Among the most popular platforms for sharing pretty pictures, Instagram is a big player. It offers you a great opportunity to engage with over 600 million users. This gives you a really great target audience to express your creativity in visuals. To be part of it, you will need to create an account first. And this is where your profile picture comes in.
Your profile picture is the first focus point people will be drawn to, when they click on your Insta account. If it’s for brand purposes, it will play a vital role in the portrayal of your business to the user. This is even before they get a chance to even read your content.
But if it is for personal use, it will sketch an impression of your personality. The profile picture is like the cover of a book.
Whichever type of account you are creating, it is important that you upload an image of proper dimensions.
How can I make the perfect Instagram profile image?
It's an often heard question among budding Instagrammers. Read on to find out more.
1. Which Dimensions Will Best Fit Your Instagram Profile?
Instagram displays its content in sections of a certain size. These sizes tend to stay the same from year to year. For that reason, it's important to upload an image that best fits Instagram's native, recommended dimensions.
The profile picture appears in different dimensions, depending on the device you are using to view it. For example: When using a smartphone device to view the profile picture, it is being displayed as a square. The resolution size is 110x110. However, the resolution in the feed is shown as 40x40. While on the desktop platform, it's 180x180.
Regardless of the device, you will be using to view the platform, the aspect ratio remains the same: 1:1.
The ratio itself is the first guide of the image dimension configuration. It clearly indicates that the image has to be a square, no matter the resolutions. It is important to note, that the image will be cropped to a circle when uploaded.
Despite that, the circle will retain the dimensions of the square. Therefore, make sure your face or your brand logo are centered, to avoid being cropped out of the picture entirely.
Images for humans, products or even animals have no issues since it’s likely to be centered in most cases. It is important to leave blank spaces on the sides of the picture you are trying to take.
However, it may raise issues if your brand or company logo has corner shapes. In that case, some editing will be required to make sure that it ends up looking good when cropped to a circle.
2. A Logo Or A Photo
This is the first choice to make even before searching for the best-suited profile picture. This mainly relies on the type of acc and the intended purpose. If it’s a personal account, the photo of you will best suit the profile. At this point, you will need the audience to trust you and know who they are connecting with. Therefore you will have to let your guard down and upload your picture.
If it’s for the brand, business or company role, a logo will come in handy. On the platforms, there are millions of users. The best way to segregate your business acc from other personal acc is through a logo. A profile with logo will act as your identity. Users will be able to recognize it even when tangled with countless other accounts.
At times a profile picture of you may seem like a good choice mostly if it’s a personal brand. Yes I agree with you, but think about it, how many look-alike names are there on the platform. A logo will seem more of a better choice, as it will be distinct from the list of search. Moreover, it will lack a user face that one may try to identify.
3. Background
If you chose your picture as a profile, the background has a general aesthetic value. That should always be part of the main consideration. The background plays an important role in the overal touch & feel. It should be complimentary, but also provide good contrast.
Also, the background should be simple. Choose a background with many focus attracting elements on it, and surprise, surprise… it will distract your viewers.
When you have a dark logo, a light background complements it well. When you have a light logo, a dark background complements it well. Everybody's situation is different, so also use your common sense.
4. Lighting
Natural light is always the best choice. It gives a clear image of you without any exaggerations, especially when the profile photo features your face. But an important thing to note is to avoid direct light from the sun. It will create unflattering shadow effects.
Your best times for getting natural light are at sunset or even sunrise. At these times, the sunlight is soft and tends to make you look your best. During broad daylight, when the sun is at its peak, a room with large windows can still be suitable. The sun will be slightly shaded, and just the right amount of light for photography will come in.
In the scenario where you need effects that look dramatic, direct sunlight will work best. It will create dark silhouettes. Dim light also has the power to create impressive photos with dramatic effect.
5. Profile Image Type
A personal profile account gives you the chance of changing the image from time to time. Many feel uncomfortable displaying a single photo of them for a longer time. Instead, they prefer changing it from time to time. That is very ok for an account created for sharing your personal experiences.
But for a brand or business profile account, things are a little bit different. For a business account, you will be aiming for recognition of your brand. Therefore, a simple image which represents your business will be best. It will make you recognizeable to your followers.
Using the same brand photo will increase your brand awareness on other platforms, where your followers might also be present.
5.1 The Importance Of The Profile
Despite being overlooked by some users, brands have taken into consideration its benefit. With a businesses logo being displayed as a profile picture, it has made it easy for users to spot them. The profile image is one of the very foundations of a successful account. To reap the maximum benefits, make sure your profile pic adheres to all the rules.
Some companies invest a lot in creating a unique and distinguishing logo for their Insta profiles. If you look different from all the rest, you are sure to gain more followers than you'd otherwise would.
Instagram has turned out to be a very valuable asset to many marketers and businesses. Just check out the raving fanbases that some business accounts have. The many comments on each and every post they make, are the proverbial proof in the pudding.
Your fans always want to stay in the loop on the latest developments of your company. What better way to do that than through a well managed Instagram account, of which the profile alone looks absolutely smashing? Instagram is the go to place to share your business's offers in a visual, engaging way.
Instagram has become a world wide network. Selling a product or idea on here, has become an essential ingredient for every business's success recipe. Over 80% of Instagram users are following at least one brand. Might as well be yours.
You can really connect with your users on Instagram. When you do, they'll happily reward you with the sales that your business so sorely needs for its growth. It's way more than just an advertisement platform. Are you on Insta yet? If not, then you'd better hurry.
6. Conclusion
Insta's profile photo may seem small and insignificant, but it’s a vital part of your account. If you need to get more followers or boost your marketing, a stand out profile is what you are going to need. Nothing less than high quality photos will do, in order to capture the immediate attention of your target audience.
This goes for both your cover photo as well as your Insta posts. Please check out ContentBASE's affordable Insta promos, in case you want to be sure that you'll rise to the top as quickly as you can.