Go Flat for Your Insta Posts

A new academic year is almost here and with it comes the start of fresh social media campaigns for campus stores. Regular posts on social media, especially Instagram, keeps the store in students’ minds.

It’s okay if posts depict products and services at the store, as long as the message is not a hard sell. Let students know what’s new at the store, offer them solutions to daily tasks, and have some fun with posts.

Surveys indicate that students really like to view store posts that show other students wearing, using, or unboxing products. That’s a good way to get the word out about new merchandise or upcoming sales events. But it may take more time to prep and shoot photos with people—and cost more, too, if you have to compensate the models with cash, gift cards, or swag.

Another way to photograph products is the flat lay: Simply lay a group of items in an attractive way on a flat surface, possibly with a few props, and photograph the grouping from above. The selected items should be related and suggest a theme or story. The surface is typically all-white to allow the items to stand out, but some color can be worked into the image as well, especially if placed at an angle to draw the eye.

Flat lay photography has been around for a while, but it’s resurging in popularity, according to Dash Hudson, a social media management firm. Last spring the company analyzed Instagram posts for more than 200 consumer brands and found that flat-lay visuals increased in frequency by 43%.

More importantly, Dash Hudson’s analysis revealed the flat-lay images garnered an engagement rate of 0.6%. That may sound tiny, but it was double the engagement rate for all other types of product images in the same time period. People look longer at flat-lay displays to peruse all the items; the theme or story the image tells also helps to forge a connection.

Within the flat lay trend, Glossy magazine noted a subtrend: the bag flat lay. Some sort of bag—purse, tote, backpack, duffel, and so on—is laid flat and the products are arranged on top of it, again suggesting a theme or story. For campus stores, that might be a clear stadium bag with items a fan might need, or an imprinted beach bag with stuff for spring break. The bag can also be positioned off to the side instead of underneath the products.

A variant of the bag flat lay is to substitute the bag for a wide container of some type, such as a tray, box, drawer, or open suitcase.

If you need to brush up on your photography skills before the new academic year begins, NACS University offers a two-hour, self-paced webinar on E-Commerce Product Photo Insights. In the webinar, digital photography instructor Shannon Cottrell shares practical tips on staging products, lighting, camera angles, using props and backdrops, editing software, and other recommendations. All current NACS University resources are free to NACS members. A member login is needed to access each offering.

Also, go here for a YouTube tutorial on shooting a flat lay for Instagram, running four-and-a-half minutes. The instructor uses a professional camera but most of the tutorial discusses how to set up your product arrangement.