Tips for IG :)

01 X INTRODUCTION

Instagram is still the best social network to showcase your work: it works like a real portfolio. There is a “home page”, with a grid of images of your projects; each post works like a page of a website: you can upload more images, a title and a text, tags (in this case hashtag – maximum 30 -) to find “articles” that talk about the same topic. Today I want to show you some tips for Instagram I found very useful when I post.

02 X CHOICE OF NAME

Let’s start with the choice of the name on IG.

A name on Instagram must be original, recognizable and at the same time it should already say something about the topic (explicatory). A good name has at least two of these characteristics, a great name has all three. CAGE represented my emotional state of almost 5 years ago, in which I felt closed, “caged” in conventions, stereotypes  in the world of architecture, especially the academic one. I also chose it because it could easily go from representing an object – a magazine – to impersonating someone – myself.

To comply with the third point, I waited a few years, changing the name from CAGE to CAGE Architecture. Now, for example, a new architecture student who wants to search all the most famous architecture pages on Instagram, easily finds mine too. The name is very important for all those who intend to approach Instagram in a serious / working way, and the example of CAGE fits perfectly.

03 X POST AND STORIES

Let’s talk now about how I publish posts and stories. Quantity of posts: 1 per day is ok, maximum 2. Publication time fairly indifferent, as long as it is not after dinner or at night and at least 3 hours away from one post to another.

First of all if you are talking about a project, it is good to enclose more than one image in a single post: this increases the quality and give depth to the post (while before, it was positive to publish each image individually because it increased the quantity and therefore the presence on the social).

You have to remember that Instagram is a social media for images, purely written content can rarely work or only if you are a poetry page.

Image size never landscape, preferably portrait (max 4: 5) for a technical question: our phones are vertical and therefore remain visible for longer while scrolling on the home Instagram.

The description is important for the first 2 lines and for a maximum of about 96 characters, i.e. those shown by Instagram before the three ellipsis. It’s therefore important to be short and direct, but also precise: it’s always good to specify a good amount of information about a project and give credits to everyone: nobody would like to see their project published on another platform or by another friend and not see their name or tagged page.

I personally started using emoticons at the beginning of the text, because they allow me to capture attention even on a part of the space in black and white.

Remember to always use hashtags, also in the stories: although many consider them obsolete, they are still very useful, especially for Instagram to find you better users who might like your page.

Also at the end of the post, I usually insert an image that reminds everyone to like, comment, save: in short, interact.

Stories have become almost more important than posts: they are less invasive and more genuine. Remember to allow people to interact with you: I always insert the tools “question”, “poll”, etc. Remember that the more interactions you make or generate your posts, the better.

04 X OTHER TOOLS

Always use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. to make your grid and personalize your content. Don’t waste your time with pre-sets of Canva!

Google provides many tools to improve your performance on a website or on social networks, through tutorials and information pages that are simple and accessible for free to all: use Analytics to monitor your traffic and Adsense to add free advertising on your site.

Trello, on the other hand, is an online program that allows you to create a tidy board of all the work to be done: use it especially with your friends and colleagues to always stay up to date.

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