20 Inspiring Instagram Post Ideas for recent and distinctive Content

There’s no question that many tiny business owners should construct a presence with Instagram marketing. The excellent information, though, is that there are plenty of different ways to keep your Instagram feed fresh and your followers engaged. (require followers? This navigator on how to get followers on Instagram will assist.)

In this post, you’ll explore what to post on Instagram, with ideas and examples you can adjust for your own brand. You’ll also discover how to make a posting schedule to bring your Instagram marketing way to life, and even get some ideas on how to make money on Instagram by promoting your products. desire that highly coveted and immensely valuable verified badge? Visit this navigator on how to get verified on Instagram.

20 top Instagram post ideas

1. display off with product posts
2. Convert customers with product tags
3. Produce fun Instagram Reels
4. receive followers behind the scenes
5. Repost user-generated content
6. provide your employees the spotlight
7. Announce recent products/business milestones
8. Run an Instagram contest/giveaway
9. Seize the instant with seasonal posts
10. inspire followers to tag a partner
11. Inspire followers with a quote
12. distribute your throng involvement
13. Cover an occurrence
14. associate with influencers for content
15. Cross-promote with other brands
16. inquire questions and provide answers
17. Solicit comments/content with a prompt
18. Provide video tutorials
19. Get them swiping with carousel posts
20. leave live!

1. display off with product posts

High-standard pictures and videos of your products will likely be one of the easiest (and most expected) places to commence on Instagram. Sharing content featuring your products in all their fame will, of course, assist you drive sales and promote your business on Instagram.

When photographing products for your feed, you desire to avoid making them look like ads. Ideally you’re showcasing your products in an aspirational yet relatable setting that your spectators can picture themselves in.

You’ll also desire to include wealthy, fascinating captions, not just a product name and a few trending Instagram hashtags.

Instead, you can consider treating a post like an chance to pitch a product, discussing features and benefits or highlighting what makes it special.

Clocks And Colours does this well in its image below.

Strive to make product posts that focus more on conveying a feeling—a mood, aesthetic, association, or sentiment that you desire people to ponder of when they view your brand name.

2. Convert customers with product tags

Instagram tags and stickers for products are distinctive formats for posts and Instagram Stories, respectively, that enable direct purchases through Instagram.

Users can click on product tags, for example, to get more information about a product, like its name or worth. If they click again, they’ll be taken to a screen where they can make a purchase.

Product tags make it easier and more convenient for users to purchase immediately on mobile, increasing the likelihood they’ll pursue through. You might consider using product tags when you’re running a sale or offering a discount.

Instagram recently released product stickers for Instagram Stories that let users click to view product information and then decide whether to buy.

3. Produce fun Instagram Reels

Many brands don’t use enough video on their social media marketing channels in general, but they’re especially lacking in video on Instagram.

Video is significant in today’s current social setting, and using more of it in your feed will assist you stand out. What types of videos you make is up to you. You can distribute product videos, brand storytelling videos, vlogs, or Q&As.

Video is even more significant after the release of Instagram Reels—an extension of Instagram that allows users to make short videos up to 15 seconds long. You can add audio, effects, and other attention-grabbing elements, then distribute them on your feed or through the Explore tab. As a bonus, the Instagram algorithm tends to prioritize newer features and Instagram content formats, which could provide your post an added boost.

4. receive followers behind the scenes

Followers adore behind-the-scenes content. It creates transparency that allows them to feel like they’re getting to recognize the “real” you behind the brand. This builds depend, and it’s a refreshing transformation of pace after a stream of product images.

Another enjoyable bonus? Behind-the-scenes content doesn’t require to be nearly as polished as some of your other images. Because of this, many brands prefer to keep their behind-the-scenes content exclusively for their Stories. 

Check out more Instagram narrative ideas to make your behind-the-scenes content stand out. 

5. Repost user-generated content

User-generated content is some of the most persuasive content you can use, and your followers adore to view it on your Instagram. It shows that you’re engaged with your throng, which can earn you excellent will and more UGC at the same period.

UGC is something you’ll desire to post on an Instagram narrative to promote your brand in a subtle but highly effective way. Whether it‘s a meme, a testimonial, or simply a photo that includes your product, if you desire to post it on your feed, make sure it’s exceptionally executed and matches your brand. 

