6 Effective Instagram Content Ideas for Beginners
Are you a beginner on Instagram and struggling to come up with content ideas? You’re not alone! Many people find it difficult to create engaging and interesting content that will attract followers.
I totally get what you’re going through. When I first started using Instagram, I felt so overwhelmed by all the content options. It was hard to figure out what to post and when to post. But don’t worry, I’ve been there too and still learning
That’s exactly why I’m writing this article. I understand your struggles and those moments of doubt when your ideas just seem to disappear. It’s tough when you see people posting random things online just for likes and shares. Some of the stuff out there can be pretty ugly, right? But hey, that’s not what I’m about. I’m here to help folks like me who are just starting out and need some guidance.
I’ve tried some content ideas that worked for me, and I’m still learning along the way. So let’s dive into it and make your Instagram journey a lot smoother and more enjoyable.
In this article, we’ll delve into the realm of a variety of Instagram content ideas for beginners which can leave your audience craving for more. But wait there is more. We’ll also look into topics including:
- How to create content for Instagram
- Best Instagram content
- Types of Instagram Content
- Instagram content strategy
- Instagram content calendar
- Which content is most popular on Instagram
- What are the different types of social media content?
As we have a lot to cover, let’s not waste any time and dive right in!
How to create content for Instagram?
I must say that this is a large topic and the first step on “how to create content”, should start by defining:
- whom you should be creating
- why you are creating content on Instagram
By “Whom” I mean your target audience.
- Know your audience: The key to creating content that resonates lies in understanding your audience.
So if you know what type of content you are looking to create then take some time to research the interest of your target audience. Like what they like, what type of content they usually spend time on, or what their pain points(doubts or confusion) your content solves
I know for most these will be boring tasks. But I am insisting you do so because knowing your audience helps you decide to structure the content in line with the interest of the audience.
If you are getting started out on Instagram, I’ve got some tips that can really help you out. Oh, and have you heard about ChatGPT or Google Bard? They’re pretty cool, right? I mean, who doesn’t know about them these days? If you haven’t tried using them yet, trust me. They can be a huge help in your content creation journey.
Here is a prompt that can help you analyze your target audience:
This is just an overview of the prompt, you can develop from this basic idea by adding extra to the prompt. For example, if you want a calendar to plan your Instagram post for each day. Then you can add something like “ Also, build a 30-day calendar for my Instagram uploading schedule” to the above prompt or you can make changes as you like.
2. Define your style:
Developing a unique and consistent visual style is creating an identity for yourself on Instagram. You can take inspiration from other brands or styles other people have executed if it match your post idea. There is nothing wrong with it. You can take references but dont just copy-paste them. Be yourself.
Certain color combinations or post styles can easily attract viewers’ attention. For example, black writing on a yellow or white background or red writing on a white background can be attractive. Also, writing(copies) should be short, and it’s better if it’s in question format as it drives more engagement.
3. Leverage visuals:
Instagram is a visual platform, so make the most of it! High-quality images and videos are essential to grab attention. Experiment with different formats like carousals, videos, and stories, to keep your content fresh and engaging.
4. Tell stories that build emotions:
There is a famous saying “People buy with emotions and define it by logic”. Touch upon feelings like joy, inspiration, nostalgia, or even empathy.
For example: Showcasing the journey is a fantastic way to engage your audience. Take them behind the scenes of the creative process or daily life. Share the ups and downs, the challenges you face, and the milestones you achieved.
If you are sharing content related to a rags-to-riches story of an entrepreneur or something optimistic, you could use a piece of emotional and motivational background music or can use your voice as background. Whichever suits your content.
Emotionally charged stories resonate deeply with your audience.
5. Engage with followers for more content
Building a community on Instagram goes beyond just posting content. You can engage with your audience by asking them to share their thoughts about a particular subject or run a post by asking them some relevant questions related to your content subjects and asking them to answer in the comments.
