Examples of categories for Instagram. An example of a content plan template for Instagram. Delivery and contacts

We've released a new book, Social Media Content Marketing: How to Get Inside Your Followers' Heads and Make Them Fall in Love with Your Brand.

A well-designed content plan is half the success. In any situation, you will have a post prepared, and the page will remain alive. Pre-thought-out themes will receive high-quality design. We share recommendations on how to write a content plan for Instagram, tools for its implementation and ideas.

What is a content plan for Instagram

A content plan is a schedule of posts that is prepared in advance. Its task is to ensure regular page activity and not lose customers. To create, you need to have a good understanding of the chosen topic and be able to tell the audience about it.

How to create a content plan for Instagram

Step 1. Decide on the type of account

What types of profiles are there on Instagram:

1. Educational. On your page, the client will find useful and practical information: from explanations of incomprehensible things to simple instructions on how to implement something in life. If you sell clothes, talk about modern trends, classics, share tips about fabrics, colors and anything else that comes to mind. Show that you are a professional, and clients will flock to you.
2. Motivating. Nowadays it is popular to set goals and move towards them. People need support. For example, let's say you sell sports equipment. Subscribers see his photos in the feed with an inspiring quote, and perhaps the story of a particular athlete. Each post is supplemented with information about the product.
3. Blog. Choose a topic that is close to the product. Publish stories, thoughts, useful life hacks. In short, enter a regular blog. Include information about the product and links to other sources in the bio. The advantages of maintaining a profile this way: advertising is not intrusive and looks native.
4. Shop. Post photos of products with detailed information, be sure to indicate the price. Dilute your sales texts with informational, entertaining and personal materials. Do you do flowers? Tell your subscribers what bouquets can be brought to a wedding or how to give it to a man. Add a funny photo based on the topic. Share a story about how a rose changed your views.

What page are you ready to run?

Step 2. Formulate your promotion goal

Why did you start Instagram?
Possible options:

• audience expansion;
• attracting traffic to the landing page;
• increasing brand awareness;
• improving the company's reputation;
• information about products and discounts.

This is not the entire list. Find your goal and stick to a plan to achieve it.

Step 3. Lay out the structure

You know your profile type and purpose. Use them as a starting point when determining the dominant content on the page. What will you post more often and what less often? For example, 60% are informational posts, 20% are sales posts and 20% are entertainment posts. The shares help you not to go astray from the logical content.
Don’t impose selling texts; try to dilute them with other types of content. Diversity improves competitiveness.
Blogs need one or two themes that will run throughout the material.
Don't neglect personal stories: subscribers love to read about real people.

Step 4. Think about what information about the company needs to be conveyed

Describe the advantages of the brand. Sample ideas:

• quality product;
• original approach to business;
• useful information;
• caring for the client.

Make your own rules about posts that meet your requirements. Focus on what the company wants to convey to the audience, and what subscribers, in turn, expect from the brand.

Step 5: Make a Schedule

1. Think about what the posts will be about, formulate a topic.
2. Choose the frequency and time for publications. More details: "".
3. Complete the chart.

Start creating posts. During the creative process, ideas often come up about what else to write about. Write them down separately. Filter out duplicate or unsuccessful ones, edit the remaining ones.
Pay attention to relevant posts that everyone will soon know about. They must appear outside of the schedule. Subscribers will see that you live these moments with them.

Where to get inspired and get material for posts

1. Sections for subscribers. Ask them what they want to know about. Eliminate ideas that are not in your format and start implementing them.
2. Chat in the comments. Often, many ideas can be gleaned from discussions.
3. Thematic groups and channels on other social networks. See what's popular in your area. Write your thoughts or comments. Process the information for Instagram format.
4. Competitors. What topics are popular with them? What are they discussing? No need to steal, write from a different angle.
5. Old posts. Once your audience has grown, you can offer a selection of high-quality old posts to interest them and increase engagement. This also includes sections with popular posts for the month.
6. Guest posts. Publish posts from subscribers or experts.
7. Ready-made ideas for bloggers and businessmen are constantly published on the Internet. Enter your topic into the search and see what people write about and what they ask in the comments. Write down the most frequently discussed topics for yourself. Find ready-made lists and edit the appropriate items to suit your needs.

Content plan for Instagram: sample

Let's give a few examples of how you can draw up a content plan.

Ready photos for posts can be combined into galleries. A preliminary view will help you navigate the best location.

In addition to how to develop a content plan for Instagram, the page owner must be able to analyze the results and make changes to the new schedule.
Analyze your posts for the week. Select the most popular posts. Compare and write down what they had in common. Do the same for the unpopular ones. Make changes to the schedule next week.

