10 Instagram Post And Story Ideas For Better Engagement

Content creation is undeniably one of the most challenging aspects of running a social media account. Without engaging content to keep your audience interested in your profile, you will lose your followers’ interest as they focus on other accounts with more exciting content.

Content creation on Instagram goes past simply posting pictures and videos on your profile. There are many methods you can adopt to create entertaining Instagram posts and stories that will skyrocket integration on your profile. Have you run out of ideas?

We have ten Instagram posts and story ideas for better engagement.

Content Creation On Instagram 

Instagram was created as a platform for people all over the world to share visually appealing pictures and videos. It was a benchmark that marked the creation of an online community fueled by love for moments captured in beautiful posts. The creation of Instagram was an immediate success.

People loved the idea of an app that helps them exhibit their terrific- and terrible, as there is no bias on the app- visual content to their followers. While this was great, Instagram was not just another Pinterest. The Instagram application facilitated connections between friends and strangers regardless of the location, making it easy for users to connect with other users on the app.

Since then, Instagram has evolved into an app with different features and functions to help other users maintain and grow a healthy community that encourages the sharing of different kinds of content. It began to rival other social media platforms and soon became one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide.

Instagram went from having just a million users in the first couple of months to have more than one billion active users globally. Instagram has a vast demographic of users of all ages from all over the world. There are male and female users varying from 13 to 65+ years old, with 25 to 34 making up the most active user percentage.

The great thing about Instagram is that there is content for everyone. With over two billion monthly active users having interests in various niches, it is impossible not to find a specific group of people that meets the description of your target audience.

Instagram is an excellent way to connect with people and build your brand through exciting content. With engaging content, you can grow your profile and gain organic, loyal, and active followers that tip the social media opportunities in your favor.

Why Is Great Content Important?

High-quality, engaging content is the key to staying ahead of the competition on Instagram. You are just one of the two billion people that use the app. While you undeniably cannot reach all two billion people, you have a medium to reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of people.

To do this, you need to have high-quality content that stands out from the tons of content circulating on Instagram daily. Now more than ever, Instagram users are paying great attention to the posts on their IG feed. Consequently, other Instagram users are taking advantage of Instagram’s unique and sophisticated features to create content that their audience will not be able to scroll past or forget.

Your IG page is your brand identity. Unless you plan on growing your page as a hobby, you should focus on solidifying your reputation on IG with high-quality content that attracts users. Great content gets all the eyes on you. The uniqueness of your content will speak to your credibility and authenticity and will undoubtedly get you a lot of support.

People are tired of seeing the same thing pop up over and over again. This causes them to appreciate great content when they see it.

Quality content: 

• Builds loyalty in people that follow your profile: Quality content not only sets you apart from the thousands of other accounts on their feed but also helps them view you as a genuine account. In an era where Instagram is filled with lots of pages, IG users love pages that have personality and offer unique content that keeps them thoroughly entertained. 
• Helps you beat the Twitter algorithm: Twitter algorithm prioritizes quality content over quality. This is why you are more likely to get content that is relevant to your need at the moment. This leaves you wondering- what happened to the content from the rest of the people you follow? While your content not showing at the top of your followers’ feed doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not of excellent quality, it doesn’t change the fact that the algorithm favors unique and high-quality content that resonates with users. 
• Converts better: If your Instagram page is a business medium, providing high-quality content is the best way to get your audience to pay attention to you. Quality content breeds interest, and an interested audience is a great customer. 

Ten Instagram Post And Story Ideas For Better Engagement

The Instagram post and story features are the most practical ways to engage your followers. An Instagram post is a video or picture you share for your audience to see. It is often displayed on your users’ feed and your profile, so people who visit your profile can see all your posts as one catalog.

Instagram posts are often permanent if you do not delete or archive them, and Instagram does not take them down for a term of service violation. Instagram stories are a lot more ephemeral. It is a relatively new feature released in 2016 and became an absolute hit after it was made mainstream.

Instagram stories offer users the means to share moments daily. These moments are content users find engaging but not relevant enough to be shown on your profile. On your IG story, you can share pictures and videos that will be split into a 15-second 

1. Answer Questions

The Instagram story question tag/sticker is undoubtedly one of the most underrated Instagram story features. Sometimes, creating quality content isn’t enough to sustain your relationship with your audience. Although your followers want to be fed great picture and video content regularly, they also crave genuine engagement that will reassure them of the virtual connection they share with you or your brand.

Although replying to comments or asking questions in your post captions are a great way to get your audience talking, it doesn’t have to stop there. The Instagram question sticker allows your followers to leave questions on an area you wish to discuss. You can access the tag by clicking the small sticker icon at the top of your screen when you try to post a story.