You can also share the post on other social media handles like sharing on your whatsapp status and drive more people to answer it. It can give you a new perspective and gets relevant ideas on how to create more content.
6. Analyze your competitor’s content strategy
This is the best way to look for content ideas and develop a content strategy. Look for other profiles that create content on similar subjects you target. Analyze which of their post shows good results (viewer interaction). You can also implement the content types in your profile, dont just copy-paste it but you can use the idea.
It's something like reverse engineering, your competitor had already done the work of researching and finding a good content idea. So, why do you waste time finding ideas? Just analyze their audience, and their content strategy and look if something is missing that you could make up in your content. It saves you time.
7. Analyze your Bio and Instagram content performance(insights).
If you are already started posting on Instagram, you can start by analyzing your posts. This can be done easily when you are using an Instagram professional or business account. You can easily convert your personal to a professional account.
Once you are in your professional account, click on insights at the bottom of each post. This will tell you:
How many accounts your post had reached( how many followers and non-followers reached)?
If it is a reel you can see the total watch time, or average watch time( average watch time is a good metric and should be compared with the total video length. It shows how engaging the video was.
Post interaction: Such as likes, shares, and saves. Saves is really a good metric because people will randomly like posts but they only save it when they think it’s valuable and need to revisit.
Profile Activity: This tells you the actions people take when they visit your profile after engaging with your post. you can see the new follows. It shows new followers, profile visits, external link taps, email button taps, etc.
The external link taps will tell you how many times any link you’ve included in your profile has been clicked. Like your blog link, website link, etc. These taps tell you that the people who saw your post were interested and likes to explore more about you.
8. Analyze what hashtags to use and where to use them on Instagram
Hashtags are the keywords that you can use to organize your post on Instagram and the power of hashtags comes from people using similar keywords. If you click on hashtags, you should access more posts on the same topic.
The type of hashtags you use will depend on the emotions you want to express, and the people you want to connect with. The hashtags you could include in the post should be a combination of general and niche hashtags.
Niches are well-targeted hashtags that focus on your content subject, more specifically. General hashtags are overly popular hashtags. You should have a combination of both.
You can analyze the performance of your hashtags in “Instagram insights” — impressions from hashtags to know how well the hashtags you used for the post are working.
So there are many metrics that we explored and beyond. The point is knowing which post got more viewer engagement and profile activity. Thus we can concentrate more on creating such content and analyzing the results, if it’s positive go ahead and if the results are not up to the mark then try differently. Try different methods, these trial and error will help you learn more about posting on Instagram as well as other social media sites.
As creativity has no limit, there are many ways by which you could develop your content for Instagram. Including collaborating and cross-promoting your content, where you can team up with other content creators to reach a wider audience.
As a beginner, these are some of the ways to mold your content for Instagram. Try out these basic methods and analyze the result before moving further.
9. Consistency
This is the part where most people surrender their weapons. We may know all the tricks and tips in the world to crack Instagram, but what if we are lazy to execute it or stay disciplined, no use right?
So keep disciplined in creating content — you can schedule your content and most importantly create content around the area that excites you or the area you are interested in. This will help you stay consistent.
Now let’s look at something new
Different types of Instagram content
There are currently five types of posts on Instagram and they all fit into your content strategy in a different way:
Feed posts:
They are the gird item you see when you visit someone’s Instagram account. They can be single-image posts, carousel posts ( with up to 10 images or videos which the user can view by swiping left on a post), and video posts ( up to 1 minute).
Feed posts are super crucial for your Instagram strategy. Why? Because they’re the first thing people see when they visit your account page. So, they make a big impression! Each post is important, but it’s also about the overall look and feel of the grid is important to keep the viewer attracted.
Why feed post matters:
- They can educate, entertain with humor, and inspire based on your content subject. They encourage interaction, getting users to save, share, and like your posts.
- Reach a wider audience: your followers and non-followers can see your feed posts. And if your posts get more engagement like shares, comments, and saves, the Instagram algorithm shows them to even more people.