Applications for a content plan for Instagram

1. Planoly. The tool is available in mobile and desktop versions. What it does:
   - adds content in photo, video and carousel format;
   - selects hashtags;
   - works with text;
   - sets reminders;
   - divides the photo into parts to display one large one in the profile;
   - downloads from Google Drive and Dropbox;
   - searches for stock photos.
   Paid application. 30 sample photos per month available. The subscription price depends on the number of accounts and time of use. Approximate range: 600 - 3,250 rubles.
2. Later. Test period - 30 photos per month. The program works with simple statistics, sends notifications, and searches for hashtags. There are sharing functions for the team. The tool is entirely in English. Videos can be published only when you connect to paid plans.
3. Buffer. The free version of the application is available for one account. Paid Buffer for Business has a two-week trial period. Detailed analytics with comparison functions and sorting statistics. Functions for working with the rights of an administrator and other team members are available. Export, save data at any time and add it to reports with one click.
4. Content Office is another content planner for Instagram. Works with photos, videos. Post templates available. Selects hashtags and edits text. The user can edit information about himself. The program includes an analysis of the best time to post. A paid subscription allows you to maintain up to 10 accounts simultaneously. Contains sections with training and tips for creating quality content.
5. Preview. The application is available in English. Basic functionality allows you to work with text and photographs, and you can select hashtags. You can work with the content plan without registration. The paid version offers detailed and high-quality analytics of pages: both yours and competitors. Contains a built-in photo editor.

Let's sum it up

Determine the profile type and content structure. Use the recommendations and tools, create a ready-made monthly content plan for Instagram.

In order to create a content plan for Instagram, you need to answer 3 questions:

1. what content to publish
2. how many posts per day should I post?
3. what time to post photos and videos

As an example, I will show you how to create a content plan for a hotel Instagram.

Let’s say that the hotel is located in Sochi, it’s called “Sochinets”, it can accommodate 1000 people at the same time. We are drawing up a plan for April - the month in which we need to increase sales in order to fill the hotel for the summer.

Creating content for Instagram: what to photograph, what to write, what video to record?

So, let's start creating a content plan for Instagram by answering

Question 1: what content to publish?

These proportions are approximate, since testing is necessary in each case.

1. Selling content

The main goal of our account for April is to fill the hotel, that is, to sell, then we will have about 25% of commercial posts in the Instagram content plan.

Selling content includes not only the display of numbers (product presentation), but also promotions, discount sweepstakes, surveys, and reviews.

TYPE OF CONTENT	WHAT WE PUBLISH	EXAMPLES
Selling (SELLING)	Description of rooms Seasonal promotions Providing discounts: - for reposting - for your review — for ordering via Instagram Polls Reviews	A 2-bed standard room costs XXX rubles/day Promotion: book 10 nights, 11 free Have you stayed at our hotel? Put a hashtag on the photo and get a 15% discount

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Don't hide prices. Indicate the cost directly in the post, or answer when asked in the comments.

“Call this phone number, they will tell you everything,” “I answered you in a personal message,” and so on is not the right option. It’s not for nothing that Instagram lives in a mobile phone - it’s the social network of the present moment.

The subscriber is stuck in a traffic jam/riding a trolleybus/walking with his child on the playground, and sees exactly what he once thought about and exactly for the price he wanted. Perhaps, having found out the price, he will immediately buy/book in the same comments.

2. Personal life

Instagram is the friendliest network. They don't skimp on likes here.

In addition, among the users there are many women who purchase something if it resonates with them emotionally. To do this, you just need to show your personal life. And more.

Why is handicraft and home business the easiest to develop here? Because it doesn’t look like a store window with the same type of bags or sneakers. Photos of children and dogs flash here: “We’re putting together another order together with Masya,” “I’m sewing a kit for Valya and I see a flock of cranes flying through the window.”

A relatively new type of content is popular now - stories. This is a photo or video that you can publish on the go, right now, and in a day it will be deleted. Stories appear at the top of the feed and attract attention. Moreover, many Instagrammers use stories for maximum activity, but I publish posts much less often.

Everything is clear with a home business, you say. What if we have an account for a store, cafe or hotel? How to include personal content in your Instagram plan?