Clicking this icon will pull up a catalog of sticker options but the ‘Questions’ tag is the one you need.

2. Polls 

‘This or That?’

Polls are a pleasant way to keep your followers busy through your story. It boosts engagement and keeps your followers interested in interacting with you. The Poll sticker can be placed on a story video or picture. To access it, click the sticker icon, and click on the poll sticker.

Polls are not only fun games but a subtle way to get your user’s opinion on something relating to your brand or a random or controversial topic. Another form of poll is the sliding react sticker that allows your viewers react to your content.

3. Promote Your Blog

Do you have a blog post you want to share without necessarily posting a screenshot of the article on your profile and captioning it “link to full article in bio”? Your story is a great way to solve this problem! To promote your blog on your story, all you need to do is post an eye-catching screenshot from a segment of your blog on a story and insert the link.

This is a great way to catch your viewers’ attention and facilitate better website traffic. Although you can’t share the link to your website as a text, Instagram solves this problem by providing a link sticker option. This sticker allows you to make adding a link an aesthetically pleasing feature by letting you add a link and customize your sticker to say whatever you want.

4. Share a Behind-The-Scenes Sneak peek

Audiences like to feel that they are getting exclusive access to the content they will usually not be privy to on your post. This helps them to feel more connected to and involved with your brand in a way other brands cannot offer. If you have an office, an area where you create products, or a physical store, sharing a behind-the-scenes look into your processes is a great story idea you need to try.

Since stories are bite-sized clips, you don’t necessarily have to go into detail on all the processes that go into creating your products or services. Let your followers take a step into your private or business life with the amazing story features and have fun while you do so!

5. Countdown

Do you have a sale coming up? Are you unveiling a new product? Is there a celebration coming up? Use the Instagram story countdown option!

With the countdown sticker, you can count down to an event and keep your audience on their toes. With a countdown timer, your audience will not forget that an event is coming up. This will keep them expecting and fastened to your profile in expectation and anticipation.

6. Tease a New Product

Are you launching a new product soon? Don’t just dump it on your followers, slowly amp up the anticipation by posting interesting and engaging teasers! Although announcing the launch of a new product might seem exciting, offering a tease offers greater excitement.

Instead of directly posting a picture or video content of your new product on its release date, build anticipation by creating posts and stories showing parts and tiny details of the products you will release. Use this opportunity to excite your followers by giving out information little by little.

Tell them a little about your product’s features, share half views of your product, and even play games by telling your followers to guess the ingredients/other details for your new product.

7. Use Your Reels

A study shows that Instagram reels offer brands better engagement. Introduced in 2020, Instagram reels are a relatively new addition to Instagram features. Unfortunately, few people realize how much of a goldmine of opportunities the reel feature is. With reels, users can share short videos of up to 15 seconds on their profile.

It is a creative tool that allows users to create short video-masterpieces using any audio- original or from other authors- along with texts and filters. Reels are the perfect medium to share a short look into your personal life, business activities, or any other content you deem fit. Reels are fun to watch and will no doubt keep your followers talking.

8. Share Memes

Humor is a great way to get conversations started and increase engagement on your page. What better way to introduce humor in a post than with memes? Internet memes have been around for a very long time- as far back as the 1990s. From GIFs to short clips and funny pictures, there are different types of memes for different occasions bound to get laughs out of your Instagram audience. 

Sharing memes on your Instagram page makes your profile more relatable. It humanizes your page, helping your followers lower thief defense enough to foster connection with your brand. Do you have an inside joke? Is there an event coming up? Are you trying to share a funny piece of information? Find a meme that does the job or create your meme from scratch and post it for your followers to see! 

9. Share User-Generated Content

Encouraging followers to create content about your brand is an excellent way to spark conversations and engagement on your page. Additionally, sharing content that your audience or clients create will act as a form of social proof to let other followers know that you are genuine.

Create a hashtag and encourage followers to use them in posts relating to your brand. Have them take pictures or videos, upload them, and tag your page in their content. Sharing user-generated content builds social proof. It is also a genius way to help your followers feel appreciated and seen.

10. Host Giveaways And Contests

Everyone loves freebies. Why not take advantage of this to spark engagement on your IG profile? Hosting contests, competitions, and giveaways is not only a way to create engagement but also an easy way to create more brand visibility. With many Instagram users trying to win the prize, you will attract the right audience in your niche and boost profile engagement.

Increasing Engagement With Unique Ideas

To get your profile noticed, you need to stand out. To stand out, you need to adopt unique methods of content creation that provide your audience with the ultimate user experience. Level up your Instagram engagement by using any of our ten post and story ideas to create fun content for your follower’s consumption.

There are lots of ideas left out of our list, so have fun exploring different ideas and finding those that work for you.