Creating content for Instagram. Content plan for Instagram: rules, templates, examples. What are the options for using video and who is it suitable for?

How to improve content on Instagram?

How to make your Instagram account better? What content should be published on the site, and what working rules should the SMM manager apply?

Beautiful pictures

Try to post beautiful, unique photos on your page. And in order not to personally reduce the organic reach of your account, refuse or at least minimize the use of banners.

Unattractive pictures belong in the “gallery”

In this case, “gallery” means several photos posted in one post. The user gets acquainted with the publication, flipping through one frame after another. This is a great solution for those who are forced to upload ugly content to Instagram. For example, medical photographs.

Don't use collages

The social platform Instagram is not the best place for posting collages. And there is only one reason for this - such content looks bad.

This is what should be under every post. If you don't have anything nice to say, wait for a better time. But there is no need to upload pictures to the page “for show”. Select the most relevant hashtags and make them part of your caption.

Copyright and original content

If previously unique content was created on a voluntary basis (at the request of users), now Instagram is determined to completely destroy the infernal copying machine.

Adaptation of content for Instagram

When creating new content, remember the system limits:

Don't forget to copy

Links to other external resources also do not work on the site. There is no text formatting on Instagram, so users are forced to break it down into paragraphs themselves, as well as add emoticons to add emotional color to the text.

Engagement

Publish only interesting, useful and exciting content. Otherwise, you risk becoming a victim of the system’s internal algorithm, which “rejects” unpopular posts. To make users more willing to interact with your content, organize prize competitions for them, conduct serious and funny surveys, and come up with quests.

Stories and online broadcasts

Do you want to establish good contact and trusting relationships with your subscribers? Use stories and broadcasts for these purposes. Proper use of the formats available on the site will provide your followers with variety.

Results

1. “Fill out” your personal profile wisely and tastefully;
2. Use galleries if you want to show the audience not the most flattering pictures;
3. Create original content;
4. Follow social network trends and adapt content to them;
5. Regularly work to improve user engagement.

Issues discussed in the material:

• Algorithm for issuing publications
• A new principle of working with involvement
• Planning publications
• New Instagram tools

In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram and although it was stated that the application would develop independently of the social network, some influence of the new owners can still be traced. Now Instagram is increasingly looking like a mix with features from major social networks and audiovisual mobile applications. In this article, we will look at the important changes in the popular content promotion channel and find out which trends work best.

Algorithm for issuing publications

In March 2016, Instagram launched an algorithm for issuing publications. Posts are no longer shown in chronological order; the most interesting for a particular user, according to the algorithm, appears first in the feed.

Once you publish content, only 10% of your audience will see it, who will decide how interesting it is. If this part of the subscribers likes, comments or lingers on the publication, the algorithm will find your post interesting and show it to the remaining 90% of the audience, which means the coverage of the publication will be large. That's why we all so often see posts in our feeds with photos of the first snow, a beautiful sunset, or children chewing lemon.

Changes in the post display model were immediately noticed by those who use Instagram for professional purposes - bloggers. We spoke with fashion blogger from Frankfurt, Gilda, and she shared her observations on this matter:

“I noticed some kind of sharp decline in activity on my account when I did not receive a single like on my post throughout the entire day. Although usually within 3-4 hours after publication I already had about 100 likes and at least 10 comments. After I complained about my problem to other beauty bloggers, it turned out that it was not my content that was bad, but the new algorithm took effect.”

New involvement

The engagement rate (ER) has begun to be taken into account differently, which now shows how active your audience is and whether you are really being read. From this moment on, the system of cheating bots, mass following and mass liking fails. Mutual subscriptions and one-word comments do not increase your engagement percentage. These frauds are no longer a panacea for promoting accounts. After all, if you have several thousand bot accounts, this does not mean that the audience really spends a lot of time in your account. Even if you leave an admiring comment under each post with one emoticon or the word “beautiful”, this is still not considered activity.

According to the new rules of the algorithm, as many bloggers have noticed, comments must consist of at least 4 words. And the algorithm only takes into account those likes that the post received during the first hour.