In this case, you can also come up with something. The main thing is to show the present moment. For example, the following categories can be included in the Instagram content plan for our hotel:

TYPE OF CONTENT	WHAT WE PUBLISH	EXAMPLES
Personal (LIFE)	Photos with weather	During the season, the weather can be shown every day as a story. This will reassure those who are about to leave, but still doubt whether to take sunglasses and a swimsuit or 3 warm sweaters and rubber boots
	Photos of the staff (cook, maid, girls at the reception, animator) and a story about the personalities	Comment showing the benefits: “Our chef took a master class on low-calorie desserts, and now ourguests can indulge in sweets without worrying about your figure».
	Hotel news (even the most insignificant ones in your opinion).	- purchased toys for the children's club - installed the terminal — we now do manicures in the beauty salon Life in a hotel does not stand still. It is developing. Every day.
	Everyday moments	- this is how we water lawns We go on excursions on these buses — a local cat gained 2 kg in June, he is waiting for the same generous guests in July People are anxious about their vacation. They must be sure that the hotel is already taking care of their vacation: the benches have been painted, the lawns have been watered, and even the cat is looking forward to them.

3. Educational content.

Ideal for those who teach something - English, copywriting, creating a business, sewing toys.

What about our hotel? You can write about the city and life in it. Vacationers are unlikely to spend their entire vacation within the 4 walls of a hotel.

Question 2: How many posts per day should I publish?

• One post a day is a must.
• The optimal amount is 2-3 times.
• Maximum 4-5 posts per day.
• You can shoot at least 10-20 stories a day. This is when you want to cover some event or really need to draw attention to your account.

Question 3: What time to post photos and videos

You need to post photos at a time when the majority of your subscribers are viewing your account. You can track your visit times for free in the "Statistics" section, if you have installed business account.

If you don’t have a business account, then paid statistics programs can help you, such as:

• iconosquare.com
• SpellFeed.com
• Popsters and others.

Average Instagram activity by hour:

8-10 hours - people can view posts while still in bed or on the way to work

12-14 hours - lunch break, you can allocate time for Instagram

22-24 hours - all work is done, you can look before bed

For example, we are drawing up a content plan for a hotel Instagram for April. The capacity is still small, but we need to sell seats for the summer. That's why we publish 3 posts a day, focusing on sales and announcements of summer events.

So, we answered all 3 questions. Now you can put everything into one table.

Example of a content plan for Instagram of the Sochinets hotel

01.04.2016	9.00	Life	New toys were purchased for the children's club
	13.00	City	Announcement of city events for the week ahead
	17.00	Sale	Early booking promotion
02.04.2016	9.00	Life	Buses for excursions
	13.00	City	Where to go with children: Mayak water park
	17.00	Sale	Review: single room + 5% discount for ordering on Instagram
03.04.2016	9.00	Life	Chef + low calorie desserts
	13.00	City	What to visit in Sochi: arboretum
	17.00	Sale	Promotion: if you vacationed in our hotel, put the hashtag #loveSochinets
04.04.2016	9.00	Life	New hotel partner - bike rental
	13.00	City	City news: turnstiles have been added to the Rosa Khutor ski lifts
	17.00	Sale	Early booking promotion
05.04.2016	9.00	Life	You can call a taxi at the reception at a discount
	13.00	City	Sochi Park has a new attraction for adults
	17.00	Sale	Poll: what kind of entertainment is missing in our hotel?

In addition, users will see the real life of the hotel, and not a feed of the same type of advertisements. Now the hotel administration does not need to spend 3-4 hours a week coming up with a reason for a post.

How about including a copywriter in your personal Instagram content plan? Share in the comments.

You can, of course, create it manually, but if you have five or more public pages under your control, and Instagram is not (yet) the main type of income, then this will be slightly problematic.

Just as it is problematic to promote your Instagram account only by manual methods. Here the promotion and promotion service on Instagram will help you cope with the routine. The service also has a free 5-day period.

Well, if you want to promote your Instagram profile without any hassles and most effectively, turn to professionals. Subscribers for your profile in any volume, likes and views for photo publications - all this on quite affordable terms! We use it.

Content on Instagram, as on any social network, is far from unique, and everything new that appears is immediately scattered across dozens, maybe hundreds of accounts. Therefore, of course, you can try and pore over unique content, but the main thing is not to attach global significance to it. Still, we are not engaged in SEO, and the issue of uniqueness of content is not at the forefront here.

Although, of course, your subscribers will hardly be happy to see completely tired material. So, here are four ways to get quality content for Instagram.

Free stock photos

I'll probably start with them. Probably everyone has come across such stocks as Shutterstock or Depositphotos. On them you can find a huge amount of a wide variety of content, but, alas, all this for money.