- If more and more people engage with your content, there is a great chance that people will look for other posts in your account and this attract new followers and grow your account.
Remember, feeds are like the strong foundation of your Instagram account. So make a killer first impression for new visitors.
Reels — A great way to reach new followers.
These are cool short videos you can make. They’ve got their special feed where people can see all kinds of fun reels related to their interests. And guess what? Your profile has a section just for your reels too!
Have you seen your friend scrolling through some random videos non-stop? Then he is most probably watching Instagram reels. Here is where more eyes go and you should be there. If you post a reel and image post, you will see your reel getting more plays and interaction.
Reels have an amazing potential to reach not just hundreds or thousands, but millions of users — even if you’re not a big account. How awesome is that?
Contents on the reels could be educational, entertaining, or anything that people are interested in, but as I said in the starting, I insist you create some value for the viewers whether it’s an entertainer or educational or whatever it is. Don’t be that guy who posts any ugly stuff just for getting better reach.
Behind the Scene(BTS) is a good idea. People love seeing real and relatable stuff. BTS videos are perfect for that. Show off a day in your life, fun clips, or a day in your company(work life)
Some tips for reels:
- Keep them short and sweet: create something viewers enjoy
- Add captions and text: Make it accessible for everyone.
- Use trendy sounds: When you can use trendy, cool, and happening sounds.
- Keywords and hashtags; Sprinkle in keywords related to your biz in videos, captions, and hashtags.
Instagram Stories
They can be images or videos that can stick around for 24 hours. And guess what? You can save them to highlights, so people can enjoy them even after the 24 hours are up. Cool, right?
You can make Instagram stories directly on your account or can share your feed post to your stories as well. This is a great way to drive the audience to your post through stories as most of your followers will check your story as it will be displayed on the top of their profile.
Let’s look at some Instagram story tips:
Go in the moment: Share what’s happening right now to make your audience feel included and connected. This is an easy way to make content without much effort.
Engage with polls, and questions: Ask something to your audience, so they can reply. The more interaction your account will perform.
Link to your website and blogs: make it easy for your audience to check out what you have to offer.
Instagram videos
In 2021, Instagram combined in-feed videos and IGTV videos into one awesome thing called Instagram videos. They can be seen as different tags on your website making them different from reels. These videos can be as long as 60 minutes.
If you are a beginner, I feel it’s better to focus on reels and as you build your base you can expand to large videos. But:
- In-depth tutorial: If you like to teach something deep step by step, video can be useful
- Interviews: If you are having a conversation with a celebrity or with interesting folks. You can share those with your audience.
Videos may not get you tons of new followers, but they’re perfect for connecting with your current followers and giving them more value.
Instagram Live
These are real-time unedited videos that you can save and post later on Instagram videos.
The best part? Live broadcasts let you connect with your community at a deeper level. People can ask you questions in real time, and you can chat directly with them.
You can go live if you are attending some grand events, explaining something, or if you are witnessing something unique and you want to share it in no time.
Don’t you see people going live when they are at a great fest or a popular DJ party?
What is the best Instagram content? — I say, Reels and Carousels
Some say Reels only and that’s correct. But I beleive it’s better to concentrate on reels as well as carousals for content creation.
Let’s understand it from the perspective of
- Avg Reach rate
- Engagement rate
- Saves
Avg Reach Rate: The Rival IQ study revealed that reels boast a 14% reach rate while other media types see a reach rate between 9% and 10%.
Also according to a study by Social insider, the average reach rate for Instagram reels is 30.81%. Reels generate 2x more reach than any other type of content on Instagram such as images, carousels, or videos.
Avg Engagement Rate: The same study(Socialinsider) reveals that while being the most engaging content type on Instagram, Reels’ engagement rate is entering a dropping phase.