Anatomie does this well on its profile, featuring plenty of posts like the one below, showing its clothing worn in attractive, exciting places around the globe.

inspire UGC by letting users recognize what you desire to view and giving them a hashtag they can attach to their image. Search for this hashtag and inquire for permission to distribute relevant posts on your profile.

6. provide your employees the spotlight

Content that focuses on (or, even better, is created by) employees is a great alternative for Instagram. Selfies and other “sneak peek” Instagram photos are another way to display people the human side of your brand, making it easier for them to form an emotional connection to you and depend you more.

require some encouragement? Tributo shares pictures of its main crafters behind the scenes, working on their latest assignment. 

This not only makes the brand relatable but emphasizes the hand-crafted facet of its products, reminding potential customers that its furniture wasn’t just churned out by a machine.

7. Announce recent products/business milestones

Here’s a concept that’s straightforward but effective: announce recent products or recent business updates on Instagram with an fascinating visual.

This gives you more content to distribute on the platform and also encourages users to pursue you, because everyone wants to feel like they’re in the recognize about a brand they adore.

Pop Chart Lab regularly launches recent prints, and Instagram is another channel for it to keep its spectators informed.

Alternatively, you can distribute business/personal milestones, such as making your 1,000th order or becoming a recent parent.

8. Run an Instagram contest/giveaway

desire to get a lot of engagement quickly and generate thrill around your brand? Contests and giveaways are the way to leave.

Contests will get people talking about your brand, and they can often profit powerful social proof or user-generated content, if not both at once.

For best results, propose a prize that’s most relevant to your target spectators, even if the general population wouldn’t be that interested. After all, anyone would comment for a free iPhone, but it’s more significant to get engagement and entries from users who could actually become customers.

The example above from LEIF does it correct by offering a great prize (partnering with similar businesses), making it straightforward to enter through its Instagram bio link and quickly flagging the contest with GIVEAWAY at the beginning of the post.

discover how to run your own contest in How To Run An Instagram Giveaway: Ideas + Tips

9. Seize the instant with seasonal posts

Customers adore to get into the holiday spirit. It doesn’t matter whether that holiday is a major one, like Thanksgiving, or an unofficial one, like National Dog Day.

receive advantage of this by creating seasonal posts that are timely and immediately relevant. Posts about summer vacations, winter weather, and even a specific meteor shower can work in addition to the obvious holidays, too.

Prada’s post below demonstrates how well this can work. It uses the chance to promote its recent Prada Holiday pop-up store. 

There’s one thing to always be mindful of with seasonal posts: Instagram hashtags. One of the biggest advantages of seasonal posts is that the hashtags are directly relevant correct now, meaning more users are likely to seek them out. Fill your post’s description with plenty of timely, holiday, and seasonal hashtags for best results.

Not sure how to implement this? National Ice Cream Day posts could advantage from hashtags like #nationalicecreamday, #iscreamyouscreamweallscreamforicecream, and #sweetstobeattheheat.

Thanksgiving posts could incorporate #thanksgiving, #turkeyday, #fall #autumnweather #harvestseason, #holidayseason, #almostblackfriday, and more.

10. inspire followers to tag a partner

The tag-a-partner way is sometimes used in tandem with contest posts, but they can exist on their own, too.

These posts will inspire followers to tag a partner in the comments who they ponder would genuinely like the product or who might relate to the subject of your post. An incentive may be offered (as in the case of a contest, shown in the example from Mahabis below), but it’s not a necessity.

This way will earn you a lot of social proof, and it can introduce recent users to your brand. That said, you desire to use this sparingly or you’ll uncertainty looking like you’re just spamming Instagram for followers. Try to ponder of creative ways to inspire users to tag their friends.

11. Inspire followers with a quote

Motivational quotes are benevolent of like the feel-excellent cheesy movies we all adore. There’s so much negativity online, after all, sometimes we just require to view something positive and inspirational.

This also creates positive associations between your followers and your brand, which is always a plus.

There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to inspirational quotes. You require to make the image visually appealing, like in the example above from gypsy05.

Do this using dynamic colors and layouts. You can use tools like Canva to assist you make these images quickly. And don’t overlook to financing the quote to the person who originally said it.

