Instagram content ideas ANYONE can use

Welcome back to our blog! Last week we talked about Instagram feed strategies. This week, let’s talk about Instagram content ideas.

No matter what your account is about, there are 6 core Instagram content ideas you can use:

1. Educational
2. Personal
3. Community
4. Promotional
5. Customer focused
6. Entertaining

You can choose one content idea, or you can mix them up.

It’s up to you.

You’ll see I have added “mantras“. They are phrases you can use when you’re about to brainstorm post ideas for your account.

Ready?

Let’s have a look at post ideas for each type of content.

Content idea #1. Educational posts

• Businesses
• Influencers / Bloggers

Why:

• To show your knowledge and that you’re an expert so people trust you and your brand.
• The more you show that you know what you’re talking about, or share fun / helpful / unique tips and tricks, the more people will want to continue to check out your content.

Mantra:

• “How can I help them today?”

Post ideas:

• How to ___
• Expert advice
• Statistics
• Did you know? ___
• Top Trends
• Answer your audience’s frequently asked questions
• Make a list of people’s pain points / problems and how you can help solve them (one problem = one post)
• 3 reasons why you should ___
• Biggest mistake for ___
• 3 things I wish I knew before I ___
• 5 steps to ___
• My favorite ___ [thing] for ___ [goal]

Your Preview app has educational post ideas. Check these caption categories for more ideas:

• “Starters” to help you start your caption and grab the attention of your followers
•  “Service-based business” for caption ideas that speak to and help your potential clients / customers (if you provide any type of service, you can use these captions).

See the end of this post to see where the captions are in Preview.

Content idea #2. Personal posts

• Businesses (if you want to get personal or want your product to speak like a human)
• Influencers / Bloggers

Why:

• Let your followers get to know you and trust you.

Mantra: 

• “Friends, not followers.”
• “We’re not followers, we’re people.”

Post ideas:

• Introduce yourself / About you
• Make a list of personal stories you would like to share (example: funny stories, childhood stories, pet stories, school stories, personal growth stories)
• Choose personal ‘categories’ you want to talk about (example: books, food, pets)
• 5 fun facts about me
• Behind the scenes
• Share your wins
• Your goals / vision
• How you’ve been feeling lately
• What you’re working on / doing lately
• Meet the team
• What you love about what you do
• Why you do what you do
• The story of behind building your brand / Why you started
• Your personal favorite product / service

In Preview app, check these caption categories to get more personal post ideas:

• “Starters”
• “Personal”
• “Service-Based Business”
• “Entrepreneur”
• “Behind the Scenes”
• “Funny Quotes”

Content idea #3. Community posts

• Businesses (if you want to grow a community of like-minded people around your brand)
• Influencers / Bloggers

Why:

• Have fun! Build a genuine relationship with your audience.

Mantra:

• “Behind every number of “like” or “follower” is an actual human being reading my post. What can I say to them? What would I like to write?”
• “Write as if you are talking to a friend.”

Post ideas:

• Ask questions in your captions so people can answer and leave genuine comments
• Play games – This or That, “Which one would you choose?”, “Which one is your favorite?”,  “Have you ever ___?”
• Share relatable personal / business stories
• Ask for your audience’s advice on something
• Help people
• Do Q&As
• Start a conversation on a topic related to your brand (is something trending right now?)
• Ask people to introduce themselves

In Preview app, check these caption categories for fun questions, conversation starters, and games:

• “Get Comments”
• “Weird Questions”
• “Tag”
• “Share this post”
• “Call-to-Action”
• All the “Questions” categories in the app like “Travel Questions”, “Food Questions”, etc… to get playful question ideas you can ask your followers.

Content idea #4. Customer posts

• Businesses

Why:

• To increase trust and show that other people already trust you and have purchased from you. New visitors will see and be motivated to buy from you, or contact you too.

Mantra:

• “This is my community. And I would love to help you too.”

Post ideas:

• Show your final products (example: final logo if you’re a graphic designer)
• Customer photos (ask your customers to take a photo and tag you in their Instagram posts so you can repost their content)
• Testimonials
• Customer reviews
• Share behind the scene stories (example: if you are a wedding photographer, you can share a photo and talk about how it was to be behind the scenes for this client)
• Share results / analytics (example: Instagram analytics results for a client)
• Before and Afters

In Preview app, use the “Testimonials” caption category for caption templates to share what your customers / clients say about you.

Content idea #5. Promotional posts

• Businesses (if you want to get personal or want your product to speak like a human)
• Influencers / Bloggers

Why:

• Show your product and services in photos, videos or behind the scenes.
• Get your customers to envision themselves wearing or using your product, or getting the same results as you

Mantra:

• “I want to invite my followers to purchase my creations that I am so proud of.”

Post ideas:

• Product photos
• Product videos (can be Reels videos)
• Lifestyle photos (of your product in a real life setting, not staged)
• Product tutorials, tips and tricks
• DIY ideas
• Giveaways
• Stop motion videos
• Favorites
• Best sellers
• Back in stock
• Before and Afters
• Packing orders
• Coming soon (great if you’re about to launch new products / services and want to get your followers excited)

In Preview app, check these caption categories:

• “Shop”
• “New Offer”
• “Restock”
• “Sale”
• “Urgency”
• “Handmade Business”

Or check the other caption categories based on your industry or what’s in your photo, like:

• ‘Fashion’
• ‘Jewellery’
• ’Hairstylist’
• ‘Makeup’
• ‘Lashes’
• ‘Brows’
• ‘Travel’
• ‘Restaurant’
• ‘Interior Designer’
• ‘Wedding’
• Etc…

Content idea #6. Entertaining posts

• Businesses (if you want to grow a community or want to catch people’s attention on the Explore page and Hashtag Pages )
• Influencers / Bloggers

Why:

• Bring some fun to your account if it fits with your brand and personality.

Mantra:

• “Let’s have fun together.”

Post ideas:

• Quotes (relatable and related to your brand)
• Memes
• Reels video trends
• Holidays and Events (you can use Preview’s Content Calendar to keep track of fun holidays)
• Funny photos
• Instagram versus Reality
• How it started versus How it’s going
• What you see versus What I see
• 2020 versus 2021
• This time last year

In Preview app, check these caption categories for funny caption ideas:

• “Popular sayings”
• “Funny Quotes”
• “Weird Questions”
• “Throwback”
• “Inspirational Quotes”
• “Motivational Quotes” in Preview App for entertaining caption ideas

You can also use other categories based on what is on your photo / video. For example, there are a bunch of fun caption ideas in these categories too:

• “Food”
• “Beach”
• “Friend”
• “Coffee”
• “Dogs and Cats”
• Etc…

Where are the caption categories?

You can find them in Preview on your phone or on the computer.

Open your caption:

More Instagram content ideas

There are 6 types of Instagram content ideas you can use:

1. Educational
2. Personal
3. Community
4. Promotional
5. Customer focused
6. Entertaining

Which one do you post? Or which one(s) would you like to post?

You can choose one type of content, or more.

More content ideas will be added in Preview before new holidays, events and seasons start.

Have fun planning your posts, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. I will be around to answer comments!

More tips:

• The Best Instagram Strategies to Grow your Account
• Instagram Post Ideas for Personal Accounts
• Instagram Post Ideas for Business Accounts