Instagram is a social network that is great for business and marketers as it lets post visual content able to cover the the huge number of people form the target audience in a short period of time. The visual content is the most reachable and engaging. The best way to market a service or a product is to share the right attractive content that will collect tons of likes so it will draw the right users.
The only question is what the content is the best to achieve this purpose? Actually there isn’t an exact answer as there are many content types that could work effectively in different campaigns for different Instagram accounts.
Firstly, let’s consider the possible formats of content that Instagram lets post.
Formats of Instagram content
Images/Photos
Image post is one of the most common format on Instagram. It supposes to upload only one picture in a single post: either by uploading if from the gallery or taking a new one with your phone camera. Instagram offers to apply some basic built-in filters and add captions, location and tag users.
The photos posted create the gallery of your account so be creative and use the variety of the images you create.
Videos
Instagram lets you upload videos as well. The videos should be 3 to 60 seconds long. They can also be uploaded from your library or recorded immediately. There is also an option to record a video with multiple clips – you need to pause it when you’re recording different clips.
Instagram plays video without the sound first, so it’s useful to edit video by adding the text on it before upload or make sure that is understandable without sound. The video post can also have its filter, caption and location.
Carousel
Carousel posts are those with multiple photos and videos in it. The limit is 10 photos/videos in a single posts.
The photos and videos are uploaded from your library and have the same orientation (square, portrait or landscape) – they can’t be set for every photo/video individually but the filters can.
The Carousel is largely used by business profiles as it’s a perfect option to showcase the products. Especially carousel posts are popular in Instagram Ads.
Stories
Stories are the temporary posts that are available for 24 hours. They don’t appear in the personal feed; to watch a story you should tap on the profile photo if it has the circle around it.
You can share photos and videos to Stories and complete them with stickers, polls and text.
Stories are great if you don’t want to clog your feed or you need to post some info about a recent event. If you want a story to be available longer than 24 hours you can save it to Story Highlights.
Story Highlights
The Story Highlights are the stories you added to your profile so they appear under your profile photo and become permanent even after 24 hours of the original story are expired.
When saving a story to highlights you are offered to choose a cover photo and add a story name.
Instagram live
Many bloggers use this feature constantly as they can connect their followers in real time. When the live video stream starts some of your followers will receive a notification and be able to watch it. They can also leave comments immediately in the built-in chat.
After the video is ended, it is no longer available for users but you can share it to your story.
IGTV Videos
It’s a brand new feature launched by Instagram. Now the users can have their channels with videos between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long. Large/verified accounts can upload videos up to 60 minutes long, but only from a computer.
After you create your channel you can upload videos and add title and description. If you’re not sure about posting it immediately you can save it as a draft but only from your computer.
When you launch IGTV the videos start playing at the same moment: you can watch videos recommended for your, videos from the users you follow, TOP videos. As for other posts you can like a video or leave a comment to it.
With IGTV business has a great opportunity to get closer to their followers and reach their target audience.
TOP of content types on Instagram
We described the formats you can use to create your posts on Instagram. But what visual content will they contain? It’s up to you to choose the topic and types that will be relevant for your account feed.
Here are the most popular and shared content types.
Inspirational quotes
Posts with text or a quote on a nice background draw users to engage your posts: like it and leave a comment. The quotes are so popular as they inspire people and get them excited. Either they agree or not with the text posted they will share their opinion.
The tactic of use this posts type with appropriate hashtags multiply engagement and your followers count.
Funny posts/memes
Some accounts make posts only with humourous content and get tons of like and followers. Humor always attract a lot of people but it doesn’t mean that you should have all posts of this category.
It’s great to diversify your feed with a meme or just funny picture. This way your account reach will rise as such posts draw users to tag their friend in your photo or share it with their followers.
Behind the scenes
Posting pictures of your products and services becomes boring eventually and the users start unfollow you. To avoid this situation you should involve your followers emotionally, show them not only your brand’s cover but also the spirit.
“Behind the scenes” posts are great for that. They humanise the brand and give users insight about you and your account. Using such content you’ll create stronger connection with your followers and show them that you’re open to them so they can trust you.
Food images
Every Instagram user has posted the photo of food at least one time certainly. It’s well-known that the good-looking picture of a dish attracts a lot of likes and followers. So use this type from time to time but don’t abuse it!
Selfies
Selfies are extremely popular nowadays as the mobile phones are equipped with front camera and it’s easier to make a photo by yourself than ask another person. Plus the current life rhythm forces to make photos on the run so the selfies are the best solution.
Photos with human faces create an emotional connection between you and your followers and get more likes than photos without faces. Don’t neglect the selfies in your post feed, make your photos more personal to gain more engagement.
Nature
The travels become an important part of human life. The people are seeking the beautiful place to visit and capture. That’s why the photo of splendid landscapes are so popular. Even if your account category isn’t linked to nature you should definitely post some scenic photos.
Animals
The world is full of animal lovers and the photos of animals are liked by almost everyone. If an user have a pet his post feed would be filled with its photos: a cat, a dog, a hamster and so on.
The travelers and scientific accounts post the pictures of wild animals. These photos can display some unusual creatures or just some nice photos from zoo, for example.
Some accounts manage social campaigns on Instagram by posting photos of animals that are in danger to attract people to share their help and attention.
We mentioned the most popular content types on Instagram but it’s impossible to cover all of them as Instagram is the constantly developing and growing social network.
The only question that arises is why do you need to know that?
Why to research the content liked by others?
The answer is simple. If you study what your target audience likes you’ll know their interests and you can apply this knowledge to your marketing strategy.
By posting the types of content that target your current and potential followers you will grow your Instagram community largely.
To see the likes of Instagram users you need you should monitor their activity on Instagram. We recommend to use Snoopreport.
After adding the required users in your dashboard and buying weeks of monitoring you’ll get the results with likes made by these users.
You can make in-depth analytics of the reports data: for example, convert the visual data into text labels and study what content is preferred by your audience, what themes attract them mostly.
The right use of the Instagram content types will assist you in growing your account significantly so make some research before making posts on Instagram. If you want to share your advice or experience concerning the posting of the content on Instagram, write in the comments below!