12. distribute your throng involvement

One of the quickest ways to establish depend and loyalty in your spectators is to post content showing involvement with your throng.

If you happen to have a home base or a storefront in a sure location, you can focus on your local throng with Instagram content ideas that highlight your city or associate with related businesses in your area.

Some brands, like Kutoa Bars, make throng a central part of its mission statement on Instagram. Kutoa Bars actively works to reduce globe hunger, and its posts get a ton of engagement.

This isn’t surprising, because it makes followers feel excellent about supporting the brand, and it reminds them that by buying a delicious snack for themselves they can do excellent elsewhere.

13. Cover an occurrence

Instagram is a great place to showcase your involvement in any sort of occurrence. You can post content from before, during, and after the occurrence to make more hype. This can be an occurrence that your business is hosting or one that you’ve been invited to attend.

Xterra boards, for example, posted the following image about its involvement in races it participated in at Mission Beach. This was a great way to display that it’s prominent in and involved with the throng, making it more relatable to its target spectators and earning it credibility all at once.

14. associate with influencers for content

If you desire to assist your brand garner some extra credibility and attention quickly, influencer marketing is a excellent way to leave.

Chaos is a luxury lifestyle brand, and it uses social media influencers to add some credibility to its name. The post below features and tags an influencer with more than 40,000 followers.

large name influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers aren’t essential. In truth, it will actually be better in most cases for Shopify merchants to reach out to smaller micro-influencers and nano-influencers.

These influencers may only have tens of thousands of followers, but they’ll be trusted by their spectators. They’re also likely to be more open to working with tiny businesses, and more affordable if they consent.

15. Cross-promote with other brands

Cross-promotions with other merchants can be intentional or they can be quick shoutouts. Whether you’re establishing a collaboration, brand collaboration, or just mentioning them in a post, it can construct valuable relationships and display customers that you’re invested in the throng.

throng can be an industry, a local area, or something else entirely. If you sell yoga clothes, you can throng up with a merchant who sells your favorite mats.

Or, if you have a local presence, like GREATS, you can provide a quick shoutout to a nearby bakery that’s running a special. Even ecommerce customers who live far away will appreciate the gesture, especially since it gives you a feeling of togetherness from supporting tiny businesses.

16. inquire questions and provide answers

If you’re looking for another way to propose worth to your followers, you can’t leave incorrect with a Q&A. Answering customer questions on Instagram will inspire more people to pursue you (especially if there’s a chance for you to respond their own questions).

You can have Q&As written out in a text-based image, with one question and respond to a post. recall that the limit for Instagram captions is 2,200 characters, so you can actually squeeze quite a bit of writing into your post, if you desire to.

Instagram even released a Questions Sticker you can use to solicit answers from your spectators and distribute your response as a photo or video.

Video can be an especially efficient way to respond questions. You can distribute it after it’s recorded or film it live. Choosing Instagram Live can even let followers inquire you questions in real period, which can drive up responses significantly.

17. Solicit comments/content with a prompt

In this post we’ve discussed how effective user-generated content can be. Now we’ll receive a look at how exactly you can inspire it.

One of the best ways to get more UGC on a sure platform is to make a post designed to motivate users to contribute and distribute. This may involve leading by example and sharing a narrative before asking users to distribute their own. In other cases, it may be as straightforward as posing a question and asking other users to comment.

Either way, let users recognize to upload their photo and tag it with a branded hashtag. This way, you’ll be able to discover the content more easily and re-distribute it. Let users recognize they have a chance to be featured on your feed, too. While no one would declare no to a prize, for plenty of users, the distribute alone is a great incentive.

DripDrop uses this way on Instagram, encouraging users to distribute recipes containing its products and upload the pictures to Instagram.

18. Provide video tutorials

Video tutorials have the distinct advantage of being immediately valuable and actionable to your target spectators.

Even a 30-second product video showing them how to use, worry for, or set up your product will leave a long way. Your customers will be joyful to view this content, and if you can display how straightforward your products are to use or how valuable they are, you might be able to make some sales too.

Cheap Cookie Cutters understands this concept, using video tutorials (some of which arrive from users) that promote its products. These videos are short but display how you can receive its cookie cutters and make decorated, iced masterpieces.

Watching our #minniemousecookiecutter arrive to life at the talented hands of @sugarshimmer is just as exciting as a trip to the Magic Kingdom! view the link in our bio for this Minnie cookie cutter!

