Information in this blog was obtained from the Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, and Social Media Today.
Suffering from writer's block? Can't seem to find interesting content to post for your brand? Looking for a way to freshen up your feed? You need to brainstorm some content ideas! Posting unique and fresh content can improve your marketing strategy and help your audience get to know your brand better. This blog post will help you explore different content ideas, common mistakes made on Instagram, how to caption your content, and learn about a multitude of features that are free on Instagram that you can utilize to create content.
Content Ideas for Instagram
Here are 7 content ideas to help you post creative content and capture the consumers' attention, become more engaging, and humanize your brand.
1) Behind-the-Scenes Content
Instagram is a great social media platform to show your audience behind-the-scenes content. It gives you the ability to humanize your brand. Show them what it looks like to work at your brand, and how the product is designed or built, and give employee interviews. Doing so can build strong brand loyalty.
2) User-Generated Content
Using content from fans and followers is a great way to show engagement. Make sure the posts are high-quality and you must tag the person who made the post. Hub Spot states that FedEx's Instagram is made up almost exclusively of user-generated content. User-generated content is not only useful for engagement but advertising too. Many brands are using influencers for user-generated content in which they find authentic content creators to represent their products or services. This expands a brand's audience further reaching the influencer's audience as well. Brands like American Eagle work with influencers such as Alix Earle, a TikTok influencer with more than 5 million followers. American Eagle will send Earle a PR package of their clothing items in which she creates videos that review the clothing. Her likes and dislikes. Earle is a trustworthy internet influencer because she gives her true opinion on products or services. These are the types of influencers brands should seek. Audiences like to see authentic, raw, and real reviews from real people.
3) Inspirational/Motivational Quotes
This is a category of content that should be posted occasionally. Some viewers tend to make fun of the number of inspiring quotes on Instagram. However, many people love to share quotes, repost them, and tag friends. These quotes can be funny, inspirational, motivational, or even spiritual if that is what resonates with your audience. According to HubSpot, you can customize and design your own quotes using editing apps like Canva, Phonto, and Snapseed. You can even create quotes directly on Instagram using the story and reels option.
4) Product Promotions
People don't want to see content of your product 24/7 however, occasionally posting it can be a good thing. HubSpot suggests following an 80/20 rule when it comes to posting product promotions. 80% of the content should be helpful videos and pictures that share, valuable information with your viewers, while 20% can be self-promotional content of products. When you post on Instagram is just as important as what you post. The best way to know when to post is by analyzing your social media metrics. To learn more about metrics take a look at my colleague's blog, Social Media Metrics: What You Need to Know to Measure Your Success by Mengchan (Mike) Chen.
5) Contests and Giveaways
Trying to expand your reach and engagement with your audience on Instagram? According to HubSpot posting contests and giveaways can help grow your Instagram followers 70% faster within 3 months. Contests can engage the audience by asking them to comment on a post in which they will pick a winner. For example, ask them to tag friends, and comment on their favorite product of the giveaway, or even tell you about their favorite TV show. You can also have them like a post and share it on their Instagram story or have them follow your account.
6) Sneak Peeks of Upcoming Projects
According to Social Media Today, giving a sneak peek of upcoming projects can help build anticipation for your viewers. For example, if you were a clothing brand and showed a hoodie that your company just designed and gave a date for when the hoodie would be dropping on your site, it would make viewers excited, and they could save your post so they could purchase the hoodie when the time comes.
7) Special Occasions or Events
Staying up to date with occasions or events going on can be an easy way to post new content. Holidays like the Fourth of July, Christmas, Halloween, etc. Other ways to post content are for National Puppy Day, National Pie Day, and National Pizza Day. There is basically a "National" day for everything! You can also post for big events happening like popular award shows and sporting events.
