I often get asked by followers, friends and colleagues how I create some of the pieces of content I post to Instagram on various pages I operate.
While simple, the most-asked-about template is the "heart." What's that? It's an opaque outline of the heart that pops up when you "double-tap" (or like) an Instagram post.
Putting the heart on an image (or even video) on Instagram tends to lead to increased engagement when combined with a CTA in your caption along the lines of "DOUBLE-TAP if you agree," "❤️if you love ____," etc.
Let's break down the post in the example above. That image of Derek Jeter and Yogi Berra with the World Series trophy was placed on @runsbattedin, one of my newest projects. It's a baseball-focused Instagram account for highlights, poll questions and quotes--definitely a must-follow for any baseball fan. At the time that was posted, there were roughly 6,600 followers on the account. The two previous posts had 812 and 372 interactions (the combined number of likes and comments.
But for the "heart" post? 1,100 interactions, a 16.6% engagement rate. 39% of users that weren't following @runsbattedin saw the post. That's a key metric for establishing discoverability on your Instagram page.
This was posted over three weeks ago and of the 15 posts placed on the account, it sits at the second-highest in terms of engagement.
These were great results, but there are two things to keep in mind about why this worked:
1. Know your audience.
The image I used was a picture of two Yankees legends. While the page is focused on baseball, and the majority of users are interested in the sport at-large, a whopping 6% of users that follow the page are actually based in the New York area.
When using a "heart" post, make sure you're placing it on a piece of content that will likely engage well with your audience.
2. Have a balanced approach.
Don't put a heart on every post as a way to incentivize users to like all of your photos. It's meant to be a point of differentiation--it gives the eye a different look as a user is scrolling through their feed. Doing it all the time won't make seeing it as "special" to your followers.
Download the heart template .psd
Okay, so here's what you really wanted...a free download of the heart template that I created in Photoshop, so that you can create perfectly placed "heart" posts of your own.
Here it is, complete with grid lines for perfect placement on either portrait (4:5, 1080x1350 pixel images) or square (1:1, 1080x1080 pixel images). Enjoy:
Download link: Heart.psd template (192 KB)
Alternate download link: https://bnzt.co/2pBPSjZ