Top 17 Instagram Post Ideas to Brighten Up Your Feed
We know what you must have been thinking before you landed on this page – with so many Instagram post ideas out there, how can I still be struggling?!
We’re here to tell you that it’s absolutely fine if you get stuck every now and again.
Creativity has its limits – and when you’re already working on so much versatile Instagram content, it’s not surprising to reach a block that you find hard to overcome.
It happens to everyone.
But we have good news for you – there is a solution!
Prepare to see Instagram feed tips that you didn’t know you needed in your life.
- Instagram Feed Ideas to Last You a Year – At the Least!
- Product and service posts
- Announcements
- UGC
- Instagram Shop posts
- Testimonials
- BTS Updates
- Thought Leadership
- Accomplishments
- Link to Blog
- Throwback Posts
- Quotes and Inspirational Content
- Competitions/Giveaways
- Tutorial videos
- CSR content
- Content promoting a social message
- Ask-Me-Anything Sessions
- Memes and GIFs
Let’s get right into it!
Instagram Feed Ideas to Last You a Year – At the Least!
Product and service posts
Let’s face it: your brand exists to sell its products and services.
And promoting these products and services is one of the main goals of your social media efforts too!
But simply putting up picture with product specifications and other details won’t cut it – you need to be creative in your approach!
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
– Launches
Launching a new product is a special moment for any brand. But it differs for different kinds of businesses.
You can be Apple, who hardly releases a product a year, or you could be a clothing brand like Mango that has multiple new launches every season.
Read more about how you can launch products in a fun way in the Announcements section below. We’ll also share a brilliant example of how this has been done recently.
– Overviews
Overview posts give your consumers a general idea about a product or service and leave them wanting more.
Only if you do it right.
These posts are great because you have a lot of room for creativity. From a picture post with specifications in the caption to a short video or even a carousel post, you can choose a format that works best for you.
– USP-Focused
You will know better than we do that many of your products have a particular feature that consumers dig.
This is the spec you need to be focusing on in your Instagram feed.
Highlight it, share it, reap the benefits.
And the best part isn’t even the fact that more and more people will find out about it. The best part is that current users will comment under the post and confirm what you’re saying – free reviews!
– Best-selling products and services
Just like some of your products have certain features that stand out, you have certain products that are customer favorites.
And there is no harm in posting about them every once in a while.
– Product in action
This is one of the best Instagram post ideas you can go for – and for good reason.
By showing the product in action through smart storytelling, highlighting its ease of use and other features along the way, you help the potential customer see themselves with it.
Here is an example from Faber Castell:
– Demo for a Product/Service
Similar to showing a product in action, you can create demos for products like software systems and online programs, for example.
These can be short clips focusing one just one tiny part of a software, say, but it should highlight how easy it is to use the program.
And this isn’t restricted to IT-related products. You can expand your horizons and experiment with other things too!
– Influencers Endorsing a Product or Service
Celebrity endorsements work – there are no two opinions about it.
And whether you are paying an influencer to show off a handbag or they’re spotted donning a pair of earrings you sell, it does wonders for your business.
After all, if David Beckham uses a Nike ball, we all need one, right?
Announcements
How can one talk about Instagram feed ideas and not mention announcement posts?
Brands, including yours, most likely, use social media to make important announcements. And they don’t just have to be about products or services – you could share the news of a change in management, a new outlet, or even a pet your office adopted.
But you don’t need to be dull about it on Instagram.
Try to build interest around the product and leave your consumers intrigued, wanting to learn more, with a series of posts. Then make the announcement.
Take Samsung’s Z Flip announcement, for example.
They started posting super creative, minimalistic video posts about “saying hello to a new galaxy” and “changing the shape of the future” among other things.
Here is an example:
Following this series of videos, they unveiled the phone in a carousel post that highlighted its most important features:
You also need to be creative in the way you make announcements on your page if you want people to take interest.
UGC
User-generated content, or UGC, is a hit on Instagram. Simply because it easy for brands to share content posted by users on their own feed and stories.
And also because it throws a great light on the brand.
If a consumer is posting and tagging a business or using a relevant hashtag, it reflects the popularity of the brand.
And what better way to benefit from this than by re-posting such content on your own feed?
Instagram Shop posts
If you use Instagram Shop, you give your consumers a storefront shopping experience in the app itself.
But they don’t even have to go to the shop to experience it.
You can tag products that you have already uploaded in Facebook Catalog Manager in a picture post on your Instagram feed.
And not just one product. You can go for an Instagram product tag for multiple products in a single post!
This is right up there with the BEST Instagram post ideas because it shows off your product AND gives interested consumers an easy way to buy it!
Here is an example of this functionality being used by a brand in a LOT of posts:
Clicking on the first picture in this screenshot leads you to this page with the details about the products in the post:
Testimonials
So there are two kinds of testimonials you can consider when you are coming up with feed ideas.
There are the indirect kind, which can take the shape of user-generated content which involves a consumer reviewing/praising a product or a service.
But you can also go the other route and do it yourself.
You can request consumers to send in their testimonials along with pictures with the product or service. You can also create video testimonials to give it a more professional touch.
BTS Updates
Most of your consumers are interested in more than your products and services – they want to know what happens behind the scenes.
Nowadays, the journey of the business matters to consumers too.
And you can share it with the consumers in a number of ways:
- Photographs of the team showcasing the work environment
- Factory tours
- The product creation process
- And so on
A great example of a company that does this is Epiphany Glass. They create masterpieces from glass and showcase the process in videos like these:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKNnNCHt5v/?igshid=1qeak5o9te2re
This makes you not only want to buy the glass but visit the factory to witness how it’s made firsthand.
Thought Leadership
Insight into running the business or anything else, for that matter, is valuable.