So when we look at the picture we could a drop in engagement rate from 1.98% in 2022 to 1.23% in 2023 while carousels and images stayed flat. But it is still the most engaging content. If the present rate of fall continues it’s not impossible for reels to end up the lowest-performing content type on Instagram at some point.
Average Number of Saves: There are different ways by which viewers interact with your content — likes, shares, and saves. As we discussed before people save content that they find useful.
So when looking at Instagram’s median number of saves, reels drive the highest number of saves for the smallest profiles, while for very large profiles carousels win the battle. This means as a beginner, reel content gets a better reach.
As you saw, overall Instagram reel leads the Instagram content game. But we cannot ignore the role of carousels and images when it comes to engagement. So it’s always clever to have a mixture of content types with a slight weightage to reels. These data may change in coming years and you better keep a watch for it.
Instagram content ideas for beginners
First of all, there are no exactly curated content ideas for a beginner and an expert. But there are various ideas anyone can try out and it depends on creative you can be.
If we take a closer look at Instagram, we’ll notice that certain trends pop up during specific periods. These content creators tap into existing demands and satisfy them, creating even more demand.
So as someone who is new to the game, let’s start small and gradually build your foundation. So let’s look into it:
- Ask questions — A short and crisp question can easily strike someone’s mind. If it’s a curious one much better.
The question makes people respond, just think about what will be your reaction when you read a question on the brand copy, your mind will start to develop an answer within yourself or like self-talk. Right?
Questions could be: “Have you ever _______?”
This or That, “Which one you choose?”
If the question could be related to the trend, they will be more likely to respond. For example, if you are from India, you may know the film “Bahubali”.
When the film was released the question that went viral was — “why Kattapa ( a character) killed Bahubali(a character)? I saw every social media channel going viral on this question.
Also, the background of the post is also essential, eg: something written on a white-in-red background, and white text on a black background can easily hook and get attention. Keep experimenting.
2. How-to content
This is a piece of cake. So as you have done your research on your target audience and their interest, there should be something in your mind about what you should create. If you are someone having expertise in a particular field, for example, a designer or a carpenter, you can create a video on :
“how to build design some cool logo or something” or “ techniques to build something from wood that anyone can try” — a step-by-step tutorial on Instagram video or a reel just showcasing the important parts of the process. This can really get your audience
3. Behind the scene tours:
As we discussed above if you are someone doing some wooden crafts, you could take your viewers to behind-the-scenes of your workspace, studio, or event. You know as we work it won’t be smooth and you make mistakes, sometimes your kid comes to your working place.
There will be many flaws and things. You can also show them the creative process, teamwork, or the effort n creating your art. Your audience will really appreciate it.
Upload the behind the scenes stuff separately from your actual content. Because people love to see this raw and true stuff. This will give you a better connection with your audience. It will help your audience to feel like you are someone among them.
4. Relatable content or memes:
It can be in the form of a video or an image meme that some group of the audience could relate to.
For example: If you are a designer in a company, you could create videos like “A daily life of a designer” in a funny way. So that other designers could give you a thumbs up and could drive the conversation
If you are a developer, you may be knowing how frustrating sometimes when your client keeps asking for changes to the website. Create some reel around that and will surely attract developers.
Or some post about something we enjoyed doing in our childhoods — grownups could easily relate to it.
5. Life hacks:
You could showcase some reels that you try out which could save time and energy for others. For example:
- Easy way to arrange your cupboard or an easy way to fold clothes
- Use a cloth pin to hold a nail while hammering
- Touch up wrinkled clothes with a hair straightener.
6. Inspirational quotes :
Share inspirational stories of perseverance, success, or community impact.
For example:
- sharing the life story of great personalities like “Martin Luther King”, “And Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam”
- Also, reels about Zen stories could teach some life lessons.
These Instagram ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. The key is to stay authentic, know your audience’s interest, and maintain a mix of engaging content to keep them coming back. Try out different ideas and keep experimenting, but make sure it is in line with your niche.
