How to Plan an Instagram Feed with Canva | Is the Aesthetic Feed Dead?!

Summary

This video offers an in-depth guide on planning an Instagram feed for a visually appealing and professional look using Canva. The speaker emphasizes the importance of a curated yet authentic feed for businesses, sharing personal and client management techniques. Tips include using a checkerboard pattern for posts, maintaining consistent color branding, and leaving room for spontaneous content to keep up with trends and algorithm changes. The video also highlights the benefits of using Canva for social media management, especially for those managing multiple accounts.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The importance of planning an Instagram feed is emphasized for a visually appealing and professional presence, despite the trend towards authenticity.
• 🛠 The speaker uses Canva for planning Instagram feeds due to its ease of use and versatility compared to Photoshop.
• 📐 A template is created in Canva to mimic the Instagram grid, allowing for visual planning without including profile elements.
• 🔄 The purpose of planning is to avoid clusters of similar images, ensuring a clean and organized grid appearance.
• 💼 The speaker sells a social media manager template bundle which includes the Canva grid template as a bonus feature.
• 📝 Canva allows for drag-and-drop functionality, making it user-friendly and efficient for social media managers with multiple clients.
• 🌐 The speaker prefers the checkerboard pattern for Instagram feeds, alternating between solid backgrounds and graphics for visual interest.
• 👗 Consistent use of colors and branding across photos and graphics helps maintain a cohesive look on the Instagram feed.
• 📅 Flexibility in planning is crucial, allowing for spontaneous posts that may not fit the planned pattern but are valuable for engagement.
• 📈 The video suggests a balance between planning and spontaneity, adapting to trends and algorithm changes on Instagram.
• 📚 The speaker offers insights into managing Instagram feeds for both personal and client accounts, highlighting the benefits of using Canva.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is about planning an Instagram feed using Canva, a design tool, for a visually appealing and professional social media presence.

Why is planning an Instagram feed important according to the video?

Planning an Instagram feed is important for maintaining a professional and visually interesting presence, making a good impression on new customers, and avoiding a messy grid with similar images clustered together.

What is the speaker's stance on authenticity versus planning on Instagram?

The speaker agrees that authenticity is important, especially with the changes in Instagram's algorithm favoring more spontaneous content. However, they believe in balancing authenticity with planning to ensure a cohesive and visually appealing feed.

What tool does the speaker recommend for planning an Instagram feed?

The speaker recommends Canva as the best tool for planning an Instagram feed due to its ease of use, flexibility, and the ability to manage separate files for different clients or projects.

What is the purpose of creating a template in Canva for the Instagram feed?

The purpose of creating a template in Canva is to easily recreate the Instagram grid layout, allowing for drag-and-drop functionality to plan and visualize the placement of images before posting.

What is the 'checkerboard' pattern mentioned in the video?

The 'checkerboard' pattern is a layout technique where every second post alternates, creating a visually appealing and balanced feed without being overly curated. It involves alternating between solid-colored background images or graphics.

How does the speaker suggest maintaining flexibility while planning an Instagram feed?

The speaker suggests maintaining flexibility by occasionally breaking the planned pattern when necessary, such as when there's a trending audio or a spontaneous opportunity for content creation that doesn't fit the existing layout.

What role does color consistency play in the speaker's Instagram feed planning?

Color consistency plays a significant role in creating a cohesive look across the Instagram feed. The speaker uses a consistent color palette, such as pinkish tones, in both graphics and photos to maintain a unified theme.

How does the speaker incorporate spontaneity into their Instagram planning?

The speaker incorporates spontaneity by leaving 'blank squares' in their grid template, which can be filled with content that arises from trending topics, direct messages, or breaking news, allowing for more casual and timely posts.

What is included in the speaker's social media manager template bundle?

The social media manager template bundle includes various resources such as sales PDFs, service guides, onboarding documents, and a Canva grid template as a bonus feature.

How does the speaker balance planning and spontaneity on Instagram?