And it becomes all the more special when it comes from someone who’s in the game.
If you are the CEO of a successful company, people want to hear about business-related concepts from you.
Because you know what you’re talking about.
This establishes you as an authority in the field.
Accomplishments
Once in a while, it is okay to stun your audience with numbers relating to how much you’ve grown or how well you’re doing.
You would think this wouldn’t make it to the list of Instagram ideas because who like a showoff, right? Wrong.
You’re not showing off at all.
You’re telling the consumer that you are worth their time and money and they will benefit from choosing you.
The best part is that it doesn’t have to be a massive achievement – you can celebrate something small like raising a couple of hundred bucks for a bunch of pups too.
Link to Blog
You will often have seen links in Instagram posts.
Often, these links lead back to the brand’s website, in particular a blog.
By using links in Instagram posts, you can drive traffic back to your site from your Instagram page.
The first thing this does is that it boosts your SEO efforts and your website thanks you.
Secondly, you lead the user to a much more detailed piece of information (that had been summarized in the Instagram post). If they clicked on the link, they needed that information – and you gave it to them.
In this way, you added value to their journey with your brand as well.
Throwback Posts
Throwback posts are great Instagram post ideas.
You can use them to reminisce with your audience about important milestones in the past.
It’s nostalgic, it’s emotional, it works!
You can now do this specifically with the On This Day feature (which lets you share memories from that very day but another year). Or you can just use a “throwbackthursday” hashtag among others.
Quotes and Inspirational Content
You may think this is cheesy but you if you use quotes sparingly and smartly, they won’t do your business any harm.
These can be anything, from motivational quotes to purely matter-of-fact ones.
The thing to keep in mind is this:
The quote should be relevant to your business and of interest to your consumers.
Competitions/Giveaways
Competitions and giveaways are the kings of engagement.
Everyone is interested when there are freebies up for grabs. And why shouldn’t they be?
What this means for your brand is a lot of likes, comments, and reposts. All in all, it means a lot of publicity at not too great of a cost.
One of the best ways to make use of this plan is the tag-a-friend approach. The like-and-comment-to-win approach works well too.
People like these approaches because they don’t have to make much of an effort to try and win something. What it does for you is to get you a lot of visibility among people that potentially didn’t know about you.
Tutorial videos
DIY videos are all the rage nowadays. And we don’t just mean during pandemic days.
People like the sense of achievement that comes with creating something themselves.
And you can relate this to the product or service you sell.
Let’s say you own a stationery shop. You can put up occasional videos teaching your followers different brush techniques, art styles, and more.
People will keep coming back to your feed to learn more and more. Which increases their chance of converting and actually making a purchase.
CSR content
Your business, like all ethical businesses, will run corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns every now and then.
The aim of these campaigns is to give back to the society you exist in.
That, in turn, reflects your values and ethics as a brand. Of course, your consumers need to be aware of these values.
Posting about these CSR campaigns helps you keep your audience in the loop, and well as promote a healthy company culture.
In addition to posting about a CSR campaign where you are going all out and making a calculated effort to contribute society in a meaningful way, you can also create posts about social causes everyone cares about.
This is all the more easy when your product is actually created to address such a concern. Such as the beautiful glass straws that Simply Straws creates:
But it isn’t necessary to have such a business to post content like this.
You can create standalone posts ranging from climate change to animal cruelty, racism, deforestation, and anything else under the sun you feel strongly about.
This is one of the Instagram photo ideas close to our heart because the world needs more positive voices and good messages.
And YOUR brand can contribute to that!
Ask-Me-Anything Sessions
We can guarantee that you have witnessed at least one such session being carried out by a celebrity or influencer, in one form or the other.
When you have a large following, the people who follow you want to know more about you.
And not just anything – they may have specific questions they want answered but it isn’t possible for you to get to each of their questions individually. That’s when you can have one of these ask-me-anything sessions.
You can put a post and encourage people to ask you questions, which you can then answer in the comments.
But most influencers or brands do this in their stories. They either have live session where they answer the questions people are asking in the comments or they use the question sticker in stories for the same thing.
You can choose whichever method suits you best.
Memes and GIFs
This is on one of those ideas for Instagram that you should think about before you employ.
Memes and GIFS can make for great informal interaction with your consumers. But they should be used sparingly and smartly (again).
Pay attention to whether or not the meme/Gif sits well with your brand voice, persona, and message. Also consider the demographics of your target audience and how they are likely to react to such content.
Just a note:
Here, when it comes to engagement, captions are as important as the meme or Gif itself. See, a meme or a Gif is random.
And while you know how the one you are posting is relevant to your business, your audience might not get it. But pair it with a brilliant caption that everyone understands and your engagement levels with go through the roof!
These are some fantastic Instagram content ideas that can work for any kind of business. But what considerations can you keep in mind when creating a schedule?
Here are some general Instagram secrets to consider when it comes to your feed:
- Instagram best practices dictate you should mix it up a little – the same kind of posts across your feed won’t do you any favors.
- Be mindful of the fact that the type of posts you create should be relevant to and appropriate for your business.
- Create an Instagram post schedule that works for your audience – they are the ones interacting with your posts and so they are priority number one.
- Don’t break any Instagram rules while attempting to ace the Instagram feed game.
- Play to your strengths – if something has worked well in the past, it’s likely to work well again in the future. Let it!
- Make sure your feed looks visually attractive as a whole. Here is one that caught our eye because its layout – and this is just what they were aiming for:
Wrapping it Up…
You now have a bunch of Instagram post ideas that you can start experimenting with.
Which ones will you start with?
Can you think of any others we have missed? Let us know in the comments below.
And if you have any concerns related to Instagram marketing, get in touch!
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