Let’s face it:
Instagram is super cool for marketing, but it can also be super challenging to manage: posting at the perfect time, dealing with constantly changing algorithms, and — the most time- and energy-consuming — coming up with fresh Instagram engagement post ideas for your account.
You know that Instagram content needs to be eye-grabbing and engaging for the target audience, right?
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At the same time, it needs to be relevant that your Instagram posting ideas for business help accomplish your marketing goals.
Also, it would help if your Instagram content represented your brand vision, had a consistent and recognizable visual style and tone of voice, and attracted new followers, huh?
Ouch!
For those stumped for Instagram post ideas, below are 25 content types to try on your account for maximum engagement. Brands use them to impress followers, build audiences, and boost sales. Why not customize these ideas to fit your style and goals and get more traffic from social media?
Instagram Post Ideas for Your Feed
The Instagram post ideas from this article cover different content types: Some will work for your feed, others better serve for Stories; some are easy to implement, while others require resources to prepare.
The idea is to introduce the most engaging Instagram content ideas or their types in one place for you to see what else you can try to refresh your content plan. If you already use some — great! But a little extra inspiration never hurts, don’t you agree?
So, here we go!
1. Product Displays
Do you continue sharing catalog photos of your product on Instagram? Stop it. It’s time for creative product displays!
Think of interesting, unusual, and eye-catching visuals that tell a story and help followers imagine what it’s like to use your product. For your product pictures to look more interesting, add a human element, creative backgrounds, or props.
Use high-quality custom photos, remember about the consistency of your Instagram feed, and try representing a product in your brand color scheme.
You can also try to display products via stunning videos to make your feed look more dynamic and engaging. Add music, animated texts, and other effects to impress followers and evoke desired emotions from them.
2. Behind-the-Scenes
Such photos and videos get tons of attention from Instagram users because of their authenticity and engaging nature. People are curious, so they easily get hooked by the “hidden” information about a brand they love.
Show the audience your workstation, invite them behind the scenes of your product creation, or demonstrate how you prepare (or visit) a niche event.
Dynamic Instagram Stories or videos in your feed work best here.
3. Your Team
Let the followers see the faces behind your brand, therefore “humanizing” it for more authenticity and trust. Users want to deal with real people, so they’ll respond to Instagram posts spotlighting your team members.
Share the photos of your employees and reinforce them with informative captions:
Tell a story behind the pic, reveal some funny fact about a person, or introduce your brand values via the people, showcasing how your team supports them.
4. How-to’s With Your Product
What can better demonstrate your product’s features and benefits to the audience than actionable how-to’s with it? For maximum engagement, think of video posts or carousel posts with step-by-step instructions.
Use linking words in pictures or captions for users to understand the process.
Show the followers everything they can do with your product. Do your best to associate it with brand values and showcase how it can solve a user’s problem. You can also try heightening its exclusivity to evoke enthusiasm among the audience.
5. Tutorials
By “tutorials” I mean all types of educational content you can share with the audience about your niche. Not only can it be a how-to post about your product but also informative guides, case studies, lists, stats, and other insights related to your industry.
Share infographics, carousels, repurposed blog articles, or explainer videos. You can also try a series of Instagram posts devoted to some specific topic or occasion.
6. Before-After Posts
Such Instagram posts are engaging because they demonstrate your product/service work results. They also appeal to the “Show, don’t tell” principle:
Users won’t read your massive captions describing the product benefits and reasons to try it. Instagram is about visuals, so do your best to help the audience see why they might need to learn more.
Create before-after posts in the form of an image, a carousel, or videos.
7. Answers to User Questions
Instagram is a perfect social media network to connect with the audience and build a loyal community by solving their problems. To engage followers in communication, you can post an image inviting them to ask questions about your brand/product in the comments.
Or, you can take your FAQs page and design every question as a separate Instagram post, answering it in captions. This can be one of the best IG page ideas.
8. Asking a Question
Ask your followers about what they’d like to know about your product, whom they’d like to see in your interview, what they’d like to read in your upcoming blog post, etc. Funny questions in Instagram posts are also welcome for better conversion.
Such posts are an extra opportunity to engage the audience in communication and get fresh ideas for your future content assets. Plus, you can get insights into your targets’ preferences.
9. Puzzles and Quizzes
Interactive content is super popular on Instagram: It appeals to our social instinct, encouraging us to act and share our opinion. Posts with interesting puzzles, quizzes, and games will allow you to keep the audience hooked, getting them to participate and thus boosting your Instagram conversion.
Free graphic design tools and quiz makers can help create such interactive posts for your Instagram feed.
10. Inspirational Quotes
Another Instagram post idea that always works is motivational and inspirational content. It’s not only about quotes from famous people we love to share because we can relate to them. (Yes, they are cute but overused, making social media users sigh and roll their eyes.)
Consider quotes from your CEO, team, or influencers in your niche. The inspiring words from celebrities and opinion leaders relatable to your target audience are also worth sharing.
11. Your Events
Product launches, webinars, conferences, upcoming interviews — why not tell your Instagram followers about these events?
But please forget about direct boring announcements. Instead, use Stories and posts with teasers to drive user interest. Consider question stickers, teaser videos, and guessing games with prizes to create engagement and hook the audience to interact with your content.