However, there are a considerable number of free stocks, most of which are trash, but there are also decent examples. Pieces of gold that I have been collecting for many months, and today I am sharing with you.

So, below is a list of the juiciest and highest quality stocks, which, most importantly, are completely free to use. I myself often use them both to design content in public pages on Instagram and posts on this blog. Meet the 20 most selected free photo stocks:

• http://magdeleine.co/
• http://jaymantri.com/
• https://picjumbo.com/
• http://isorepublic.com/
• http://www.stockvault.net/
• http://getrefe.tumblr.com/
• http://foodiesfeed.com/
• http://images.superfamous.com/
• https://unsplash.com/
• http://littlevisuals.co/
• http://www.gratisography.com/
• http://publicdomainarchive.com/
• http://raumrot.com/
• http://thepatternlibrary.com/
• http://www.everystockphoto.com/
• http://join.deathtothestockphoto.com/
• http://nos.twnsnd.co/
• http://www.imcreator.com/free
• http://picography.co/
• http://www.morguefile.com/

True, on some stocks only non-commercial use of images is allowed, but, firstly, the chance to prove that you used the image data for public pages, which you subsequently monetize, will be approximately zero, and, secondly, do not forget what country we are in we are with you.

Flickr & 500px

Stocks are good for everyone, except that often if you need an image for a specific topic, it will be quite difficult to find it. Therefore, either you will need to sift through a considerable number of pages with stock images, or look for something else.

And here everyone’s favorite Flickr and 500px come to the rescue. But let's start in order.

So, Flickr is a social network for photographers. Every day hundreds and thousands of good pictures appear there that you can use for your own purposes. But the most valuable thing is that there is a search, so you can find the images you need using keywords.

Keep in mind that most of the audience of this site is English-speaking, so enter search queries exclusively in English, so your chances of finding suitable images will be several orders of magnitude higher.

Of course, not all images can be downloaded (I’ll do a short tutorial later on how to download private images from Flickr), but even among those that are available for free download there is a huge amount of useful content.

Tumblr & Pinterest

The principle of searching for content is similar to the previous section - use the search section and look for the content you need. Again, queries must be entered exclusively in English.

The content will, for the most part, be of lower quality than with the previous option, but it is still quite easy to find the images you need relatively quickly. The main thing is to watch the image sizes, since on Instagram it is better to post pictures from 640x640.

His greatness Instagram

And, of course, where would we be without Instagram itself? Surely your public site has dozens of smart analogues and competitors. Accordingly, if you are concerned about searching for content and the previous options did not really help you, I can advise you to simply rob your competitors.

This is what most public page owners do, and not only on Instagram. Therefore, with peace of mind, take other people’s pics and use them for your health. We will leave the issue of karma and morality outside the scope of this article.

To search for competitors, I advise you to use the Iconosquare.com service, there is an excellent search form, by entering the hashtag you need, you will find both accounts dedicated to your request and photos for this hashtag. Very comfortably.

Iconosquare, among other things, allows you to download pictures by right-clicking, unlike Instagram itself, in the case of which you need to go into the source code of the pages, suffer from hemorrhoids, and so on. In the case of the named service, everything is much simpler - right-click on the image and select “Save image”, or whatever this item is called in your browser. Voila.

These four methods are enough to create meaningful content for your public pages. Of course, nothing can replace original content that will attract subscribers, but if you are going to buy it in large numbers, then the list of links above is just a treasure trove for you.

What to write about on Instagram, how to format posts, how to plan posting? And why should you do it this way and not another? We asked these questions to Instagram promotion experts and they shared practical observations and tips.

They answered us:

1. Daria Andreeva, co-founder SMM agencies wishdo, author of the blog wishdo
2. Daria Manelova, founder of Bright mind agency
3. Diana Remizovskaya, content director of Format bureau, curator of SMM direction at the Bazilik School of Communications.

For those who like brevity - a step-by-step diagram

• Define brand goals on Instagram (sales, communication, building trust);
• Based on the brand’s goals, determine the balance of content: how much to talk about sales, how much to entertain and how much to provide useful information;
• Select topics for communication with the audience, collect them into headings;
• Distribute topics between the main feed (important) and the stories feed (momentary);
• Decide on a publication schedule: when and how much;
• Understand the visual component: what to show and by what means;
• Put everything into a convenient template or rubricator;
• Adjust as you go. But that is another story.

For those who like details, here are the details. And practical advice from experts

Content balance: how much and what to write about

Instagram is, of course, about inspiration. But when it comes to business, inspiration also has to be planned, proportions measured, poured into test tubes: what goes where and how much.

