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10 Ideas What To Post On Instagram - With Examples
Updated: Aug 11, 2022
Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels
So you’ve just created an Instagram account for your small business. Congratulations!
Having an Instagram is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on. It allows you to get in front of your target audience where they spend their free time, and to engage with them on a daily basis.
Shortcuts
But you might be a bit stuck when it comes to getting started with Instagram, including ideas for what to post on your small business’s Instagram. This list of 10 awesome ideas for your Instagram feed should give you some inspiration for what to schedule in your social media calendar.
Instagram allows you to get in front of your target audience where they spend their free time, and to engage with them on a daily basis
No worries, if you don't have an Instagram account set up yet, you can read on this quick guide on how to set up different social networks and Instagram for your small business.
What Is the Best Type of Content to Post on Instagram?
Instagram is a very visual social media platform, where people go to look at and engage with images. That means you’ll want to concentrate on publishing beautiful, striking images and videos that capture your target audience’s attention.
Instagram is a very visual social media platform, where people go to look at and engage with images
You have lots of options when it comes to the type of images to post on your Instagram feed. It’s a good idea to experiment with them all in order to learn what type of content resonates most with your followers.
Some of your format options are:
Multi-image slideshows (a.k.a. Instagram galleries)
Stories
Gifs
Photos with shoppable tags
Videos
Here’s a handy cheat sheet for the image sizes to post on Instagram.
10 Post Ideas for Your Instagram Feed
So let’s get into it. Here are our top 10 favorite Instagram content ideas to get you started on the right foot:
1. Seasonal Posts
Keep an eye out for holidays and special times of the year. Including seasonal images in your Instagram publishing schedule is an engaging way to connect to your target audience. People who are getting into festive mode will resonate and engage with your holiday images.
This festive holiday post by Chewy is one of our favorite examples of seasonal content. They’ve created a slideshow of the adorable photoshoot that the audience can scroll through. In the caption, they playfully mention that their products make great gifts for pets, and guide the audience to click on a link in their bio.
2. Fill-in-the-Blank Posts
Posting a fill-in-the-blank image will drive audience engagement and make people feel like their opinion counts. It’s also a great way to get more information about what makes your audience tick.
This simple but striking post by Hubspot asks followers for their opinion, which encourages them to leave a comment. Hubspot also gives their opinion, as well as a call to action to click on a link to find out more.
3. User-Generated Content (UGC)
Photo by Instagram
Want to spread the word about your brand? User-generated content is the way to go. Invite your loyal followers to share images of themselves enjoying your product or service, then share their submissions with your audience.
This UGC post by GAP shares how one of their loyal followers wears their brand of clothing. This puts a human face on their products and encourages others to use their hashtag to post their own outfits.
4. GIF Posts
GIFs are a great way to capture the attention of your audience, and can also highlight attractive features of your products in a way that static images can’t.
In this awesome example posted by Rayban, we get to see a before-and-after shot of what their transition glasses look like by day and by night. This really lets followers see for themselves what’s great about the product.
5. Customer Success Stories
Don’t keep your rave reviews a secret. Sharing your customers’ success stories helps others see the value in your product or service.
This example posted by Canva uses video to introduce followers to a customer whose business went viral thanks to their design tools. They include a hashtag that followers can use to share their own projects they’ve created on Canva.
6. Teasers for New Products
People love to feel like they’re getting a sneak peek at something exclusive. Use Instagram to give an inside look at what’s coming soon from your brand.
Popeyes recently posted this exciting and mysterious video that really gets their audience excited to see what the soon-to-be-released chicken sandwich is going to be. They also include a CTA to visit their landing page where people can enter to be among the first to try the sandwich.
7. Tag-a-Friend Posts
One very effective way of increasing the reach of your Instagram content is to create tag-a-friend posts. Simply post a statement that a lot of people will resonate with, and encourage your audience to tag someone it makes them think of.
In this example by Post-It, they use their product to make a broad statement of appreciation. Their audience naturally starts tagging their friends in the comments, significantly upping the organic reach of the post.
8. Humorous Posts
There’s no reason to take yourself so seriously. In fact, your followers will probably respect you more if they see you’ve got a great sense of humor behind your brand. Find ways you can add a bit of humor to your Instagram content calendar.
In this hilarious post by Zappos, the brand highlights a new product line with an exercise instruction video starring Bigfoot. The entertainment factor keeps people’s attention, and an invitation to “click the link in bio” draws in sales.
9. Behind-the-Scenes Posts
Photo by barnesandnoble on Instagram
Take some photos of what it’s like in your office, and post them to your Instagram feed. This is a great way to put a human face to your brand – and people like doing business with real people rather than faceless companies.
In this playful behind-the-scenes post from Barnes and Noble, the employees are having a great time pretending to be in Star Wars. This post also celebrates a whimsical special occasion: Star Wars Day.
10. Voting / Poll Posts
Photo by bublywater on Instagram
No, we don’t mean voting in elections (although that is cool). We mean giving your followers a choice on what their favorite pick is. This is a fun way to get a lot of engagement from your followers because people feel excited to have their say.
Bubly’s social media team are doing everything right with this Instagram post, which uses humor, user-generated content, and adorable pets to make everyone want to join in and vote for their favorite.
What Are the Best Times to Post on Instagram
Understanding the best times to post is essential to your Instagram scheduling efforts. You want to schedule posts at the right times so that they can be seen by as many people as possible.
Take a look at this infographic we made, which shows you the best times for small businesses to post on all of the social media channels.
Photo by Sprout Social
As you can see, the best time to post on Instagram is between 10am and 11am, Monday to Friday. But, you may be asking yourself, how can you schedule posts on Instagram?
How to Schedule Posts on Instagram
Instagram scheduling allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to create their posts ahead of time, and schedule the content to automatically be published at the exact time they want.
With a single tool, you can plan your social posts for all your social media accounts - awesome!
You can do this with the help of a social media scheduling tool like Hookle above. Hookle is a user-friendly social media marketing app that’s easy to learn, and it’s created with small businesses and entrepreneurs like you in mind.
With a single tool, you can plan, publish, and schedule your social posts for all your social media accounts - including Instagram. Isn't that awesome!
Experiment with Instagram Post Ideas
This list of our favorite post ideas for Instagram is just the start. Instagram allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to really get creative with their content.
Add these cool ideas to your social media content calendar today and measure what content really hits home with your audience. Soon you’ll be confident knowing exactly what to post on Instagram for the best results.
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