The speaker balances planning and spontaneity by using a structured grid template for planning and leaving room for flexibility to jump on trends or create content in response to current events or questions from followers.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Planning an Aesthetic Instagram Feed with Canva

The speaker introduces the topic of the video, which is about planning an Instagram feed using Canva, a task they enjoy as a social media manager. They emphasize the importance of having a visually appealing and professional Instagram presence for businesses, even while acknowledging the current trend towards authenticity in social media. The speaker shares their personal approach to balancing planned content with spontaneous posts, especially considering the impact of Instagram Reels on the platform's algorithm. They also mention their intention to demonstrate the creation of an Instagram feed layout using Canva, a tool they highly recommend for its ease of use and versatility, and discuss the benefits of planning ahead to avoid a cluttered or repetitive grid appearance.

05:02

🔍 The Art of Balancing Planning and Spontaneity on Instagram

In this paragraph, the speaker delves deeper into their strategy for creating a visually cohesive Instagram feed while allowing for flexibility and spontaneity. They describe their preferred pattern, the 'checkerboard' layout, which alternates between different types of content for a balanced and aesthetically pleasing feed. The speaker also discusses the importance of maintaining consistent branding and color schemes across the feed, even when planning for unexpected content or trends. They mention using placeholders for potential future posts, which provides the freedom to respond to current events or popular trends without disrupting the overall feed's design. The video concludes with the speaker's thoughts on the balance between planning and spontaneity, advocating for a blend of both approaches to keep the content engaging and fresh.

Keywords

💡Instagram Feed

The term 'Instagram Feed' refers to the chronological sequence of posts displayed on a user's profile. In the context of the video, it is the primary subject of discussion, emphasizing the importance of planning and curating this feed for a visually appealing and professional appearance, especially for businesses. The script mentions planning the feed to avoid a messy look and to maintain a balance between authenticity and a visually interesting layout.

💡Canva

Canva is a graphic design platform used for creating visual content, such as social media graphics, presentations, and more. The video script highlights Canva as the preferred tool for planning an Instagram feed, showcasing its ease of use and the ability to create templates for grid layouts. The speaker shares a personal template creation process and mentions Canva's benefits for social media managers.

💡Authenticity

Authenticity in the video script pertains to the genuine and unforced nature of content on Instagram. It is contrasted with heavily curated feeds, suggesting that while planning is important, there should still be room for spontaneous and natural content. The speaker agrees with the notion that Instagram is about authenticity but argues for a blend with professional planning.

💡Visually Interesting

This concept refers to the aesthetic appeal of an Instagram feed, which should engage viewers visually. The video emphasizes the importance of a feed that is not only professional but also captures interest through a mix of content types and colors, using the checkerboard pattern as an example of achieving this.

💡Professional

The term 'professional' in the script implies maintaining a certain standard of quality and appearance on an Instagram feed, especially for business accounts. It is tied to the idea that planning the feed contributes to a polished and cohesive look that makes a good impression on new customers and reflects well on the business.

💡Checkerboard Pattern

The checkerboard pattern mentioned in the script is a technique for arranging posts on an Instagram feed, alternating between different types of content or colors every second post. This pattern is the speaker's preferred method for creating a visually appealing feed that appears effortless and balanced between curated and spontaneous content.

💡Consistent Colors and Branding

Consistent colors and branding refer to the use of a unified color scheme and branding elements across an Instagram feed. The video script illustrates this with the example of maintaining a cohesive look by using a pinkish color palette throughout the feed, which helps in creating a recognizable and harmonious visual identity.

💡Spontaneity

Spontaneity in the context of the video is about the flexibility to create and post content that is timely and responsive to current trends or events. The speaker mentions the importance of allowing for spontaneous posts, such as reacting to trending audios or breaking news, which adds a more casual and fluid element to the feed.

💡Social Media Manager

A social media manager is a professional who oversees and strategizes content creation and posting on social media platforms. In the script, the speaker identifies as a social media manager and discusses the tools and techniques, such as Canva, that are part of their workflow for planning and managing Instagram feeds for themselves and clients.

