tricks for creating great Instagram content.

Social media is an essential tool for growing your brand, tapping into new audiences with the touch of a button.

Yet Instagram is a competitive marketplace and attention comes at a premium, so you need quality content, consistently, to make it work.

It can be exhausting coming up with new ways to engage your followers all the time.

Luckily, help is out there.

Here are some tricks and tips for creating great Instagram content without the headache.

Get started today and watch your business grow!

1) Templates Are Ready-To-Use Content

You don’t need to be a PhotoShop whizz to create great content for your ‘Gram’.

Creative, unique content can come from ready-made, online templates which are available all over the place.

Our favorites are Spark Post (from Adobe) and Venngage. These tools can help you to create beautiful visuals that stand out all over social media.

These are especially good for adding text to images in a vibrantly eye-catching way, perfect for getting your message out there.

If you’re a business running a special offer or simply advertising your latest addition to your store, these tools allow you to create the perfectly crafted message with a look that fits your brand, and they’re so easy to use!

2) Source Top Quality Stock Photos

Stock images can go either way – if you’re not careful you’re going to come across tacky and uninspired, and for these reasons a lot of people shy away from them.

But we don’t always have time to create original high-quality content and sometimes we’re busy with the hard graft of running a business to take pictures of the process.

These are the times you can fall back on stock photos from places such as Pixabay or Stocksy that offer fantastic images for brand builders on a budget.

The trick to making sure these images look great is ensuring your images are sized correctly for Instagram.

If you’re going for a classic square aspect ratio, 1080p x1080p is guaranteed to look great.

3) Funky Formats Find Followers

Posting the same style of content day in day out will naturally start to feel stale – both to your own creative mind and to your followers.

Mixing up the kind of content you’re posting on your feed is a perfect way to stay fresh as well as help you come up with new creative and engaging content.

Instagram limits a video in the feed to 60 seconds, so a quick video can break up the scroll of still images.

This is the perfect length for a quick tutorial or how-to, educating and engaging your followers.

IGTV has been booming recently allowing for longer format video content where you can get your message across.

Don’t feel restricted to one kind of format – brainstorm across everything from GIFS to IGTV series and you’ll have fresh content on the reg.

4) Recycle And Repost

If you’re having trouble coming up with new content for your Instagram, don’t fear.

You’re never operating in a vacuum – similar brands are creating content that your followers would love to see, and sharing and reposting is a fantastic way to build a community around your brand whilst growing your audience.

For example, if you’re a local restaurant focussing on dinner guests, then sharing a cocktail from the place around the corner is a great way to get a local feel: your followers might just plan an evening that takes in dinner and a drink.

And never forget, you’ve got great content ready made on your own Instagram.

Why not throw in a “throwback” to a popular old post. Thinking about bringing back an old favourite from the menu, for example? Throwback!

5) Reach Out For User Generated Content

Why should you do all the hard work?

Your followers are already engaged with your brand and, no doubt, keen to interact.

Ask them to share their favourite images – if you’re a fashion brand, for example, you can ask which fashion combos your followers are loving this season, all tagged with a searchable hashtag you can find and ultimately repost.

If you’re a small brand you can incentivize your followers to post by running competitions and giveaways.

Create a unique hashtag to build a buzz, and you’ll have content flooding in.

Snap

Leveraging reposts, throwbacks and user generated content engages your audience, builds a community in your niche and boosts your brand.

With these tips and tricks, you’ll have no trouble coming up with the freshest content for your feed. Try them out!