Common Mistakes When Creating Content on Instagram
There are many simple common mistakes when creating content on Instagram. According to the Social Media Examiner, some content creators can make the text too tiny making it hard for viewers to read. Another common mistake is that you are not being unique. You are recycling content or copying others. You do not want to copy ideas or steal images from others unless it is a trend you are trying to recreate such as the dancing trends on the internet (but always try to give credit of where the idea came from). Most importantly, you aren't taking enough risks. Try creating new content and experiment with design, sound, image, and text. If it fails, you can always try again. Lastly, being too obsessed with the "aesthetic" of your Instagram page can actually harm your engagement levels. You can break out of this habit by posting text-heavy posts that have the same color scheme as your aesthetic, testing out content ideas on your Instagram story first before posting on your feed, and posting once a week a piece of content that is out of the ordinary for your brand.
Your Caption Matters Too
In your caption, you want to offer clear communication to your audience. Yes, creativity matters but not at the expense of your readers not understanding your post. This is the space to tell your audience what the most important thing is to take away from your post. The Social Media Examiner suggests that your caption should have a hook to draw the reader in, but it should get straight to the point. For example, say you are selling backpacks. You want your caption to immediately tell the reader about the benefits of this backpack. Lengthy captions can bore readers and have them scrolling past your post. You can even use emojis to break up the wording and make it more interesting. If you're looking for engagement with your caption you can try asking a question. This pushes viewers to comment on what they think about a subject and leave their opinions. Most importantly, don't forget to have a call-to-action (CTA) in your caption. It can be asking them to comment on your post or clicking the link in your bio. This informs the reader what it is they should be doing.
Instagram Features You Can Take Advantage Of
Instagram offers free features that you can use to take your content to the next level. Instagram is always releasing new features that you can take advantage of to make your content more creative. Some features that you can use on Instagram now include:
Unique Live Background- If you use the live (livestream) feature on Instagram you can bring up videos or photos from your camera roll to share. You can't use this feature when you are on live with someone else, only for solo lives. This feature is only available to iPhone users as it is compatible with IOS systems. According to the Social Media Examiner, this feature is useful for showing topic bullet points, showing longer presentations with slides, and allowing the presenter to talk over the video chosen to be played. You can strategize your presentation to switch back and forth from a long video to a static photo or vice versa but you do not want the same video playing on repeat the whole livestream.
Instagram Trends- Trends are an amazing way to create content that has the chance to go viral and already resonates with viewers. However, you don't want to join every trend you see. You want to make sure that it is right for your brand. You must brainstorm to see how this trend could represent your brand whether it's a joke, a dance, or a lip-sync.
Upgrade Your Instagram Stories- Curating is the key to Instagram stories. If you are reposting your own content or other people's content on your Instagram story you should add your own thoughts and style to the post. This can be done with the use of stickers, polls, designs, text, etc. Doing this shows that effort goes into your content, and it interests viewers to engage with it.
Poll Stickers- A simple and easy way to do research and gain feedback is through poll stickers on Instagram stories. These stickers give you the ability to create questions and answers that can be as serious or as comical as you would like. It gives you the ability to be creative and interactive.
Coming up with creative ideas for new content can be a difficult process, however, using these 7 content ideas can help personalize your content and make it more appealing for your followers. Ideas like contests and giveaways, product promotions, and behind-the-scenes content can help viewers become better acquainted with your brand and enhance your brand's marketing. Gaining a better understanding of common mistakes made when making content on Instagram, what features to use to create content, and how to caption your content can make a major difference in how well your marketing strategy performs.
Resources
Cox Kolowich, L. (2022, November 8). What to Post on Instagram: 18 Photo & Video Ideas to Spark Inspiration. Hub Spot. Retrieved September 18, 2023, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-to-post-on-instagram
Ford-Walker, M. (2022, May 9). 15 Behind the Scenes Content Ideas to Share on Instagram [Infographic]. SocialMedia Today. Retrieved September 18, 2023, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/15-behind-the-scenes-content-ideas-to-share-on-instagram-inforgraphic/623452/
Stelzner, M. (2023, September 14). How to Be More Creative With Your Instagram Content. SocialMedia Examiner. Retrieved September 18, 2023, from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-be-more-creative-with-your-instagram-content/
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