However, Instagram has not officially confirmed this information. The public needs to be pumped up and forced to communicate in the comments, conduct dialogues, discussions and debates. And all this again so that your posts are displayed at the top and seen by as many people as possible, i.e. to increase coverage.
According to Gilda, these new rules create great difficulties for bloggers who collaborate with brands. No brand will want to pay a blogger for posting a post if the reach is small, it’s simply pointless.

Planning posts on Instagram

This update only came into effect in 2018 and applies to business accounts. Instagram has released a new API with which you can program the publication of content on the platform. Previously, this could only be done through third-party programs for creating posts and calendar reminders. Users received push notifications to the mobile application and had to go into the application and publish a post manually. With the new API, posts can be scheduled to a profile. For SMM managers and marketers, this update will be very useful.

Additional tools for 2016-2017

• Hashtags.

In the past, hashtags made content navigation easier. With their help, you could quickly find photos and posts in the desired category. The more hashtags you came up with for your post, the better it was for you and your followers.

Now hashtags are also used to categorize content. But their number and placement works a little differently and you need to use them more carefully. If previously it was considered effective to put up to 30 tags on a photo to promote a post, then according to the new rules this will already be spam.

Use no more than 5 hashtags, and each time you should alternate them and add new, non-repeating tags to the constant ones.

In order for the new algorithm to actively promote your post according to the desired tag, you need to not only monitor the quantity, but also the placement. The hashtag must be in the text of the post itself.

Thus, the tag for a photo on which all your subscribers left a comment and likes can get to the top, and this, in turn, will increase your reach. This will help make your post visible not only to your subscribers, but also to all users interested in this hashtag.

If you track posts for a specific category, you can subscribe to a hashtag without subscribing to the account itself. At the same time, it is important to be aware that there is a possibility of seeing a lot of spam, for example, using the “food” tag. It will not mean “food” to everyone.

• Stories and live broadcasts.

In 2017, Instagram is adding a new content format: Stories - 15-second video publications with a 16:9 format that are saved in the news feed for 12 hours. The format is very similar to Snapchat. In stories, you can also publish photos from the gallery that were taken on your phone in the last 24 hours.

Stories gradually updated their functionality and new features appeared:

• Tag another profile
• Add a hashtag
• Insert an active link to a third-party site

You cannot leave comments on Stories, but you can react by replying to it in private messages.

Live- video broadcasts, in which all your subscribers can also participate. During a live broadcast, account owners can see comments posted by followers. Video broadcasts are displayed in the section with other Stories and are also saved in the feed for 12 hours.

Not long ago, it became possible to create categories and save stories in selected publications. They will be stored there until you delete them.

To create categories, you need to collect stories into an archive. To do this, you need to activate the desired mode in the settings. The icon is located on the profile page in the upper right corner, click and you will see the following:

The archive of stories will be replenished after they disappear from the new ones. After publication, you can create a category by clicking on “Select”. And in the future, from all the saved stories, you will be able to select those that are suitable for the desired category and add them to “Relevant”.

Gilda advises using stories to announce publications.

• Recommendations.

If your followers are fans of a healthy lifestyle and constantly like your account with beautiful food photos and recipes, then perhaps such posts marked “Chosen for you” will begin to appear in your feed.

• Statistics.

In 2016, business accounts appeared with the ability to collect statistics on the coverage of publications. For many brands, this has become a real salvation, since now blogger promotion becomes more understandable and transparent. You can see how much coverage a particular publication from a popular blogger received. If this is a story with an active link, you can see the number of clicks on it in the statistics.

How brands can use Instagram innovations

All these new features are designed to motivate users to spend more time on Instagram. If these innovations are used correctly, they will become excellent additional tools in the brand’s marketing strategy.

According to a 2016 study by marketing agency Brand Networks, the share of video advertising increased from 30% to 65%. And by 2020 it will take up 80% of all Internet traffic.

Run advertising in video format. Many brands actively use advertising on Instagram, which can be launched directly from the application. Posts with gifs, photos and videos are increasingly found in the feed. This is all very similar to sponsored posts on Facebook.

