Grids. Banners. Cubes. Whatever you call them. More and more companies and individuals have been jumping onto this trend since the Summer of 2015. The owners of these instagram accounts segment one photo into typically 3, 6, 9, 12+, square blocks and post them in a progressive order, typically by using some apps that make it pretty simple– like Giant Square or Banner Pic. The result is a pretty interesting Instagram profile that can break down the feed into sections or just displays the photo in a unique way. Instagram has been changing a whole lot, and while this isn’t a native format, there have been mixed feedback and application of these grids.

Social Media businesses like Hootsuite, have promoting this kind of Instagram behavior as a marketing tool to help people get likes and to promote business when done well. When you visit @hootsuiteshowcase, Hootsuite’s showcase profile that uses this grid method pretty extensively to showcase companies and artists, you immediately are captivated by the text banners they created as you scroll through the images.

Grid example

 

 

Now this looks pretty dang sweet. I’m not going to lie at all about that. Moving down their feed revealed a pretty awesome way of viewing this profile. I especially like this feed because they highlight some awesome photographers in sections of their work. But even the social media company can’t seem to get it right. Imagine coming across this in your feed:

 

showcase

I doubt that I’m the lone human being in the world that has hated scrolling through an incredulous amount of sequential and seemingly strange segments of photographs posted by a user at any given time. This is just speculation, but could this be one of the reasons why @hootsuiteshowcases has only a very tiny fraction of followers compared to their main account? Just sayin’.

Now, lets show you a company that has taken this idea and made it work to the max.

Reynolds Wrap – @Reynoldskitchens. A quick scroll through through their feed would make you want to poach their social media manager for your own feed. Each image is its own dish, with some even showing the 10 second clip on how to make that dish. Each image contains a dish, and collectively, they made it so that the table that the dish is on, extends through the whole feed. It is super creative and super applicable for the platform. Getting a few of those pictures of food that is composed well isn’t going to turn someone off from their feed, unlike 27 pictures of people turned sideways that no one really cares about. They started this 50 weeks ago the beginning of June, which is really impressive! That’s one really long table!

 

IMG_1686

 

I’ve seen a few photographers do this on their page, with mixed results.

Personally, if I came across anything like that Heineken series, that account would be unfollowed instantly, but I can stare at food all day long. Way to go Reynolds. Way to go.

So, what do you think about the grids?