Growing an audience on Instagram can be a bit daunting for those who are just starting an account to grow a business or for personal use. Social media is not easy and building an audience is even harder.

Growing an account from scratch is not going to happen overnight. You need to be in it for the long haul. Building an audience requires patience, consistency, and engagement.

As you keep reading, you will become knowledgeable on how to generate content ideas and organize them to flow smoothly on your Instagram feed.

You will also find a content calendar example and a free template to download. Let's dive in!

Content pillars are content that surrounds a message that represents your brand. The purpose of content pillars is to organize a strategy for your brand.

Content Pillar Examples for Your Content Calendar:

Content pillars help organize content out weekly/monthly to ensure that you are posting a consistent message that is not overdoing it in promotions, for example. People don't like to see posts where they are constantly trying to be sold something. 

Here are some examples of pillars you can use to create a content calendar:

• Educate 
• Promotions 
• Posts that encourage engagement 
• Actionable advice and tutorials 
• Content that showcases your work

After coming up with a general list of pillars that you believe best suit your brand’s goals. Now it's time to get specific with those ideas. This is where the content magic begins. 

So you now have your content pillar list, now it's time to break it down into smaller categories.

Let's start with educate 

Content Calendar Pillar #1: Educate

Content that can be used to inform or educate your audience can include:

• Information on how your product was produced
• Benefits of your product or services 
• Testimonials or reviews from previous consumers who were pleased with your offerings 
• Customer spotlights 
• Content that represents your community involvement 

The purpose of this category is to bring awareness and credibility to your brand. Informing and educating consumers on what your product or service is with information to back it up. This category is a great way to get more personal and achieve a greater connection with your customer.  

Next up, promotions

Content Calendar Pillar #2: Promotions

Promoted ads on Instagram usually have one goal in mind, and that is to sell a product. The goal of a promoted ad is to get that post in front of more eyes. The more people that are exposed to your paid ad, the more people will act on your call to action.

Instagram is one of the best ways to promote a product or service for ultimate ROI. 

Influencers 

Influencers are another form of promotion.

Unlike a paid post, you pay an influencer to promote your product within their personal digital communities.

You can create a deal with an influencer to pay them x amount of money in exchange for a post curated with your product, an Instagram story, or even an Instagram takeover. An Instagram takeover is where an influencer takes over your account for a limited time where they will post whatever they desire on your page.

Pro-tip: micro-influencers are the best!

• Micro-Influencer: A micro-influencer is an influencer with 1k-50k followers. Micro-influencers have a high degree of credibility and influence. Micro-influencers appear more genuine and authentic to the average consumer. 

Paid ads and influencers are a superior way to bring awareness to your brand that will ultimately drive conversions. 

Content Calendar Pillar #3: Engagement Posts

Create posts that users will want to respond to and share on their personal accounts…

• Conversation starters 
• Quotes 
• Memes 
• Content that asks a question and encourages users to respond in the comment section 
• Contests and giveaways 
• “Ask me anything”

Engagement is the most valuable metric to analyze when growing an audience, let's repeat, engagement is the most valuable metric to analyze when growing an audience! 

They don't call it social media for nothing.

These networks are designed for people to be social online, so stay as active as you possibly can by:

• Engage and follow similar accounts 
• Interact with your followers to show your love and appreciation with likes, comment, and shares
• Respond to most comments and every question — very important! 
• Really demonstrate your gratitude for the love and connect with your followers

Content Calendar Pillar #4: Actionable Advice and Tutorials 

The purpose of this category is to engage your audience in a way that offers knowledge that they can implement in their own lives.

Offer something useful to your audience so that they can save it and return to it later. In a way, you are inspiring people to take action with your product or services. 

Let's say you own a local organic beauty brand… 

Examples of content that can be used to advise your followers could be:

• A tutorial on an everyday makeup look
• Super unique but, a jet-lag skincare routine 
• Unrelated but, my personal favorite is a cocktail recipe. You can relate it back to your brand by saying something along the lines of, “Watermelon margarita recipe!🍹🍉 Drink this on your next girls night-in paired with our rejuvenating watermelon detox face mask”

Make it playful and have fun with it.

The more random and unique the more people will be intrigued and consume till the end. But just ensure that the content that you are creating in this category offers value to your consumers. 

Content Calendar Pillar #5: Content That Showcases Your Products Or Services 

Last but not least, obviously you need to showcase your brand! Include a plethora of images, gifs, and videos that show your product or service in action. 

• User-generated posts (UGC) or any content that is created by your audience 
• Behind the scenes content 
• Get creative with your content. Utilize a mix of images, videos, GIF, boomerangs, etc.

Concluding Thoughts

Viola! That is how you generate content for your brand on Instagram. It's a simple, concise, and consistent method to ensure that your Instagram flows smoothly month to month.

Another important tip to keep in mind when generating content for your business is to aim to tell a story with all of your content.

The most successful social media strategists know how to story-tell in their content. Stories grab the user’s attention and people will want to watch to the very end.

Below you will find an example of a content calendar with all these examples broken down for you easily organized on a calendar. You can easily refer back to this template to use when creating your own content calendar for your personal brand or business. Happy engagement! 

FREE GOOGLE DRIVE TEMPLATE 

Author - Lea Cruz