Beard Takeover Guidelines
Well what do we have here? A beardiful person willing to share their bearded life on the @BeardTakeover account! We have a few guidelines to help you have a successful week (and ensure you don’t screw anything up 🤞 ).
If we could sum up our rules in a few words, it would go a little something like this:
Post once a day, have fun, don’t be spammy, and be yourself!
But there’s actually a tad more to it than that. Here’s the long version:
- DON’T BE SPAMMY
- This one is important. The purpose of this account is to share life through the unique experience of different beards. This may include showcasing your talent or your workspace—but don’t be spammy or salesy about it. We don’t allow businesses to take over the account, so you’ll need a personal Instagram in order to host a takeover.
- Send us a good photo and write a short bio
- We’ll introduce you on Monday with a photo and caption. If you have a certain photo you’d like us to use, let us know (otherwise we’ll cyber-stalk you and pick a good one). Make sure this photo is a headshot that is at least 1080px wide. We’d love if you’d repost this intro shot to your personal account as well.
- Please write your bio in 3rd person:
- Do: “Sam started growing his beard in 2006”
- Don’t: “I started growing my beard in 2006”
- Post 1 photo every day for 5 days (Tuesday-Saturday)
- Share snapshots of your daily experiences. This could be your favorite lunch spot, hiking trail, or any other highlight. These should all be good quality original photos. Keep in mind that this account is to promote beard life. So if you post 5 photos of your cat, that might not fit the bill. Please don’t miss a day. It will screw up our fancy (slightly OCD) grid 😉 .
- Picture Formatting
- Get creative with your posts—but don’t overdo it with the effects. Don’t use borders, grunge effects, text overlays, etc. Also, please limit multiple-image posts to one-per-week.
- Be thoughtful and thorough
- Write good captions. Check your spelling and grammar. If relevant, tag your location and other accounts. Use appropriate hashtags (but don’t overdo it). We reserve the right to edit or remove unacceptable content. Also, make sure to sign each of your posts at the end of your captions in the following format: —First Last @username.
• Engage with your @BeardTakeover audience
We encourage you to reply to comments left on your @BeardTakeover posts. But we ask that you do this from your personal account so people aren’t confused when you’re no longer the host. This will also give you the opportunity to cross-promote and hopefully gain more followers on your account. Please don’t like or comment on other posts.
• The DL on DM’s
Feel free to reply to any DM’s directed towards you or your posts. We’ll reply if they are directed to @BeardTakeover in general.
• Don’t engage with other accounts
Please don’t like posts, leave comments, follow/unfollow people. That could get confusing.
• Keep things positive
There’s room for many different points of view on @BeardTakeover. Share your perspective—but this isn’t the place for overly political, religious, or ranting posts. This is a place to showcase what we love about Beards—not what we don’t like. And please don’t use profanity as we try to keep things pretty family-friendly.
• Use Stories
Instagram Stories are a great way to add backstory and personality to your takeover. Post as much as you want. But remember to keep the general rules in mind when posting to the @BeardTakeover story. We suggest using stories to introduce yourself on Monday morning. And then we recommend posting at least a few times to your story each day. You can post on the @beardtakeover story through Sunday.
• Don’t mess with the account settings
Don’t edit the profile, delete photos, change past captions, passwords, etc. If you think something is funky—let @beardedoregon know and they will help you out.
Next Steps:
If you’ve read these over and you still want to be considered to host a week, drop us a note at admin@beardedoregon.com letting us know what we could expect to see from your takeover. And if we think it'd be a good fit for the account, we'll reach out with next steps.