Come up with your own hashtags. For time-limited advertising campaigns, you can come up with a branded hashtag to make it easier to track activity. As, for example, the German supermarket chain Lidl did this in Spain. The hashtag Plandeprimavera was created to advertise the brand's Deluxe product line. This line was sold in chain stores with a promotional discount for 2 weeks. To attract attention, the network launched such a campaign.

Get serious about stories. The Wiltoncake brand actively uses stories to announce live broadcasts on Facebook and sells products.

What to remember

Instagram continues to develop and introduce more and more new products for the digital audience. To actively develop your profile, you need to have at least a little understanding of video content and be truly interested in your subscribers. Bots and “dead” profiles are no longer useful for promoting your account.

Some tips on how to prepare interesting video content for Instagram from Gilda.

1. When working on a video script, it is worth considering that most often the video will be watched without sound, so the plot should be captured in one picture.
2. The video should be short - the average duration is 1 minute.
3. And dynamic, otherwise they won’t watch it to the end.
4. If you plan to have captions or text over the video, it is better to use a special text block.

About engagement:

1. Be careful when purchasing comments and likes. It's not secure and not recommended, but it still works.
2. Join blogging communities on Instagram, choose several interesting accounts with similar topics. Stay tuned and comment. Then these bloggers will comment and like your posts back.

This may be reminiscent of mass following and mass liking, but in this case bloggers with similar topics play the role of influencers. They do not harm your reputation, but on the contrary, they will help expand the topics for publications, because you will be able to create collaborations to increase the reach of publications and the number of followers.

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

A well-designed content plan is half the success. In any situation, you will have a post prepared, and the page will remain alive. Pre-thought-out themes will receive high-quality design. We share recommendations on how to write a content plan for Instagram, tools for its implementation and ideas.

What is a content plan for Instagram

A content plan is a schedule of posts that is prepared in advance. Its task is to ensure regular page activity and not lose customers. To create, you need to have a good understanding of the chosen topic and be able to tell the audience about it.

How to create a content plan for Instagram

Step 1. Decide on the type of account

What types of profiles are there on Instagram:

1. Educational. On your page, the client will find useful and practical information: from explanations of incomprehensible things to simple instructions on how to implement something in life. If you sell clothes, talk about modern trends, classics, share tips about fabrics, colors and anything else that comes to mind. Show that you are a professional, and clients will flock to you.
2. Motivating. Nowadays it is popular to set goals and move towards them. People need support. For example, let's say you sell sports equipment. Subscribers see his photos in the feed with an inspiring quote, and perhaps the story of a particular athlete. Each post is supplemented with information about the product.
3. Blog. Choose a topic that is close to the product. Publish stories, thoughts, useful life hacks. In short, enter a regular blog. Include information about the product and links to other sources in the bio. The advantages of maintaining a profile this way: advertising is not intrusive and looks native.
4. Shop. Post photos of products with detailed information, be sure to indicate the price. Dilute your sales texts with informational, entertaining and personal materials. Do you do flowers? Tell your subscribers what bouquets can be brought to a wedding or how to give it to a man. Add a funny photo based on the topic. Share a story about how a rose changed your views.

What page are you ready to run?

Step 2. Formulate your promotion goal

Why did you start Instagram?
Possible options:

• audience expansion;
• attracting traffic to the landing page;
• increasing brand awareness;
• improving the company's reputation;
• information about products and discounts.

This is not the entire list. Find your goal and stick to a plan to achieve it.

Step 3. Lay out the structure

You know your profile type and purpose. Use them as a starting point when determining the dominant content on the page. What will you post more often and what less often? For example, 60% are informational posts, 20% are sales posts and 20% are entertainment posts. The shares help you not to go astray from the logical content.
Don’t impose selling texts; try to dilute them with other types of content. Diversity improves competitiveness.
Blogs need one or two themes that will run throughout the material.
Don't neglect personal stories: subscribers love to read about real people.

Step 4. Think about what information about the company needs to be conveyed

Describe the advantages of the brand. Sample ideas:

• quality product;
• original approach to business;
• useful information;
• caring for the client.

