How to Create Engaging Instagram Content

If you're starting a business or trying to gain more exposure for your existing business. Then you've probably heard it's a good idea to start posting content on Instagram and other social media sites.

It can be tough figuring out where to begin, I know the pain. I wasn't sure what type of content to post for our instagram https://www.instagram.com/motionboxvideo/ until I started breaking down the patterns of some other accounts.

These tips will apply best to someone who is trying to post content that is inspirational, aesthetic, and revolved around a product, company or idea. Not best suited for accounts that are centered around a person. For that I would recommend taking a look at popular accounts that feature people, try and recreate some scenes.

1. Use existing templates

Make life easier and use a template. It can be hard to scour the internet for relevant templates but if you put in the work you can acquire some nice assets. You'll have to put them together in photoshop which comes with a learning curve and can be pricy. Personally I am a fan of photoshop. However, with Story Creator the idea is to take hard, common tasks and make them user friendly. With an existing library of free templates, your life will be made significantly easier.

2.Leverage free stock photos

The free stock photo game is at an all time high. Just take a look at https://unsplash.com/ the imagery there is just beautiful. So beautiful I have actually incorporated them in the app so that they're available for use right away. The beautiful thing is they're directly in the app. So setting the proper dimensions for social media and experimenting with different images is a breeze.

3.Use color palettes

For the Motionbox Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motionboxvideo/ I am using a color palette to model each post after. I am loving this color palette generator by Invision/Muzli https://colors.muz.li/.

I'll pick a palette I like for the week. Then each post I make follows the colors on the palette. When I run out of colors I share the palette then move onto a new one.

4.Repurpose successful content

It would be wise to have a piece of content that was proven to be successful elsewhere sitting on your profile. This could lead to sales and better engagement. Stories die after 24 hours. Other content is accessed elsewhere. What happens when that top performing content is dead, it becomes a missed opportunity.

If you could see what your highest performing stories were - a solution we are building. Then you would be able to repurpose the best material.

Another missed opportunity on your Instagram page would be not sharing content that performed well on YouTube. I am getting user feedback currently. I would like to give creators the ability to add a youtube link so that the video is pulled in to be chopped up and repurposed. If you like the sound of that. Reach out to me https://www.instagram.com/michaelaubry/

5. User generated content

This one may be difficult if you're just getting started. Personally I haven't tried this approach. I got this idea elsewhere and would love to try and implement it. The idea is to have your audience engage and create content for you.

If you're a big brand, then the incentive would be exposure for them. If you're just getting started. Then doing a giveaway is a great incentive to have people submit some content. As I work on growing Motionbox I am going to experiment with give aways. It would be fun to pick the best user submitted post and give away a lifetime free membership for Motionbox.