A post shared by Cheap Cookie Cutters (@cheapcookiecutters) on Mar 30, 2018 at 6:26am PDT

19. Get them swiping with carousel posts

Carousel posts allow users (and brands!) to upload multiple images or videos into a single post. Users can scroll through to view divide media on each slide.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot you can do with this post format. Options include:

• Showing multiple ways to use a single product
• Showing multiple related products, each with its own product tags
• Showing a series of pictures taken during an occurrence
• Showing a step-by-step product tutorial

In the example below, Sage Brush Coffee has three different slides that showcase different gift packs for Mother’s Day. These products are all related, but because they’re different, there’s an increased likelihood more people will discover something to buy when they view it.

Whether you’re looking for a Cold Brew structure, a straightforward French Press, or a stylish on-the-leave Hydroflask, we have got mothers day in the bag! Each Mothers Day Gift Pack comes with 12 oz of delicious Sagebrush Coffee. Let us receive worry of Mothers day this year so you can spend all your vigor on making her day absolutely perfect! 💖 *Click the link in our bio to purchase! . . . #sagebrushcoffee #mothersday #mothersdaygift #coffee #hydroflask #frenchpress #toddycoldbrew

A post shared by Sagebrush Coffee (@sagebrushcoffee) on May 4, 2018 at 2:37pm PDT

20. leave live!

Live video is another type of post that can assist you boost Instagram engagement with your followers. It feels authentic, and users can interact with you in real period (followers will get notified when you leave live).

You can respond questions, display behind-the-scenes content, or characteristic recent products. You can also post the Instagram Live video to your Stories after, giving you additional content with plenty of social proof.

Announce to your throng when your live stream is going to happen. You’ll desire to add a countdown timer on a narrative post so people don’t miss it. A live video is also dependent on people having push notifications enabled for live, and most don’t. 

For best results with your live video, you should:

• Announce it in advance so followers recognize to tune in
• Have a schedule and habit before you leave on
• provide your spectators at least 30 seconds to join by incorporating a preamble before you commence
• Try to be in an area with excellent lighting and little to no background noise

Don’t be afraid to mix up your Instagram post ideas

Instagram offers a lot of potential as a platform for creating and nurturing relationships with your target spectators, as well as features to convert them into customers.

Because of this, it’s significant to have a mix of engaging content that will appeal to Instagram users at different stages of their customer trip. For example:

• Inspirational quotes can get recent users to comment on your posts and pursue your account.
• Product tags and stickers can convert followers who are ready to buy now.
• Behind-the-scenes videos can inspire repeat purchases and back from faithful customers.

So keep in mind how each Instagram post concept can contribute to your social media goals (engagement, sales, etc.).

How to make an Instagram content calendar

We just threw a lot of post types at you, which can feel overwhelming.

But in diversifying your Instagram posts, you can maintain a well-rounded profile, which users will respond to more enthusiastically.

Keeping track of all of this, however, can be challenging. That’s why we recommend creating a social media content calendar, preferably using social media scheduling software that lets you:

• Post to Instagram from your computer (which makes it easier to make, edit, and manage your media)
• Schedule posts in advance (ideally at a period of day when your spectators is using the app)
• Upload and organize your media to maintain a backlog of content

Later is a free (for up to 30 posts a month) all-in-one scheduling tool you can use to get started. It even has a drag-and-drop characteristic that lets you easily shift content around.

This lets you chart out in advance what will be posted when so you can not only schedule your content accordingly, but make sure your different post types are all mixed up for best results.

Alternatively, you can use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram content if you’re building a presence on several social media platforms at once.

Creating the best Instagram posts for your business

If you’re feeling stumped, receive a look at the creative Instagram posts on our list and inquire yourself which types of content you’re not using yet and why. After all, the best Instagram profiles are those that manage to mix it up. This keeps your profile from feeling too one note or overly promotional.

Ultimately, you’re posting things to get more Instagram followers and construct brand recognition, but it’s significant not to get lost posting anything for exposure. Your objective should be to have your brand be consistent on the platform but your content and person posts diversified to keep your followers interested. A balanced content calendar and plenty of different ideas is a excellent place to commence.

Illustration by Eugenia Mello