Make your own rules about posts that meet your requirements. Focus on what the company wants to convey to the audience, and what subscribers, in turn, expect from the brand.

Step 5: Make a Schedule

1. Think about what the posts will be about, formulate a topic.
2. Choose the frequency and time for publications. More details: "".
3. Complete the schedule.

Start creating posts. During the creative process, ideas often come up about what else to write about. Write them down separately. Filter out duplicate or unsuccessful ones, edit the remaining ones.
Pay attention to relevant posts that everyone will soon know about. They must appear outside of the schedule. Subscribers will see that you live these moments with them.

Where to get inspired and get material for posts

1. Sections for subscribers. Ask them what they want to know about. Eliminate ideas that are not in your format and start implementing them.
2. Chat in the comments. Often, many ideas can be gleaned from discussions.
3. Thematic groups and channels on other social networks. See what's popular in your area. Write your thoughts or comments. Process the information for Instagram format.
4. Competitors. What topics are popular with them? What are they discussing? No need to steal, write from a different angle.
5. Old posts. Once your audience has grown, you can offer a selection of high-quality old posts to interest them and increase engagement. This also includes sections with popular posts for the month.
6. Guest posts. Publish posts from subscribers or experts.
7. Ready-made ideas for bloggers and businessmen are constantly published on the Internet. Enter your topic into the search and see what people write about and what they ask in the comments. Write down the most frequently discussed topics for yourself. Find ready-made lists and edit the appropriate items to suit your needs.

Content plan for Instagram: sample

Let's give a few examples of how you can draw up a content plan.

Ready photos for posts can be combined into galleries. A preliminary view will help you navigate the best location.

In addition to how to develop a content plan for Instagram, the page owner must be able to analyze the results and make changes to the new schedule.
Analyze your posts for the week. Select the most popular posts. Compare and write down what they had in common. Do the same for the unpopular ones. Make changes to the schedule for next week.

Applications for a content plan for Instagram

1. Planoly. The tool is available in mobile and desktop versions. What it does:
   - adds content in photo, video and carousel format;
   - selects hashtags;
   - works with text;
   - sets reminders;
   - divides the photo into parts to display one large one in the profile;
   - downloads from Google Drive and Dropbox;
   - searches for stock photos.
   Paid application. 30 sample photos per month available. The subscription price depends on the number of accounts and time of use. Approximate range: 600 - 3,250 rubles.
2. Later. Test period - 30 photos per month. The program works with simple statistics, sends notifications, and searches for hashtags. There are sharing functions for the team. The tool is entirely in English. Videos can be published only when you connect to paid plans.
3. Buffer. The free version of the application is available for one account. Paid Buffer for Business has a two-week trial period. Detailed analytics with comparison functions and sorting statistics. Functions for working with the rights of an administrator and other team members are available. Export, save data at any time and add it to reports with one click.
4. Content Office is another content planner for Instagram. Works with photos, videos. Post templates available. Selects hashtags and edits text. The user can edit information about himself. The program includes an analysis of the best time to post. A paid subscription allows you to maintain up to 10 accounts simultaneously. Contains sections with training and tips for creating quality content.
5. Preview. The application is available in English. Basic functionality allows you to work with text and photographs, and you can select hashtags. You can work with the content plan without registration. The paid version offers detailed and high-quality analytics of pages: both yours and competitors. Contains a built-in photo editor.

Let's sum it up

Determine the profile type and content structure. Use the recommendations and tools and create a ready-made monthly content plan for Instagram.

A commercial page on Instagram is a special case. This social network has its own rules. Here you cannot engage in PR in the same way as on Facebook, VKontakte or Twitter. If you decide to promote your project on this site, it is important to learn in advance the techniques that will make the process effective.

There are many tricks that increase popularity on Instagram, starting with , ending with regular updates. But today we'll talk about content. People familiar with SMM know what is worth offering to the public. - this is not a Korean random, but a clearly thought-out scheme of action. Let's learn this.