Most importantly, as we discussed many times in the above section, always keep an eye on the “Instagram insights” part. This will keep you an idea about the performance of your content(which performed well and which failed) and also about the viewer’s action. Then make changes accordingly.
As we have gone through some of the ideas now let's look at some strategies
Instagram content strategy for beginners
let’s look at Instagram from a beginner’s perspective.
- Set clear goals
As you know your target audience and their interest, which we discussed before. Begin by defining your objectives on Instagram. Understanding your goal will guide your content creation Let’s say your objective is to drive traffic to your account. Then we know from the above statistics reels are better to reach larger audiences in less time. If you add time and number to your goal it’s better. Like reaching at least 400 people for my content within 30 days’ time.
2. Analyze your competitor
First thing first, keep an eye on accounts that have similar content as yours. Take a look at their reels, image posts, and carousels, and see which type of pots gets the most interactions like comments, and likes. That’s the kind of content that’s getting better reach, so why not take inspiration from it and plan your unique content?
And trust me, this is not something you should do only once. It’s an ongoing process that can really boost your presence on the platform
3. Create a Content Calendar
Lets’s talk about planning. A content calendar can be a game-changer! Plan your content in advance, decide how often you want to post, and then schedule them strategically. This way, you’ll maintain a steady flow of engaging content.
For example, create a reel on Monday, try some carousels on Tuesday, and maybe another reel or a different content format on Wednesday. Experiment and have fun with it, but remember consistency is key. Keep those posts coming regularly!
We will be discussing the content calendar in the upcoming sessions
4. Start creating content: The most important part. You have your target audience and their interest, now start cooking.
Once you have created your content..
5. Schedule your content: Some days you may feel like that creative juice flowing through you, but some days you won’t and will be busy. Which makes it hard to create content on a daily basis.
So it's better to schedule your post. Everyone follows this way. There are different post-scheduling tools like Canva, planoly, etc which also help you plan your content.
I have discussed some good post-scheduling tools in detail in my previous blogs.
6. Utilize Insights and Analytics: As you start to create content, you get more engagements for your post and now you have some insights to work on. Instagram insights provide valuable ideas about your audience behavior, identify content that resonates the most, and make data-driven decisions for your strategy. Hope you remember what we discussed about analyzing your post like profile activity, post saves, and external link taps in the above section.
7. Monitor trends: Keep an eye on the latest trends and topics in your niche. This allows you to create timely content that too in line with viewers' interests. Sprout Social is a good tool to help you with social trends and it also helps you dig some great content strategy
8. Engage with the Audience: Most importantly don’t post and ghost. Engage with your audience, if someone comments on your post reply to them, and if the comment is worthwhile keep the conversation going by tagging someone. Also, give them something to engage with you — like post a quick poll or a curious trendy question.
Lets me tell you dont expect everyone to reply to the post. If your post is so striking then you can get better interaction
9. Be patient and keep experimenting:
Growing your Instagram presence takes time and effort. So be patient and experiment with your content style and posting time. Dont set any huge expectations in mind, just follow your calendar and create content.
Most importantly try to educate, and inspire your audience with your content. Add some value to their time and it will surely reward you.
So, I hope you got a better understanding of Instagram content strategy, If you just google, you may find different and complex content strategies. But I intentionally avoided it because I wanted to keep the strategy simple and could be easily followed by a beginner.
Instagram content calendar
Why do you need a content calendar? Whether it’s Instagram, other social media platforms, or any other type of content it’s always best to keep a calendar as it helps you plan as far in advance and keep yourself consistent.
So talking about the Instagram content calendar there is no right or wrong way to do it. You can use your Google calendar, google sheets, or even separate tools out there like Hootsuite template, Hubspot, Evernote, etc.
But the most important part is for you to ask some of the questions yourself — before adding them to the calendar
- What is the purpose of my account, what type of content, and whom am I targeting?
