My Instagram Journey
Hello hello!
Welcome to my blog, and wish you all a very happy new year! Today, I thought I’ll share my Instagram journey with you, take a few snapshots of my feed and share with you what I was thinking/doing at the time! I’ll also analyze and talk about the theme/general aesthetics of my Instagram profile and how it has evolved over time. Just for fun! :) My instagram is pretty much a reflection of my life and there’s a story behind the posts! I hope this will help you connect with me a bit better!
I’ve been on Instagram since forever, but I was dormant for a few years in between, when I wasn’t as plugged in to the online social world as I am today. When we moved to Dubai in 2017, I had more time at hand, and since it was a new country and a new life, I started posting more regularly - it was mostly Dubai life, home decor and outfits. It’s around the same time that I started this Blog. I thought I’ll do it just for fun, and I enjoyed engaging and interacting with my virtual friends! I’ve met some lovely people on Instagram and despite all the evils, it’s been a good place to hangout. I’m happy to be connected (virtually) with so many inspiring and super creative people and I’m grateful that they find my content useful!
The early days..
I pretty much posted random stuff - home decor, outfits, anything pink and colourful! I was living an expat life in Dubai and I loved exploring and traveling. I visited the UK a couple of times, and after a long time I felt like a tourist in the UK. Suddenly I started noticing pink doors, and other pretty things that I had probably taken for granted while I was living in the UK!
Instagram algorithm? I had no clue, I was just having fun!
Theme: I’ve never really planned my feed or posts, because I like spontaneity and a bit of a story, but I do consider the overall look and feel and try to stay within a colour palette if it’s possible. I don’t think I have the most aesthetically pleasing feed, but whatever it is, I’m happy! At this point, clearly there’s a blue and pink theme going on!
Exploring Dubai…
This was a time when we used to go out a lot! I was really having a great time exploring Dubai and dressing up to actually go out! My shoes and bags were clearly being put to good use and there was plenty of sunshine to wear different styles of sunglasses! I was also setting up our home and I was into the clean, simple look.
Theme: I can see a lot of warm tones here and I think it’s happened by chance! I took a lot of pics in portrait mode (on iPhone) and I had to reduce the exposure and brightness quite a lot because Dubai was such a bright place with plenty of natural light - the one thing I miss the most after coming back to the UK!
Travel and food
I remember this phase clearly! We took a trip to the US and my Instagram was all about my travel and food! This was the first time ever that I packed a ‘capsule’ wardrobe of 13 items for a 3 week long holiday, and somehow made it work! Of course, I did shop a lot in the US, and that’s the reason why I carried literally 13 things (including shoes and bags!) in my suitcase! So, yes I did cheat on my capsule wardrobe a few times!
Theme: There’s no theme that I can see here, except that everything is quite colourful and there’s a lot of tea and coffee! I don’t think I cared a lot about the feed aesthetic at this point, but it doesn’t look terrible. Random - yes, but not terrible.
A lot of people ask me what my niche is, on Instagram. I honestly don’t have a niche as such, and that makes it harder to connect with other accounts, because having a ‘niche’ on Instagram definitely has it’s positives. Well, my niche is ‘Lifestyle’ :D if that can be called a ‘niche’.
Making an effort (finally)
Around this time, I really started making an effort to make my profile and feed more consistent and nice to look at; and at the same time, still posting what I thought was good, meaningful content. I was (and still am) so inspired by so many lovely Instagram accounts that not only look beautiful, but also have genuinely good content - so that was the aspiration I suppose. The other challenge was trying to get visibility in the huge sea of posts. It’s not easy at all and for smaller accounts such as mine (with no obvious niche), it’s doubly hard.
Theme: Dare I say there’s finally some theme emerging! Don’t know what you’d call it, but there’s blue and pink and it looks quite cohesive (if I say so myself :D). Plus there’s this very handy bouquet of roses that I’ve basically used as a prop! If I remember correctly, I must have taken hundreds of photos featuring those flowers, lol!