Main types of content on Instagram

1. Informational.

Information material is reliable information about your products or services. Buyers love it when everything is laid out for them on the shelves. Instagram is perfect for this purpose: you can endlessly post images of a product, describe its characteristics and notify people about new arrivals.

Remember that on Instagram, brevity of the text and attractiveness of the image are important. Learn to identify the most necessary facts and present your product from the best side. Spend most of your time on the information component. Imagine that you are looking for a fitness trainer to help you lose weight for the summer. Find two pages. One shows the credentials and experience of the owner, and also demonstrates the work process and client results in detail. Another features a hundred gym selfies and nothing else. Who will you choose? Same thing.

Dry information must be diluted with entertaining content. The Instagram audience does not like to be bored. Even if you run an account dedicated to nuclear physics, you can always find a way to unobtrusively distract readers from the main topic. Here's a list of things you can post to lift people's spirits:

• a story about how your day went, with a beautiful photo of a cup of coffee or a cityscape;
• photographs of pets;
• funny pictures and internet memes;
• life hacks;
• unusual stories from life.

It’s great if all this resonates with the main content of the account. But offtopics are also not forbidden. The main thing is that they do not make up more than half of the content.

At first glance, it seems that Instagram is not at all suitable for educational purposes. Still, the main component of posts is pictures, which have much less intellectual value than text. However, it’s also possible to have fun here.

For example, one of the first educational accounts belonged to National Geographic magazine. There were photos posted there from all over the world.

There are plenty of options. You can post reproductions of famous artists, short book reviews, mathematical formulas with explanations, diagrams for easy learning of the English language, and much more. Just don’t forget to decorate everything beautifully.

Describing the benefits of a product in detail is, of course, good, but it’s not a fact that people will believe you. Every manufacturer praises their product, and there is nothing special about it. It’s another matter when the opinion of an independent expert is used. His assessment is more likely to be listened to than the words of a little-known company or studio.

Expert content is often not separated from informational content. There is an idea that everyone who promotes their project, by default, knows everything about it, so they can act like a professional. Even if this is the case, an outside perspective never hurts. A positive review from a colleague is an additional plus for the public's favor.

What should an expert post on Instagram look like? This is a photograph of the person conducting the analysis, as well as a detailed commentary. If an expert’s review is on YouTube, VKontakte or other social networks, you can provide a link to it so as not to overload your subscribers with large amounts of information, but a short description must be attached to the link.

5. Selling.

There is a lot of literature about selling texts. If you know what this is, you can easily navigate content for Instagram. The point of sales posts is to convince people to make a purchase from you. It is not necessary to saturate the page to capacity with them, but in no case should you forget about them.

Selling elements must hit the target. Use them as:

• information about prices and discounts;
• evidence that your product is popular and that customers like it;
• clear benefits for the reader.

If you see that sales are not increasing, you can always change your strategy. Experienced digital workers are convinced that even a small detail can change the mood of customers by 180 degrees. Don't be afraid to experiment!

User-generated content is essentially customer feedback. If people say good things about your product or tell interesting stories about it, don't be shy to brag about it.

The opinion of ordinary consumers is trustworthy. A screenshot with a positive response will once again prove that you are working at a high level.

How to combine different types of content?

Subscribers quickly get bored with the monotony. To retain your audience, you need to skillfully combine types of posts. There are also patterns here. SMM specialists have developed the ideal ratio of materials on Instagram. Informational content should be at least 50%, entertaining - about 20%, and selling - approximately 30%. The remaining varieties are used much less frequently and are used as a supplement to the main ones.

Of course, interest is not an axiom. Don’t fanatically calculate the number of posts with a calculator. The main thing in maintaining an Instagram account is to use common sense and listen to the wishes of readers. If something is popular, highlight it. If something causes a negative reaction, discard it as unnecessary. In the end, your earnings depend on your audience.

Example of a content plan for Instagram

If you want to get a steady flow of followers on Instagram, post something regularly. In order to post regularly, you must know in advance what and when you will publish. That is, you need a content plan. In this post I want to bring example my content plan for Instagram, which I compiled for two weeks. I do not indicate the exact time when I will post, as the best time to post during the day may differ for each user. I wrote about how to find out the best time to post on your account.