💡Template Bundle

The term 'template bundle' in the script refers to a collection of templates and resources that the speaker offers as part of their social media management services. This includes the Instagram grid template discussed in the video, along with other materials like sales PDFs, service guides, and onboarding documents.

💡Reels

Reels are short, Instagram-specific video formats that have influenced the platform's content creation and algorithm. The script mentions that the advent of Reels has changed how content is planned and posted, necessitating a balance between pre-scheduled content and timely, spontaneous posts that align with current trends.

Highlights

Importance of planning an Instagram feed for a visually interesting and professional appearance.

The balance between authenticity and planning for a curated feed in the context of business on Instagram.

Utilizing Canva for planning and designing an Instagram feed, transitioning from Photoshop.

Creating a custom template in Canva to visualize and organize the Instagram grid layout.

The option to purchase a pre-made template for social media managers in a template bundle.

Using Canva's drag-and-drop feature for an efficient and user-friendly Instagram layout planning.

The benefit of having separate Canva files for different clients and projects.

Different layout patterns for Instagram feeds, including columns, rows, and the checkerboard method.

The checkerboard pattern as a favorite for achieving a visually appealing yet not overly curated feed.

The flexibility in planning to allow for spontaneous and trending content on Instagram.

Maintaining consistent colors and branding across photos and graphics in the Instagram feed.

Using blank squares as placeholders for spontaneous content that fits the overall color scheme.

The strategy of balancing planned content with the ability to jump on trends and be spontaneous.

The presenter's love for Canva and openness to creating more videos about it.

Invitation for viewers to share questions or video suggestions in the comments for future content.

The video's conclusion emphasizing the practical insights shared for managing Instagram feeds.

