Small or big, each business should build its presence on Instagram. Naturally, you might find yourself stumped on what to post next in your account, but we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll be sharing ideas with examples of what to post on Instagram. All of them are easily adaptable to your business needs and modifiable to speak true to your message and values. Ready to bring your Instagram profile to life? Well, then, continue reading!
Showcasing your products
Now, this might seem very straightforward, and, well, it is! But, it is also a great opportunity to pitch your product and show the customers why it is special.
To do so, opt for placing your product in a relatable or inspiring environment. In short, make it look less like an ad and more like a vital part of your customer’s life. One that they definitely can’t do without!
And if you want to take it a step further, add a cool caption, not just a couple of trending hashtags and the product name.
And the ultimate goal here would be to convey feelings and stir emotion in anyone looking at your photo. A tough task indeed, but very doable with some practice.
Use Tags In Your Posts And Stories
People expect convenience when shopping online, and using tags in your posts and stickers in your Instagram Stories, is a great idea for that.
By clicking on a tag, the viewer can get more information on the product featured on their feed, and when clicked for the second time, the tag takes them straight to a purchase screen. This simplicity makes the likelihood of purchase that much higher.
Although you can absolutely use tags and product stickers on almost every post, using them on sales or discounts seems to work the best.
Reel In The Audiences
Video content is the king these days, and businesses should take notice of it. Now, with Instagram Reels – short videos up to 15 seconds long – the demand for video content is even higher on the platform, and brands can use them for their own advantage. Sharing product videos, tutorials, storytelling content, Q&As, et cetera are all good ideas! And the more fun and offbeat these videos are, the more they tend to catch audiences’ attention. So, this is exactly where you can let your creativity shine through.
Behind The Scenes
Behind-the-scenes content is an excellent way to gain the audience’s trust for being authentic and showing them what goes on in the process of making their beloved products or services. This type of content is also usually less polished, which is another huge bonus – less time spent on content production equals more time communicating with the customers.
And it truly doesn’t matter what’s your ‘behind-the-scenes’ – a day at the office, a taste-testing event of dog snacks, or sewing a shirt, each of these content pieces is equally curious and entertaining to your customers.
User-Generated Content Reposts
Nothing is more authentic and transparent than user-generated content. So much so that some brands use this kind of content in their Instagram accounts almost exclusively! This shows the brand’s involvement with its community, and resharing its member’s content, in fact, creates even more user-generated content in return.
You can make it even easier for your followers to create such content for you by offering them a hashtag to use next to their photos or videos. It also makes it easier to search for such posts on Instagram via the hashtag. Of course, before reposting it onto your own account, ask the owner for an agreement.
Let Your Employees Shine
Featuring your employees in the content representing your brand is a very good idea, but letting them create their own posts is even a better one. This way, you can showcase your brand’s transparency and human side. After all, it’s the employees who are the heart of any business, and customers love to see who’s making their beloved products or guaranteeing the quality of services.
New Product Announcements And Significant Milestones
A sneak peek, a teaser, or just a plain ‘get it while it’s hot’ post is always a great idea that drives the sales forward. After all, it’s only human to be curious about new things and to be the first one to try or own them. However, do not forget that a tasty visual is detrimental here to catch the audience’s attention.
As for milestones – this kind of content invites your followers to celebrate together with you, and if you decide to offer a discount or a sale because of such a milestone, it might encourage your followers to become customers.
Contests & Giveaways
Now, who doesn’t want to try something new and exciting for free in exchange for just a reshare or a comment? You’re right, everybody! Thus, a contest or a giveaway post is very likely to generate a decent amount of engagement and amp up the excitement of your followers.
Make these posts eye-catching, don’t forget to mention that it is a ‘giveaway’ up front, and enjoy new rates of engagement!
‘Tis The Season For Impressions
And not only during Christmas time! Seasonal posts are just wonderful – it shows that your business is keeping current with the goings-on, inspires the customers to cherish the season or the celebration even more, and that’s exactly where you can go hard with eye-pleasing aesthetics to match the one of your product.
Another thing is that these kinds of posts, be it Thanksgiving or National Cat Day, are relevant at the exact moment they are being posted, so don’t forget to include timely hashtags! People tend to search for seasonal hashtags, and you might see a large spike in impressions if you do your best on such a post.
The Tag-a-Friend
Tag-a-friend posts do their job nicely inviting new people to follow your page and giving you loads of social proof. Tag-a-friend option is most often used in tandem with giveaways and contests; however, they can work very well as stand-alone content, too. Just be sure not to abuse it, or else it will be on the verge of Instagram spamming, and as you well know, audiences do not like that.
Community Involvement
Showing your brand involved in its surrounding community or working together on charitable causes builds customer trust and loyalty. No surprise here. It also gives your customers that good feeling when buying your products for knowing that they also support a good cause with their purchase!
However, try not to overdo it, as the audiences are pretty apt to know if the brand is using a cause just to increase sales, which is a big faux pas.
Partner Up With Content Creators
Who knows better about the ins and outs of social media, if not the influencers? It’s been proved time and again that creator content can do wonders for brand awareness, driving sales, and everything else in marketing. So, if you’re thinking of finally launching your own social media influencer campaign or looking for a way to make the processes involved easier, working with Agenic might be your answer.
Do Q&As
Question and Answers posts or stories offer loads of added value to them – answering customer questions provides transparency, gives useful tips on using your products or services, and invites more followers.
For Q&As, you can choose simple Stories with the question sticker, you can do a whole post dedicated to a question, or you could make a short video. Either way, this kind of content is always a good choice.
Tutorials
… but make it a video! As we’ve discussed before, video is the reigning type of content for now, and making a video tutorial is getting two birds with one stone. First, you offer a glimpse of how your product works and what your customers can do with it, which is almost like trying it yourself. Second, it is a video. Yup, that’s a bonus in itself.
Go Live
We all suffer from a degree of stage fright, but going live should still be one of your priorities on Instagram. Before going live, tell people about it in a couple of preceding posts and amp up their excitement beforehand. Then, once live, you could do Q&A, show a tutorial, give an inside look at the event you’re participating in as a brand, and even launch new products.
Going live offers an entirely new level of authenticity, and that’s what the audiences value the most.
Of course, you don’t need to use all of these ideas to create a successful Instagram account. Instead, take a look at them and decide which content types could work the best for you, and don’t be afraid to mix and match them. After all, uniqueness always wins; tell the people what you stand for and just do you!