12. Memes
Memes are super engaging on Instagram, especially those related to the latest trends and your target audience. Thanks to its humorous and relatable nature, a meme spreads rapidly among users; it’s your opportunity to influence the behavioral factors of your Instagram account, its visibility, and overall performance.
Use text, images, or video memes. Feel free to craft original memes to promote your products/services or take a pre-existing popular meme and creatively repurpose it.
13. Holidays
Not by Christmas or Halloween alone! Why not celebrate numerous fun holidays on Instagram and create engaging posts about them?
Take a calendar describing holidays for every month of the year, choose those related to your niche and audience, and add them to your Instagram content plan.
14. UGC
User-generated content has established itself as the most engaging and convertible one on social media. It builds brand loyalty, creates social proof for your business, and introduces your brand to a broader audience.
You can use social media monitoring tools to find mentions about your brand on Instagram and ask authors to share the content (with crediting them, of course).
Or, you can organize a competition for your audience to generate content related to your product. Users will spread the word about your brand, and you’ll get tons of UGC to post later.
15. Carousels
Carousels are Instagram posts with multiple images in a row. They work best to display products or share educational information with your followers. Carousel posts serve better engagement because they make the audience spend more time on them, swiping through every image.
To create carousels, divide your information into paragraphs (steps, list items, etc.) and introduce it via multiple pictures to keep the story going.
16. Customer Testimonials
Testimonials are among the top instruments for building social proof and conducting a marketing audit. Customers provide you with reviews, and you share the best ones with the world to spread what people think about your business.
While testimonial sharing is more common for landing pages, Google My Business, or review websites, you can design them as Instagram posts. Make them eye-grabbing, present them as Twitter posts, add a creative background — and voila!
17. Your Business Values
Use Instagram to tell your brand story to the audience: how everything started, what challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what learnings you got. Use storytelling and craft such content as carousel posts or a series of publications.
Also, remember to share your business values with your followers. What’s there in your brand beyond products and sales? Speak about critical issues you support: climate change, sustainability, women empowerment, etc.
Today, users expect responsibility from brands. They follow and trust businesses that share the same values as they have.
18. Giveaways and Contests
Giveaways are super engaging because they promise users to get something for minimum effort:
They comment, tag friends, and share your post; your account gets extra visibility, positive dynamics, and a broader audience who can turn into your followers and loyal clients.
The same story is with contests. Don’t make them too challenging and time-consuming for the audience to participate, and ensure you have an award/prize that’s attractive enough for your followers. You can also opt to make use of online application systems to make it easier to collect applications from your participants.
19. Offers and Promotions
Shoppable Instagram posts make the purchase journey shorter and help you convert leads right away. Use your feed to promote your products but ensure you organize offers into visually-pleasing publications with all the information a user might need to purchase from you.
20. Challenges
Engage your followers with a daily, weekly, or monthly challenge on Instagram. Consider pre-existing challenges that could be relevant and make sense for your brand or create your own.
You can also try challenges with do-it-with-me videos. They are great engagement posts ideas because they make the audience spend more time watching. Plus, followers might want to save such posts to return to them later.
21. Illustrations and Collages
Creative, high-quality, and eye-grabbing visuals are critical for user engagement on Instagram. With so many brands competing for the audience on this social media, you need to think of Instagram post ideas that would help stand out.
Consider illustrations to display products creatively and strengthen your brand communication. Another visual trick to try is to make catchy collages with multiple images, layers, and texts.
22. Reels
Reels are a relatively new Instagram feature allowing you to post 15 to 30 seconds clips set to music. You share them via Stories or Explore Feeds, and users can also see them in a dedicated Reels tab.
The feature is super trending now, and it’s your chance to reach a new audience or engage the existing one. Unlike Instagram Stories, Reels don’t disappear and can serve your brand reach and engagement much longer.
23. Influencers and Partners
Big chances are you collaborate with social media influencers to support your marketing efforts. The content they publish to promote your brand is also a great Instagram post idea to try: Share their images and Stories related to your brand and tag them for better engagement.
The same story works with your business partners. Feel free to tell your audience about them, tag their accounts, and mention them in the comments — it’s an extra opportunity to engage a new audience with your brand. Your partners can do the same for you.
24. Industry Myths
As well as any other niche, yours has controversial facts, prejudices, or myths. Why not bust those false notions in your Instagram posts?
Not only are such posts informative, making your targets more aware, but they also help you build social trust and represent yourself as an industry expert.
25. Joining a Trend
New Instagram trends appear like mushrooms in the rain. By creating content around them, you can boost visibility and reach a wider audience. But sure thing, you need to join trends that make sense for your business and impact your brand and the audience.
Keep up with the current events happening in the world, and share your reaction to those relevant to your brand values. But don’t hype: Join trends that are something your business stand for; be honest and sincere. Use corresponding tags for more people to see your posts in their Instagram feeds.
Wrapping Up All Instagram Post Ideas
Now that you have so many Instagram post ideas in your pocket, it’s time to try those you didn’t consider before and see if they work for you.
Craft a content plan, schedule your posts, and remember to analyze the results and optimize your content strategy accordingly.