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Instagram has become an incredibly popular social channel with over 1 billion monthly users. Brands, large or small, are actively using the platform to showcase the visual aspect of their business. Consumers are also heavily engaging on the platform to discover new products, connect with brands and shop.
Considering how popular Instagram has become, it’s difficult to always come up with novel ideas that make your brand stand out from the crowd.
To make things easy for you, we have compiled a list of 20 creative Instagram post ideas (with examples) that will engage your followers and keep your feed fresh. Use this list whenever you feel like running out of ideas.
You don’t need to create all the content from scratch. Sometimes, a motivational quote can make things work for you. And there are several ways in which you can do it: create a quote template with the look and feel of your brand, write the quote in your handwriting or pair it up with a good quality photo. Make sure you include your brand’s logo or URL at the bottom of the post. That way, when someone shares your quote, your brand will stand out.
This is one of the most effective types of content that all kinds of businesses can give a try. You can use a ‘how-to’ post to convey how your product works or how it can be used in innovative ways.
For instance, if you sell fitness products, create posts on ‘how to do push-ups the right way’ or ‘how to build your lower abs in a week’. If you belong to the food and beverage industry, create a post on ‘how to make frothy coffee in under 5 minutes’ or ‘how to make perfectly poached eggs for breakfast’.
As an industry expert, you have several tricks-of-the-trade you can share with your audience and drive them to your brand.
This is a great way to showcase the human aspect of your brand. By showing your followers what goes on in your office or behind the scenes, you can make them emotionally engaged in your company.
These posts can assume many forms: employees working at their workstation, fun-events held on Fridays or a meet-up held outside office premises. Use these posts to show what went into the making of your product/advertisement or organizing an event. Or leverage them to showcase the fun aspect of your brand.
Behind-the-scenes posts can be particularly helpful for brands that sell services and aren’t customer-facing.
Users will more likely engage with your posts if you give them a reason to participate. Posts featuring ‘Caption This’ are highly effective in building a two-way conversation.
You can create a post with a random, weird or intriguing image and ask users to caption it. If the users find it interesting enough, there’s a high probability they will respond. Caption posts can be used to enhance audience engagement when you feel running out of Instagram post ideas.
The online audience constantly craves for stuff that tickles their funny bone. Memes are an awesome way to make your feed interesting and pep up your audience’s mood as they scroll through the platform.
Before/after posts show the impact of your brand. They help your followers see how your things change and benefit clients. This plays a crucial role in brand building.
Before and after images can showcase many different things: you can post a before and after photo of your old and new office, or you can show how your brand’s logo has changed over time. Or, you can showcase how your product/service has transformed your client in any manner. Be it colossal transformations or subtle changes, before/after posts are effective attention grabbers.
Ask me anything aka AMA presents a great opportunity to connect with your followers directly. It also makes your brand appear authentic. AMAs are great for sharing thought leadership on any topic related to your brand/industry. They are appropriate if you are working in collaboration with an influencer or if your organization has someone who’s regarded as a thought leader in your niche/industry.
For an AMA, create a post that calls for questions from your followers and start answering them in the comment section below. It’s possible that your followers ask uncomfortable or irrelevant questions; you can comfortably skip these questions and choose only the ones you find worth responding.
Another type of posts that you can use from time to time are announcements. You can announce new products or business updates on your Instagram feed using a suitable image. You can also share milestones such as completing half a decade in business or achieving a 10 million turnover.
Such posts entice the audience to follow you because they feel as if they know something about your brand.
Want to create a buzz around your brand? Organize a contest or giveaway.
With contests and giveaways, you can make people talk more about your brand without trying too hard, so they are a great medium for amplifying your presence on social channels.
Contests/giveaways can assume many forms. You can ask people to like, share or comment on a post with a certain hashtag/phrase/photo or tag their friends in comments. You can also solicit user-generated content in the form of photos, videos and taglines to be judged by your brand.
Remember: Make it simple for users to participate in the competition. Otherwise, few will bother to complete the tasks assigned by you.
A visual platform, Instagram is one of the best channels to showcase your product line. While this isn’t a bad idea, adding too many product photos can portray your brand in a negative light.
So, while posting any product images, make sure you are not overdoing it. Besides, try to make your photos as interesting as you can. Make it visually appealing and include a caption or some trivia in your post.
You can go on bragging about your brand on your wall, but nothing works as well as a genuine testimonial from one of your customers. Testimonials depict your brand in a positive light and boost its authenticity.
Crafting new content from scratch each time can be time-consuming. A great idea is to repurpose your old posts into short-form content and share them in the form of Instagram posts. For instance, you can take an old blogpost, summarize it in the form of an infographic and share it on your feed. Or you can select some parts from your video or podcast and share it as bite-sized nuggets of information. Such posts can elicit the interest of users who don’t want to go through your long-form posts.
Many brands are in the practice of using daily hashtags that are dedicated to particular days of the week. A couple of them are regularly used on Instagram:
#MondayBlues
#MondayMotivation
#TechTuesday
#TransformationTuesday
#WayBackWednesday
#WorkoutWenesday
#ThankfulThursday
#ThrowbackThursday
#FearlessFriday
#FridayFact
#FridayFun
#ShoutoutSaturday
#SundaySweat
#StartupSunday
These hashtags are a great source of inspiration, and if used the right way, can bolster user reach and engagement. You are strongly recommended not to use all of them; select the ones that are relevant to your brand and use them judiciously.
Has your brand got featured in a blog post, magazine or podcast? If yes, share it on your wall. Such posts add to credibility to your brand and reflect you in a positive light.
One of the easiest ways to establish trust with your audience is content that demonstrates your association with charitable causes. It also helps raise awareness about a cause you support.
If you are participating in a fundraiser or a charity event, let your Instagram audience know about it. If a part of your revenue goes to community service, let your Instagram posts speak of it. Such associations may help you gain some loyal followers in the long run.
We live in a world where something is happening every minute. Using current events as an inspiration for your Instagram posts can help your brand grab more eyeballs.
Is there a new development in your niche that everyone is talking about? Or, is a trending topic that has hogged headlines for a couple of weeks? Check your social feeds and gauge what’s trending on social these days.
You can use any kind of current events for your Instagram feed:
• Political Events
• Controversies
• Trending Technology
• Festivals/Celebrations
• Inter-nation Conflict
• Natural Disaster
The online audience is always curious about what others are working on. This is even truer when the person is someone they draw inspiration from. If you offer a sneak peek into your daily/weekly/monthly goals by sharing a snapshot of your calendar/to-do list, it will work in your favor. You can also create follow-up posts that talk about your progress on these tasks.
If you have a visual product that you have recently handed over to clients, share it on your Instagram feed. While it may not be possible to share your entire project in one go, you can always share glimpses of your work in a post and link this post to long-form content (blog post, video, podcast) that deep dives into your process and finished product.
Are you on the fence regarding a product/service you are developing? Want to incorporate others’ opinion while creating your product? If yes, it’s the time to solicit audience feedback through your post. People feel valued when they are asked for an opinion. This way, you may end up with dozens of innovative Instagram post ideas for business that you couldn’t have thought of on your own.
Last but not the least, user-generated content helps you generate fresh ideas when the old ones appear to have lost their charm.
Starbuck’s #RedCupContest, BMW’s #BMWRepost and Adobe’s #Adobe Perspective campaigns are instances of how brands are harnessing user-generated content to rev up their social game.
Have any such innovative Instagram post ideas? If yes, scribble them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading.
