What to Post on Instagram in 2022

An easy guide for what to post on Instagram, and how to repurpose your content on other platforms.

With so many different content and social media platforms at our fingertips, and so many best practices to follow for each one, it can be really hard to keep up with what content to post where. Even within the platforms themselves, there are multiple media formats to utilise, each with their own set of “rules”, it’s no wonder that marketing your small business gets exhausting! I’m here to help with this series, first up with a handy guide on what’s best to post on Instagram. Let’s get going and make posting on social media simpler!

WHAT TO POST ON INSTAGRAM IN 2022

As we know, Instagram seems to be in a real pickle at the moment, with so much changing on the app and reach declining. So how do we show up there at the moment? Here’s my take on what works best on each post format:

FEED POSTS:

Instagram feed posts are best for nurturing your current audience, so create content here to help people who already follow you either get to know you better, or get closer to the point of buying from you. This is where you want to add value with your content, and I have another blog post here all about valuable content, which should help with that. Some examples:

  • Carousel posts with tips for your audience.

  • High quality images

  • Memes

  • Infographics

Best image ratios for Instagram feed: 4:5 to take up more space in the feed, 1:1 also accepted. Instagram is currently testing 9:16 in feed images on some accounts too - if this is eventually rolled out to everyone, feed posts will take on the same image ratio as stories and reels!

REELS:

Short form vertical video content is EVERYWHERE right now, and that’s what Reels are for. In the beginning, Reels were all about discovery - so getting new eyes on your brand and growing your following. Some may argue that the discoverability of Reels is not what it was, but a good rule of thumb is to think about content that would be enjoyed whether the viewer already follows you, or has never seen you before. The most popular Reels are usually one of the following:

  • Bitesize

  • Relatable

  • Inspiring

  • Entertaining

  • Useful

Best format for Reels: vertical video in 9:16 ratio, up to 60seconds long. Bitesize is important to remember, the shorter you can make your Reel, usually the better.

STORIES:

The people who watch your stories are usually your most engaged audience, so it’s often the place with the lowest views, but the people watching are usually your truest fans. Something to keep in mind with stories is that they have the least discoverability (so people who don’t follow you are unlikely to see them), and obviously they disappear within 24 hours. Does this mean you shouldn’t use them? Definitely not, they are a brilliant place to nurture your most loyal fans! But it’s worth remembering that the value you share in stories could and should take on another life somewhere else too, if it’s something that could be enjoyed by more people. Examples of great Instagram story content:

  • Behind the scenes of your business/your day

  • Sharing your honest thoughts

  • Asking your audience questions and getting their feedback through questions boxes, polls, quizzes etc.

  • Having fun with your closest followers, and making them feel special with exclusive content.

Best format for stories: vertical video in 9:16 ratio, each story up to 15 seconds long. Sharing your own posts, other people’s posts, and story tags from other people isn’t as useful as it once was, with Instagram looking to prioritise original content on the platform. If someone tags you in their story, ask yourself - is this really worth sharing to my own story? Sometimes it is, if it’s something like a testimonial for example, but think about how many of your stories are filled up each day with shares from other people, and whether you enjoy seeing that sort of content on other accounts.

LIVES AND INSTAGRAM VIDEO:

The home of longer form content on Instagram is lives and instagram video. My personal take on Instagram video: if you can get the content to under 60 seconds long, it’s probably better off posting as a Reel, because Reels usually get more reach. But there are occasions where posting as an in feed video is more appropriate - for example if you have a landscape video that wouldn’t work in portrait, or you have something to share that’s over 60 seconds long. Instagram lives are great for connecting with your audience, and collaborating with other accounts via Live Rooms. You also have the benefit of your live story circle appearing at the top of the feed while you’re live, which is a great way to show up in front of people who might not see your content in the algorithm usually.

REPURPOSING YOUR INSTAGRAM CONTENT

So you’ve put all that hard work into your instagram content, now what? Definitely repurpose that content elsewhere, so you can make the most of the time you’ve put in! Some examples of where you can repurpose your Instagram content:

How to recycle your instagram posts

FEED POSTS:

  • Resize them in an app like Canva, and share them on Pinterest (the best ratio for standard pins is 2:3 or 1000 x 1500px).

  • Collect a few posts together around a topic, and share them as a blog post.

  • Check your insights, and recreate your most popular posts as Reels.

  • Elaborate on one of your posts in your email list, or even share links to your most popular posts so more of your audience can see them!

REELS:

  • If you’re on TikTok, download your videos without the watermark with an app like SnapTik, and share them as Reels on your instagram. This seems to work best from TikTok to Reels, rather than repurposing your Reels on TikTok, but you can try either way round. You could also film your videos outside of the Reels app, and then edit them separately in each platform.

  • Download your Reels and upload them as Idea Pins on Pinterest (for more tips on Idea pins, go to this post).

  • You can set your Reels to auto-publish to Facebook Reels too.

  • YouTube Shorts could also be a great place to experiment with.

STORIES:

  • Download your most valuable stories from your archive, and share them as Reels.

  • You can also repurpose downloaded stories as Idea Pins.

  • Again, you can auto-publish these to Facebook stories too.

  • Why not try out TikTok stories? Download the video before adding text within instagram for best results repurposing on TikTok.

LIVES and INSTAGRAM VIDEO:

  • You could transcribe one of your live videos with an app like Rev or Otter.ai, and use it as a blog post.

  • Longer form landscape video can be shared to YouTube.

  • If you’ve delivered great value in a live, why not send a link to it in your email list?

Promoting your business on Instagram is tough right now with so much changing on the platform. While that can be super frustrating, one of the best things you can do is focus on having as much fun with your content as you can. When you’re creating valuable content for your audience that inspires you, your followers can pick up on it! And if what was working before on Instagram isn’t working anymore, switching things up and breathing fresh life into your content strategy could be a good way to break out of a rut. We chatted more about this on this episode of The Business Proposal Podcast, so if you want more on this topic you can listen to that here.

If you want more tips on staying creative with your content strategy, sign up to my free weekly emails, The Creator Papers!

Content Marketing, Instagram TipsRachel WaringInstagram, content ideas, content marketing, video content, Marketing Tips, marketingComment