A content plan should be drawn up based on the goals you are pursuing. In my case, the goal is to popularize this blog and attract traffic to the site. I don’t know how suitable Instagram is for such purposes, but time will tell.

For the external design of my feed, I decided to use a checkerboard layout, where the bulk of the content would be posts linking to blog articles. And here is his figurative representation.

Below I will provide a content plan for my account. Every day I will make 3 publications in the main feed. For each type of post I will use a specific name, an explanation for which you can read in the list under the table with the content plan.

Selfie- there is always a place for a good selfie on Instagram;

#selfie #me #hello #helloworld

Blog post- a post containing the title and announcement of the article on my website;

Repost- creating high-quality content is often not so easy, but reposting another user’s cool publication and leaving a comment on it is much easier. Just don’t forget about copyrights and that polluting your feed with reposts is a deterrent;

#repost #post #content

Post of vigor- a post that contains encouraging content designed to energize and motivate you to work;

#motivation #energy #success #work #goal

My reading- here I will publish what I am reading at the moment, as well as interesting excerpts from books and magazines I have read;

#reading #Iread #book #reading #intelligence

The working process- while working on a blog, I have many interesting questions, new ideas or skills appear, and an awareness of something new comes. I will describe all this in this post, accompanied by a good photograph or a whole series of photographs. Here are some questions regarding this post:

• What am I working on at the moment?
• What tools do I use?
• Where do I collect information and what inspires me to do this work?
• Plans for the near future and where are they coming from?

#work #working #working moments

Pets- if you have a pet or just love animals, then this is a big plus in terms of content. I have a cat who is very interesting to watch. In the future, I plan to create my own Instagram account for her, but for now I will dedicate one post to her once every two weeks on my account;

#pet #cat #meow

My family- your Instagram account will become interesting to users if it matches your lifestyle. People are always interested in a person and his environment. I think in this regard, family is the closest and integral part of the environment. Therefore, the appearance of people close to you in your feed will always attract attention and arouse interest;

#family #myFamily #relatives

Friends/Colleagues- the people who surround us can tell our subscribers a lot. One post in terms of content should be dedicated to friends, colleagues or just interesting people you know;

#people #mycircle

Post-Idea- Various ideas very often come to my mind, some of which are worthy of attention and discussion. Unfortunately, I don't have the habit of writing down everything that comes to mind. But I can remember one idea that came to me recently. Moreover, if it can become quality content in my feed;

#idea #thought #brilliant

Creative post- on Instagram you often come across creative ideas that you want to borrow. For example, photographs where a hand extends an object to photograph it against a plain background. Or, a photograph of feet standing on an unusual plane;

Photos with me- this is a photo where I am the center of attention. After all, this is my blog, and who should I pay more attention to in it, if not myself? The photo should capture moments that fit my lifestyle;

Delicious post- food posts are some of the most popular on Instagram. This is probably no coincidence, because a good photo of a delicacy or a tasty dish increases your appetite;

#food #eat #breakfast #lunch #dinner

Appeal to subscribers- ask your subscribers for advice, ask them to help you, invite them to do something for you or for their own benefit. Such a post will increase the engagement and interest of subscribers in your account;

#advise/#advise

Meme- memes are very popular on the Internet and are very welcomed by the audience. The main thing is that subscribers understand what they are joking about. On my Instagram account, I will post memes about social networks, since that’s what my blog is about;

#meme #humor #funny #joke

Longread- this is a post with a photo and a large text of a story that happened to me or of which I became an eyewitness. The topic is not important, the main thing is that the story is interesting, vital, and also instructive;

Post about the project- I want to use my Instagram account to promote my blog on this network, as well as to attract additional traffic to the site through Instagram. A post about the project will tell subscribers about the blog, its history, and goals. About my successes and failures on the way to creating and promoting the project;

#socialniesety #blog #project

Internet hacks/LikBez- this is a post where I talk about solving some small problems related to social networks or the Internet in general, as well as about incomprehensible and new terms used on the network;