How To Curate a Flawless Instagram Feed

Amber Faust, owner of  Faust Island, has successfully grown her Instagram following to over 60,000 followers with her beautiful photography and authentic content.  Amber continues to draw in new audiences and wow current followers with captivating content on Instagram, including beautiful, light-filled photos. We wanted to find out the secret behind her ability to curate Instagram for a beautiful, engaging, and flawless feed. Read on for her tips on how to improve Instagram for a stronger social strategy!

1. Create Beautiful Content

Content is king! People love beautiful photography, which means a perfect Instagram feed boils down to consistently posting beautiful photos. Amber rarely uses her phone to take the photos, instead using her DSLR for consistent quality content. She also has her Canon 6d set to JPG so she can easily send images to her computer. Her 5d3 is set to “Raw” for golden hour images that may need a bit more editing.

2. Be Cohesive

Bring cohesion to your feed through consistent colors, lighting, and themes. Embrace simplicity. Like Amber, focus on simple, light-filled, and bright photos with a clear subject. Stay minimal when incorporating props, too; Amber's go-to's are a toy, fruit, or a flower. Since Amber dislikes cluttered photography, she also edits out distracting elements either manually or in Photoshop.

3. Use Natural Lighting & A Happy Photo Subject

Since Amber's sunroom gets stunning natural lighting, she confessed that she constantly herds her children into that room for a photo. She also aims to never miss a beautiful golden sunset or sunrise! Amber's self-proclaimed secret is a simple fixed lens like a 35 or 50mm and a happy subject. If your subject isn’t happy, reschedule or promise cupcakes.

4. Organically Weave Your Sponsored Content 

Whether sponsored or not, Amber always uses similar lighting, editing, and styling on all her photos. She says she is conscious of including bright colors, beautiful fruits, and flowers. She also does all her outdoor product photography at the same time (golden hour), whether it's sponsored or not. Styling and editing helps your feed match, no matter the content.

5. Incorporate Instagram Stories & Instagram Live

Amber uses Instagram Stories and Instagram Live for more candid moments during her sponsored and non-sponsored posts. For example, during a recent Goldfish program she went Live waiting for soccer practice while her daughter, Piper, tossed Goldfish crackers into her mouth (and mostly missed). Amber had about 143 people cheering her daughter on! The spontaneous moment that Amber shared with her followers ultimately drove more visits to her  Goldfish blog post.

6. Share Real Moments

Amber says her audience regularly comments and direct messages her with with questions, including where she shops for her toddler, Oli’s wardrobe. She also posts Stories and Live videos of her babies giggling almost every day. If she skips a day on Instagram Live, her audience members from around the world send DMs reminding her to post! It comes as no surprise many of her Instagram friends have become real friends.

7. Post At Optimal Times 

Amber has no problem erasing a beautiful photo and posting it again at a time when it’s more likely to be seen. She also sometimes erases a photo with poor quality, even if it already has 25 comments and 500 likes. She says the key is to have maintain a beautiful feed as a whole, not just on a photo by photo basis. 

8. Utilize Technology Better

Amber edits her photos with Photoshop CC (most of the time in the Adobe Camera Raw filter). She suggests streamlining the process by creating an “action” in Photoshop (or downloading one) of your common editing steps so your photos all look similar (learn more about actions on Photoshop  here). Amber then uses Dropbox to keep a folder full of Instagram-worthy images. With Instagram’s new upload quality she'll add a dash of contrast in the Instagram app itself -- and voila, beautiful photos!

9. Optimize For Your Linqia Programs

When asked her 3 tips on how to use Instagram for her Linqia-specific programs, Amber said:

1. Spread out your Linqia Instagram posts. You don't want to across like a salesperson.
2. Post pretty photos that match your feed. Cohesion is a good way to think about it.
3. Change the link within your Instagram bio often. Since Instagram only gives you one link, make it easier for your followers to learn more by leaving your ooh.li or blog post link up for the duration of your Linqia program. Don't forget to include the hashtag #linkinbio within your caption.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Influencer Success Team at   community@linqia.com.