Where to Find Content for Instagram Featured.jpg

Where to Find Content for Instagram

Instagram marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes these days, and if your business isn’t currently active on Instagram, it’s time to change that. Instagram gives businesses a free way to connect with their audiences, and with a billion users and counting, it’s where their audiences are.

There’s no doubt about it, your business should be active on Instagram. But, that means that you need content to post on Instagram, and that’s where many small and local businesses hit a snag. What you post on Instagram helps to establish your branding message and has a direct impact on the impression you make on your audience. It’s important to get it right.

It’s essential to post regularly on Instagram, but finding what to post can be easier said than done. Here are a few tips to help.

6 Tips on Finding Content Ideas for Instagram

#1. Create your own “ideas library.”

While you want to ensure that what you post on Instagram is relevant to the moment, you also don’t want to approach your daily posting schedule without any sort of plan. Having some ideas prepared ahead of time will help you avoid decision paralysis when it comes time to post.

That’s where having an ideas library can really come in handy. Having an ideas library to pull from will help you stay on top of your posting schedule. Make sure to organize yours so that it’s easy to find what you need by creating a column for content types to post, which could include videos, stories, promotions, memes, etc.

#2. Get to know your audience.

Creating the best, most relatable content for your audience means understanding your audience. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you get to know your audience:

  • What questions do they have?
  • What makes them cry?
  • What makes them laugh?
  • What are their pain points?
  • What do they want?
  • What do they fear?
  • What do they love?
  • What do they hate?
  • What do they look like?
  • How do they identify?
  • What keeps them up at night?
  • What are their desires?
  • What are their frustrations?
  • What sites are they visiting?
  • What do they crave above all else?
  • What are they passionate about?

Any insights you learn about your audience through this process should be added to your ideas library so that they’re always on your mind when creating content.

#3. Keep track of your competitors.

Emulating businesses that are doing it right on Instagram is a great way to get started, but that’s not always easy to do when those businesses have little to nothing to do with your industry or business. But, there are businesses out there targeting the exact same audience that you are – your competitors — and you should always be in the know about what their Instagram marketing strategy looks like.

I’m not saying that you should copy your competitors, just that you can gain insight into what to do and not to do in your own Instagram marketing efforts by paying attention to what they’re doing. Pay attention to things like how often they post, what kind of content they’re creating, how engaged their followers are with their content, and even how often and how quickly they respond to comments.

#4. See what other brands are doing.

Don’t just look at your competitors. Make it a point to also study what other brands you like are doing and how they use Instagram. You want your own strategy to be unique and modern, but if you’re new to the world of Instagram marketing, it might not be possible to come up with an effective content strategy without first understanding what other brands are doing.

Pick a few brands that have established a unique voice or that you enjoy following personally on Instagram. When brands are creating content that people want to see regardless of whether or not they consider themselves to be customers, they’re worth paying attention to. And when one of those brands does something that stands out to you and makes an impact, figure out how to adapt it to your business or how to create a similar effect.

#5. Make sure to plan for the holidays.

Social media management doesn’t rest, and that includes on the holidays. That’s not to say that you have to do a whole lot of work on holidays. In fact, you can schedule out your holiday posts ahead of time using the Facebook Creator Studio or a third-party app, like Hootsuite. This will save you from having to spend your holidays creating Instagram content, and it will ensure that you’re posting key content on holidays.

Make sure that you include each holiday in your ideas library with an idea of what kind of content you think would be appropriate for the day. Filling out your holidays — as well as other notable dates, like the first day of spring or the day of the election — will help to fill out your monthly Instagram schedule.

#6. Keep adding new ideas to your library as they come to you.

You don’t have to have a plan for every Instagram post you’ll create over the next month right away. The best ideas are often the ones that come up out of nowhere or when we’re not even thinking about Instagram content. Make sure that you add ideas to your library in real-time as they come to you.

After you’ve started building your ideas library for Instagram, create a consistent posting schedule, and start posting. If you don’t have the bandwidth in your schedule to stay on top of posting on Instagram, put someone in charge of it who does.

Building your own website is a great start to building your online presence, but social media marketing — including Instagram — is another very important aspect of building that presence. I hope that this blog will be helpful in your Instagram efforts, and don’t forget to add an Instagram badge to your website!

Start building your website with the Websites 360® website builder today, and learn about how Marketing 360® can help you get Instagram marketing right.