Transcripts

today's video is all about one of my

favorite things to do as a social media

manager and this is planning your

Instagram feed using canva I do this for

my own personal Instagram and also for

my clients before I dive into sharing

what it looks like on Canberra I'm going

to screen share like actually doing an

Instagram layout I want to talk about

why it's important to plan your

Instagram feed there's a lot of people a

lot of Instagram gurus out there in 2023

who will say Instagram is all about

authenticity now and you shouldn't be

planning like a heavily curated feed and

I agree with this toward a certain

extent but as a business owner I think

it's very important to still have a

professional and really visually

interesting Instagram feed and I'm going

to talk about some techniques in this

video on how I plan ahead with my

content but still allow space for

creativity and doing more spontaneous

videos because I do think you know reels

have changed the algorithm in that sense

we can't just plan out our content for

30 days and advance and then schedule it

and disappear you want to make sure

you're aware with you know trending

audios what people are really posting

about in that sort of week on Instagram

so we're going to talk a little bit

about that but I just wanted to get it

off my chest first that I do think it's

still really important to be planning

ahead with your Instagram content and

making your page look visually beautiful

and leaving that good impression for

your business for new customers that

find you on Instagram so let's get into

the good stuff how I create my Instagram

feed on canva I made this template from

scratch it's something that I used to do

in Photoshop and then I moved over to

canva because I love canva so much it's

so much easier and if you're not on

canva and you're a social media manager

or you want to be it's like the best

tool that I can recommend to you getting

started and the idea is to basically

recreate your Instagram grid and I use

basically the frames from the a graphics

section from the elements section on

canva and I line up all of the squares

just like how you see them in Instagram

I don't bother putting my entire bio and

profile picture and highlights in there

it's purely the layout of the images and

the reason I plan this in advance is so

I don't get clusters of images that look

really similar in one corner of my grid

because it makes it look a little bit

messy now I do actually sell this

template in my social media manager

template bundle but you can totally make

this yourself that's why I'm making this

video I do think it's something you can

really easily do but my management

template that also comes with a whole

bunch of things like sales PDFs and

services guides and onboarding documents

and the canva grid template is kind of

just like another little bonus in there

the reason I structure it so it's got

the canva templated squares is that I

can really just drag and drop images and

play around with my layout and it really

user friendly and Speedy way and there's

lots of other apps that you can kind of

do a similar thing with but for me as a

social media manager I really liked

canva because I can have separate files

for all of my different clients and for

myself for my own you know projects like

I'll do make our brand new canva grid

layout for if I'm doing a specific

course launch so I can come back and

recycle some of that material if I go to

re-launch one of my courses and I just

like having separate files for every

client and often with some social media

management apps or grid apps they only

let you do one instagram account at a

time or at least one instagram account

for free which I'm not about I feel like

I should have more to say about this but

it really is that easy of just creating

your squares on canva and I'll pop the

exact dimensions of the document that I

use in the description box so that you

can go create your own because it was a

little bit of fiddling backwards and

four for me like lining up all the

squares and doing the math so that all

the squares fitted and it wasn't weird

gaps and stuff like that so now that we

know how to use canva I want to talk a

little bit more about a few different

techniques for laying out the perfect

Instagram grid and there's a couple of

different patterns people will see and

you might now observe now that you're

learning about layouts on Instagram

you're going to start to notice it but a

really common one is to do columns so

you'll have columns in your Instagram

profile and everything in this column

might be a selfie everything in that

column might be a graphic and then

everything in that column might be a

real or a video and then of course you

can do rows which is essentially the

same but it's going along horizontally

but my personal favorite pattern is kind

of called like the checkerboard and this

is where every second post kind of

alternates and this is how you get an

Instagram feed that looks visually

beautiful but not overly heavily curated

if that makes sense so I alternate

between either a solid colored

background image or a graphic so it kind

of mixes between like a photo with a

white background a photo with a pink

background a photo with a white

background a graphic with a pink

background and it kind of alternates

every second post I will say I'm not

perfect sometimes I do step outside of

this checkerboard pattern if you scroll

through my Instagram you know I might

have events that pop up or I might film

a certain trending audio and I'm like

this doesn't quite work with my

checkerboard pattern but that's okay and

that's where I think it's important to

have some flexibility with planning your

Instagram feed don't be afraid to break

your pattern every now and then if it's

about doing a really good post and I

think that's the clear difference

between how Instagram used to be in

maybe 2016 to how it is now there is a

little bit more fluidity there is a bit

more casualness with the content and how

your profile looks but overall this

checkable pattern is my favorite because

I do think it nails that balance of

being authentic and natural and casual

and it just looks really effortless like

you're not really trying but it's on

closer inspection that you start to see

the pattern one of my big tips here is

to make sure you're using consistent

colors and branding and this doesn't

necessarily mean just your graphics it's

also about your photos if you look at my

grid you'll notice that I might have a

photo with a white background or a green

background you know I might be outside

there might be some trees but then I'll

have a pink top on and then the next

post might have a Graphic with pink text

in it so I have these consistent pinkish

color palettes that run throughout my

Instagram feed which again give it that

cohesive look sometimes when I'm

planning out my Instagram feed I will

just put like a blank pink square and

that will tell me like I need to do a

piece of content where I'm either

wearing pink or some kind of pink

graphic and I like to do that because it

gives me a little bit of flexibility

like I said in the beginning of this

video if there's a trending audio that

pops up if I have a question that comes

through my DMs I'm like oh I need to

turn this into an Instagram post or if

there's some breaking algorithm news or

something like that I have like a blank

Square where I can fill that in and I

really like this approach to using

Instagram these days because it allows

you to jump on those Trends it allows it

to be a little bit more spontaneous

which is also really fun if you're a

creative person and you do you know like

creating every every week not just

creating once a month and doing

everything in bulk so that's a little

hack that I've been using recently and I

get a lot of questions from people being

like ah you can't just plan all your

stuff you can't batch record that

doesn't work on Instagram and for me

it's about a balance of doing both so

that is going to be the end of today's

video it's short and sweet but I hope

this has given you some interesting

insights into how I sort of run

Instagram for myself and for my clients

and I just love Canberra let me know if

you want any more videos about canva

because I feel like I could talk about

it all day and if you have any more

questions or video suggestions leave

them in the comments below and I'll

catch you in the next video bye guys

thank you