- How often do I want to post — every day, alternate days, twice a week (it’s up to you): As a fresher, it’s always good to post every day if possible or at least 5 days a week.
- What is the best time to post on Instagram? — It depends on who your audience is. So research their habits.
- How is my already existing content performing? — Audit your content, you can use Instagram insights,
Once you have decided the time of your post, content to be added, hashtags, etc, you can update the content calendars. Evernote is something I personally use.
Now as you have your calendar created, now is your job to create the content. Once created there are different post scheduling tools out there that can help your post to be automatically published. You dont need to be login to your account each time.
Some of the post-scheduling tools include:
Planoly: It is a great option for visually planning the posts from your Instagram content calendar. It helps you draft, plan and schedule your content. They also offer an analytical feature that helps you track your content performance. They offer a 7-day free trial
Canva: Canva is one of my favorites. As someone who doesn’t know Photoshop, this tool helped me create beautiful posts for my LinkedIn and Instagram profiles, whether it’s image posts, reels, or anything, Canva has it covered. It’s a great designer as well as a content planner.
Canva’s free version provides you with various templates for various social media as well as your office works. But the post-scheduling tool is only available for the premium version.
Hopperhq: They offer a 14-day free trial. In addition to that we have Hootsuite, Sprout Social, etc, and try to explore those.
I know you may feel I just quickly went through this scheduling part because I have already discussed it in detail in my previous blog( which I mentioned in the above section). So discussing it again make the post lengthier.
Remember there are many tools out there, and you don’t need everything. As a fresher, you can go with the free trial and decide which suits you the best. As you become serious about posting you can go for a paid version
Which content is most popular on Instagram
I think we have discussed it in detail in the above section based on a study by social insiders. According to the study, reels are the most popular type of content on Instagram.
Preferred types of content on Instagram according to users worldwide — April 2023 survey data
According to the above data by Statista, funny content ranks top in the best-preferred type of content on Instagram followed by creative. Of course, Instagram is a place where most people go to find something funny to spend their time or relax, which doesn’t mean it’s not a place to educate or show your creative skills. This is very well evident from the above graph
So I want to tell you this if you are not into creating some funny stuff, don’t be as you see there are audiences for different types of content, So do what you are good at and dont try to please everyone. There is a saying in marketing — “If everyone is your audience no one is your audience.”
What are the different types of social media content?
I’m sure that most of you are familiar with social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat. But have you checked out Linkedin? It’s a fantastic place to connect with professionals and find great content creators. You might get some fantastic and creative ideas that you can implement on Instagram as well!
Now, I know many of us are aware of the various types of social media content, but there might be someone who needs a little help. No worries, let’s break it down!
Facebook: Here, you’ll find a mix of photos, videos, articles, and status updates. It can be informative, entertaining, or interactive.
Twitter: it’s all about short and quick updates. It's like the fastest news source ever, delivering the latest happenings in a flash!
Pinterest: oh boy, it’s all about visuals. It's a visual search engine where you can discover and save content that catches your eye. You can create eye-catching pins that lead back to your blog posts, products, or anything you want to share with the world.
Youtube needs no introduction: We all love it! It’s the ultimate video-centric platform where you can share tutorials, vlogs, and all sorts of entertaining content.
And hey, I’ll mention blogs too, even though they’re not exactly social media platforms. Blogs are a powerful content medium where you can create informative and engaging articles.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you have done it. I know this has been a lengthy journey and expected everyone will be too tired to read the ending. We’ve explored various topics starting from how to create Instagram content, and different Instagram content to famous and popular Instagram content.
Remember, today there are great possibilities out there in the real of social media, so use it for good. Don’t be afraid to try new content types, embrace storytelling, and plan your posts with a content calendar. Engage with your audience, listen to their feedback, and let them be part of your journey.
Some ideas work some may not, so keep experimenting, learning, and growing. Most importantly be disciplined and keep consistent.
I hope my little effort to put together this content helped you to at least some extent. If yes, let me know in the comments.