Moving back to the UK
This was a crazy time in my life and all the themes that I had maintained on my profile became pretty much non-existent :D. Now, it was an account of us moving back to the UK, trying to settle in, setting up the house, and getting used to the weather etc. etc. I looked perpetually tired for a good 1-2 months!
Theme: I don’t really see any, but darker tones and more contrasting and saturated colours seem to be the order of the day! I have a lot of dark wood furniture in the UK and that kind of shows through. It was interesting trying to get used to the low light levels. Instead of decreasing the brightness and exposure, I now had to turn everything up a notch! I discovered VSCO around this point and started experimenting with filters to create a consistent look.
I have this thing with pink
The best part about moving back to the UK was that we could pack our bags and travel to European destinations very easily! Well this was pre-Covid, and pre-Brexit of course! I saw the pink sand in Menorca and was hooked! So my Instagram was all about holidays and travel fun! Can you tell? :)
Theme: If it’s pink, it’s in! Trying to create a cohesive Instagram feed can be quite tricky, especially if you’re not using a planning tool or diligently planning/scheduling your feed. But since I was being fairly spontaneous, I had to carefully pick and choose my pics, which wasn’t that difficult because there’s an abundance of pink in my life!
#Bloggerlife
I have to say I put in a lot of effort on my feed and aesthetics around this time and I really love how it flows beautifully (ahem, too much self praise, I know!) Travel was very much on the agenda and a lot of food pics as well! Because that’s pretty much what I did - travel, beach and eat! These were definitely the good old days!
Theme: Very moody and blogger-ly if that makes sense! This was around the time when I started taking myself seriously as a blogger and just went for it! I was obviously very inspired by a lot of the beautiful accounts I follow and really made an effort to be cohesive and consistent!
Winter blues (and pinks!)
This was my first winter back in the UK and I was really struggling! I’m not a winter person at all and it shows! Christmas was the only saving grace and I went all out! I started doing a bit of video content and room tours around this time, which a lot of my friends loved! Video editing is so much fun and I’m glad I tried my hand at it!
Theme: Just like the cold, dark, winter days my feed was also a bit dark and moody! But generally pleasing to look at!
Spring is in the air
Finally, some freshness and greenery on my Insta feed! As the days got lighter and brighter, so did my Instagram feed! I loved styling my home and taking part in decor and styling challenges! I think it’s a fun way to engage with similar accounts and get loads of inspiration!
Theme: Light, bright and green! All reflective of my mood and the changing seasons!
Feel it, reel it
Finally got the reels feature enabled in my Instagram and I was having so much fun! I never did Tik-Tok so this was new to me, and despite all the limitations and awkwardness, it was quite fun! Also, Hello Sunshine! The warmer and brighter days meant more willingness to go out and about, smile more and be more active!
Theme: Summer vibes! Not the most cohesive but there’s a bit of summer in every square!
Dressing up, staying home
With the pandemic and general doom and gloom, I wasn’t feeling my best, like most people, so I found comfort in doing loads of home improvement, shelf styling and playing dress up! I don’t think I was thinking about aesthetics at this point, but just trying to motivate myself and get through the difficult months.
Theme: Well, a lot of deep blues! I think I was trying to stick to one hero colour and unify the feed using that colour. I’ve seen a lot of accounts do this, and it really works if you’re committed to that colour.
Intentional and impactful
So, here I am with my most recent squares - my ‘shop front’ if you will! I took a poll recently to find out if people really cared about the aesthetics and ‘look and feel’ of an Instagram account in order to engage with it. Was ‘content’ enough? or did it also need to be packaged beautifully? It was a close call, but the majority voted that they did consider the aesthetics, and that beautiful, consistent feeds did matter.
So I have been trying to put in extra effort at making my Instagram look consistent - and why not? I’m a content creator and blogger and I do want people to read my content. What good is any content if it is not being consumed by the right people? Additionally, when it’s next to impossible to get any kind of proper visibility organically (because that’s how it is), it becomes important to understand what it takes to make yourself seen.
Hope you liked my slightly different kind of post today! I would love to read your comments below, or find me on Instagram: @StyleItEclectic