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instagram post ideas

The Best Instagram Post Ideas and Examples by Top Brands

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If you’re looking for help with social media, like Instagram post ideas, you’re in the right place. We can also help with Facebook campaign ideas too if you’d like. But back to Instagram. There are different approaches to figuring out a unique idea for Instagram posts. However, I’m going to tell you right now, they all require some creativity. Instagram is all about photography, which is an art form. The best way to engage your followers is to think outside the box and get creative. I’ve gathered four different Instagram campaigns to get inspired by and see what we can learn from them.

Bloom & Wild’s ad campaign

Bloom & Wild sells letterbox flowers, so, naturally, most of their photos are of beautiful flowers. For their 2015 campaign, Bloom & Wild stuck to three important criteria. First, reach the right kind of person. Second, try a variety of formats. Third, be creative. Bloom & Wild used Facebook’s Power editor to target their target audience. Then, they quickly learned that video ads outperformed photo ads with doubled conversion rates. Relying on tests, they tried out different types of ads, like photos of their packaging or video showing their flower deliveries. You never really know what resonates best with people so it pays to be creative.

Why was Bloom & Wild’s campaign successful?

For Bloom & Wild, video ads easily conveyed the business to new users, which got them to engage more effectively. Testing and relying on data will always help narrow down what works best. Through their campaign, they started to receive more comments on their posts. But, most importantly, orders on their website increased by 62% as a result.

What Instagram post ideas can you learn from Bloom & Wild?

You can follow the three criteria that Bloom & Wild set out for themselves. This can be applied to either ads or just your Instagram posts. But the biggest piece of advice is to take a creative risk with your posts. Try different formats, try different post types, or just try something weird. Your goal here is to get creative. You want to see which posts best interact with your followers.

#f21threadscreen

Back in 2015, Forever21 got a crazy idea. They build a machine filled with thread that recreated their followers’ Instagram photos. If you used #f21threadscreen on your Instagram photo, it would go into the queue to be displayed in the thread. There was a steady stream of the images changing, one at a time. Users received a notification when their photo was about to be next.

Why was Forever21’s campaign successful?

Forever21 is a very popular brand on Instagram to begin with. But what made this campaign successful is the amount of buzz it generated. #f21threadscreen was the talk of the town for a few weeks in the summer of 2015. Additionally, and more importantly, the hashtag is still generating photos. Right now there is a total of 7,914 photos on Instagram with the hashtag. There are dozens of smaller variations too. For instance, #f21threadsrceen currently has 728 photos posted because of those who cannot spell.

What Instagram post ideas can you learn from Forever21?

Forever21 put the spotlight on their fans and followers. It wasn’t about buying their product. It was about having fun. To replicate this campaign you don’t need to have a bottomless marketing budget. Instead, you’ll have to figure out a way to be creative (are you noticing the pattern yet?). How can you involve your followers? What can you do to entertain them? How can you involve them in your social media? How can you feature them instead of your product? Those are the types of questions that you should start answering in order to generate some great Instagram post ideas. Once you figure it out, you will know what to post on your Instagram.

#WithoutShoes

The shoe company TOMS has a wonderful hashtag: #WithoutShoes. It dates back to 2008. But back in 2008, a student created this hashtag and campaign to promote awareness about children’s health and education. TOMS now runs an annual campaign with it. The company gives away a pair of shoes for each photo of bare feet with the hashtag.

Why was TOMS’ campaign successful?

The campaign won a lot of recognition and accolades for the generosity it spread. In 2015, the company and campaign won a Shorty Award for social good. The company ended up giving 296,243 children a new pair of shoes in 2015. Back in 2012, TOMS won an Anvil Award. Each year the company influences millions of people on all social networks – not just Instagram. In 2012, because of the campaign, the traffic to their website tripled.

 

What Instagram post ideas can you learn from TOMS?

You will have to find a cause you want to involve your customers and followers in. It doesn’t have to relate to your business as smoothly as #WithoutShoes did to TOMS. But it will definitely go a long way if it does. Provide a charitable cause and donate to it based on engagement. For each photo of bare feet, TOMS donated an individual pair of shoes. Not every company can afford that, especially when starting out. That’s okay but you’ll still have to ask yourself: what can you give away? What do you want to spread awareness about? As far as your Instagram posts go, provide examples of what you want your follower to use with your hashtag and repost your followers’ photos to give them the spotlight too.

#WellTravelled

Herschel Supply has over 853,000 followers on Instagram. Over the years the company ran a bunch of successful campaigns and hashtags. #WellTravelled is one of their most successful hashtags. Not only does this hashtag resonate to Herschel and their customer, it resonates with anybody who travels too. That’s how it became a successful photo hashtag on Instagram.

Why was Herschel Supply’s campaign successful?

Currently, #WellTravelled has almost 1.5 million photos tagged with it. A big way to gain success on Instagram is to show off lifestyle photos or videos. Traveling is a lifestyle. Everybody loves to travel. It’s a great way to expose the product in a new light without directly marketing it. Reposting photos of the lives of their customer is a great idea. It’s interesting. It’s inspiring. It helps drive the community. Most importantly, it’s a great way for Herschel to promote themselves. Herschel is selling a lifestyle. They are not selling how durable the fabric is or how much stuff the bag can hold. It’s about showing and selling a culture. Backpacks can be a dull thing to sell, but photos of people doing their thing, in exotic or fun places, are anything but.

What Instagram post ideas can you learn from Herschel Supply’s?

Is there a perk or benefit of your product that can have a hashtag of its own? What is something sweet or fun about your company? The idea here is to promote a single aspect of your company or product that may not be a direct reason to purchase.  #WellTravelled is about the little things that make purchasing a Herschel Supply bag great. That’s your Instagram post idea.

Conclusion

The best thing you can do on Instagram is be creative. The social network rewards unique, fun and creative photos. You can tailor your Instagram posts to your audience by testing out different things. Different things resonate best with different audiences. Now, go on, go take that creative risk.

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