Get better engagement, reach, and results from your Instagram by incorporating more human content. A collection of information and practices to help you with your goals.
CONTENTS
If your social media engagement constantly flops, it might be time to humanize your online presence. People like people, content for brands should include a good mix of the friendly faces that make your company powerful. According to a Georgia Tech study, photos and videos with faces perform 40% better on Instagram.
What is Humanizing?
“Humanizing” is a marketer’s way of saying, posting photos of you and your team (if you have a team). If you are using video, humanizing your brand is mixing in informal videos with edited/produced video content. It's showing the face behind the brand.
Why is it important?
Posts with a face are 38% more likely to receive likes and 32% more likely to receive comments. While infographics and quotes can be informative and inspiring, studies show that people love to look at faces.
The way the Instagram algorithm is designed, the better your post performs in the first few minutes, the more it will be served into your followers' feeds. Therefore, having better initial engagements gives you a larger overall reach on your content.
Lastly, your brand has a personality, posting personal pieces will give your brand’s unique personality a voice.
Who does it well?
There are numerous influencers and business owners who do this well. Check out some of the businesses I follow who are humanizing their brands.
@OooPolish has amazing Reels content to keep their social media fresh
@HoustatlantaVegan does a great job utilizing user-generated content in their feed to add faces to their brand.
@GloballyTish uses lifestyle photos to make her brand pop on Instagram
How often should you post "human content?"
You can’t overdo it with a good mix of human content. If you are not loving the idea of being in front of the camera, then a good rule of thumb is once per week, or 2 out of every 10 posts.
Keeping your socials authentic is keeping a good ratio of graphic and personal content.
How to Humanize
You can do so many different things to humanize your Instagram profile.
Lifestyle photoshoots are a trendy way to have a collection of professional photos to share. The idea is to have lots of photos that look like you in everyday life. Check out these examples of lifestyle photography.
If you are interested in a DIY photoshoot. Set up your ring light and start looking at Pinterest for poses. Adobe Lightroom is a great option for quick, easy, and professional photo editing.
Keeping your socials authentic is keeping a good ratio of graphic and personal content.