your passion on colored social, where the focus of everything is photography.

1. Personality – Decide who you are

Who is the person who lives beyond that profile? Knowing yourself is the key to building a successful profile, because from this you can decide what aspect of your person to show to the public.

There is nothing false or wrong about revealing a certain “yourself”; everyone in the world has numerous ideas, opinions, interests and arguments, qualities and faults.

But for a strong Instagram profile you will need to have your favorite to focus on with your efforts.

This will be in the hands of the user: tech expert, wine enthusiast, explorer of the world, taste for fashion…

The possibilities have no end and there is no right or wrong: if the work is done well, its target audience will not fail to arrive, whether it is niche or not.

If you are uncertain or you have more ideas in your head or too few, don’t be in a hurry to act:

• delaying the construction of the profile by some time will not impact the long term. It is better to postpone by two weeks than to start and then change direction (although possible);
• try to look at other Instagram profiles/pages of the different possible topics, ranging from research in other social media and in general on the web to understand how this topic is currently being dealt with, how trendy it is, how many people talk about it and who are the most famous names in the field.

2. Verticality – Keep who you are

Once you’ve clear your face behind the many pixels, it’s important to keep it. The beauty of life is to have more than one passion and interest, but as mentioned, Instagram does not reward sudden changes of path.

To be clearer, it’s not the platform itself, but the users. Because if A decides to become a follower of B for his videos you dance classical, he will not want to see him review the new Samsung S10, although it is an interesting theme for many. But not for A and most of the other followers.

And this causes the loss of solidity of his person, modeled on a strong and determined passion.

The same goes for the style in which the contents are applied. The great profiles of success are such because the audience of interest is attracted not only by the thing, but also by the how and by its constancy.

This is exactly like in offline life: everyone has their own way of being and interacting with people (people close apart), opinions and thoughts, which some like and others don’t.

What they never like instead is whether that person should change who they are according to convenience, subjects involved or simple moody character.

And online, this is in everyone’s eyes. So have your wrist still on how to sell yourself to the general public and do not change; because all those followers are there for the original You.

In practice:

• the style of the photos/videos must follow a certain pattern, which can be more or less general, so as to make those who like a certain type of art perceive it and provide to maintain it, without disappointing expectations; then bring out the Steve McCurry within himself;
• maintain the style of writing and attitude towards the people of Instagram, in discussions, comments and post descriptions;
• Stories: Although these are more dynamic and informal than posts, they don’t mean that you can deviate from who you are. Informality is fine, but always according to its own rules.

TIP – Is it possible to change direction after a long time, a lot of contents and followers? Yes, but it will not be a short and simple path, with several steps to take that we will address in a future article. –

3. Homogeneity

When entering the profile and viewing the posts as a whole, the feeling should be of homogeneity.

If both Personality and Truth have been respected, the work is on track. Here’s how to move:

• the result must be a spontaneous flow of content, whatever it is, where everything appears in the right place and the elements reinforce each other. It is a matter of looking at everything in a detached and impartial way, almost like a piece of art, and evaluating how it appears to extraneous eyes;
• think when you publish and understand how the new post will impact on the overall complex: how are the colors of other neighboring posts? What are they about? Can a pleasant and stimulating pattern be created?  Or is there a risk of breaking the user’s gaze?

4. The profile is not your own room

Always keep that in mind before you press the Public button on Instagram. Once you choose the path of the profile dedicated to a passion, this will turn into a job, leaving behind the aspect of the “personal diary”.

The greatest number of profiles is in fact formed by those who appreciate having a place where they can create, share and remember some moments of their lives, in the most different occasions. This style will be to forget.

• everybody sees what is published and consequently users will create a certain idea of what they see. You won’t be able to build anything solid if you propose yourself as a vegan and in the stories you appear at McDonald’s with friends. Let’s point out: it’s not a question of morality on our part, but of Instagram’s audience and its reaction and thought;
• in general, what is experienced on a daily basis is not a social issue. Go out with friends, cigarette on the balcony, sun on the beach, a hot bath in the bathtub: it’s all to be forgotten, because it interferes with the passion you’re going to build, breaks the homogeneity and goes against the verticality. And finally, nobody cares;

N.B. – this second point has an exception: celebrities and characters in general already known who do not sell a passion, but share their lives, followed by followers interested in them as a person and not as a proposed topic. –

• better to reduce the number of published posts/stories than to fill in the spaces with counterproductive content, ready to lose followers and credibility.

5. Sell yourself or your content?

Point 4 may not be 100% true and depends on your strategy.

You have to define what the general purpose of the profile will be:

• only enhance the content –> the person goes into the background, without this being negative. On the contrary, every effort is dedicated to passion, without the subject going to “disturb” her. Point 4 here is sacred: nothing to do with one’s life, relatives, friends, Christmas lunches or anything else. What is allowed to be dealt with are contents that must always have a clear reference to the topic dealt with, without ever shifting the interest on the creator;
• enhance the content and also the person –> we now have a mix between the two parts, but where the protagonist must always be the famous passion. Therefore, more personal ideas are good, but always keeping in mind all the advice in point 4;
• enhance the person through the content –> sounds almost like a mirror for the skylarks, but there is nothing wrong, it is a pure marketing activity. The tip is now the user himself, who will have to make himself known, talk about himself and interact strongly, going to create an image as clear as possible of himself. Without forgetting, however, that the public earns money with valuable content.

6. Play honestly

The time for tricks is losing more and more of its potential. As for Google, the time when spamming the link of your site on the website guaranteed total rank is over, the same is on Instagram.

Relying on applications, programs or even agencies specialized in creating non-organic like and followers is anything but valuable. The result will not lead to anything positive: although the numbers are high, the interactions are not real and especially you do not have a real audience, because there is no audience!

And this has a negative impact:

• on the social itself, which considers bots / spam profiles bad, running the risk of losing value or being penalized
• on a possible real audience, placed in front of a bizarre panorama of high numbers without a real interest in any posts

Avoid turning your precious profile into a cemetery full of tombs.

Value, perseverance and strategy are the rewards.

7. The Wow Effect

An inexhaustible flow of images that will go on as long as there is Internet in the air and a charger nearby. The competition is getting higher and higher and in front of the high number of contents published every day, you have to find a way to be noticed in  the crowd.

It’s the Wow effect.

The moment when, in the frenetic rush of the index on the social feed, driven by curiosity, boredom and a dose of addiction, everything stops. The eye has sensed something; a color, a detail, a jolt. He perceived something Wow, something different from everything else and that he managed to get noticed.

Valid more for the teenage group, the Wow effect is however the effective weapon to make space out of the dust of Instagram.

Unfortunately there are no rules, it’s all in the user to be able to propose originality and be able to transmit it directly, like a lightning bolt in the clear sky.

And your profile will now be ready to travel the world.