How does the traditional division of content into sales, information and entertainment work on Instagram? What determines the proportions in the content plan for a particular brand? How to choose the topics your brand will talk about and in what format to present them?

Daria Andreeva, SMM agencies wishdo:

I roughly divide the content into informative, selling, entertaining and image-building. Conditionally - because most often the posts are of a mixed type: informative-entertaining, informative-selling. How they relate in your feed depends on the product and what you want to get out of Instagram.

If you have a clothing store where the assortment is updated every week, your feed will have more informative and informative-selling posts. Show things from different angles, choose interesting combinations, tell how to wear or care for the item.

If the assortment is small, be more active in publishing entertaining and informational content: tell stories about your product, suggest new methods of use, present it in interesting combinations.

If you are promoting a personal brand or service, your task is to inspire trust among your subscribers and become an authority in your field for them. This means that you should focus on informational content and practical stories that confirm your professionalism.

Example: to page nutrition schools people come for information: they want to learn more about nutrition and sports. We divide the content here as follows: 60% - informative, useful, educational posts, 20% - selling posts about the school and 20% - entertaining content.

Another example is the page jewelry brand Samokish. People here don't expect tutorial posts. They want to take a better look at the jewelry, clarify details about materials, production, and, if everything fits, buy. Therefore, 70% of the content here is of a mixed type with an emphasis on sales, the rest of the posts are entertaining, informative or image-building.

People come to the School of Proper Nutrition page for information, motivation and useful tips. Therefore, here 60% of educational content

Subscribers to the designer jewelry brand samokish are only interested in the jewelry itself. Therefore, the content is homogeneous and 70% sales-oriented

Diana Remizovskaya, Bazilik School of Communications:

I don’t divide my content into selling/educational/entertaining. In my opinion, this is too general and somewhat artificial.

In addition to sales and training, you can inspire your subscribers, make them laugh, make them nostalgic, you can be a hedonist, a party animal, criticize everyone, but also be successful in communications. Because it will be more interesting and brighter than another selection of business books or an article on time management.

In terms of content, I mix not types of content, but ready-made topics and headings.

I study the communication strategy and write down all the topics that the brand can talk about within its territory and tone of voice. I collect these topics into a rubricator and then play with it. The result is what is called a content matrix.

There is no universal proportion in the matrix, everything is individual: some brands communicate 90% using brand content, others hardly talk directly about the product, but are also successful.

Daria Manelova, Bright mind agency:

Selling content in the feed can range from 20 to 100%, depending on the strategy. Such posts include the name of the product in question, 2-3 emotional arguments in its favor, its characteristics, price and call to action.

Information and educational content - your diplomas and certificates, event reports, service reviews, cases, before and after photos, photos in the process, methods and techniques that you use, etc.

Entertaining content is all posts for “chat”. Internal marathons with tasks for subscribers, controversial, sharp content, questions with choice options, requests for advice on something, in a word, everything that encourages comment and engages in discussion.

Another type of content is stories. In your posts, tell us who you are, who your customers are, what motivates you to do what you do and what motivates your customers to buy, talk about the results your product brought, etc.

Stories and IGTV: how to use Instagram highlights

These formats are a feature of Instagram. Brands actively use them and even create separate content plans for them. What types of content are best for using Stories and IGTV and how often can you publish them?

Diana Remizovskaya, Bazilik School of Communications:

I can’t say anything specific about IGTV yet. We haven't had time to test it in practice yet. But it is clear that the future lies with him. This is a great alternative to YouTube blogs, with all the attendant opportunities for a brand.

Stories should be published constantly. Everyone watches them, and now most of the activity comes from there. Therefore, make sure that the circle around the avatar is always purple, and the user can always find something fresh there.

How many stories should I post per day? There are as many interesting ideas as there are. You can make ten of these that will watch to the end - do it. Just don't post anything just to fill up space.

Daria Manelova, Bright mind agency:

Instagram stories are already a must have. And this is the most vibrant type of publication that suits absolutely everyone. Even if you are conservative, like Sberbank, you can shoot short reviews of your offices and it will go organically into stories.

The story feed does not intersect with the main feed; we create a separate content plan for it, write technical specifications to the owner on what and how to shoot.

The only point of intersection is when an interesting post appears in your feed and you want your subscribers not to miss it. Then you can make an announcement: publish a screenshot of the post with a short reminder of what it’s about.

The frequency of publications is not regulated here. Some people advise doing up to 10-15 stories a day, but in my opinion this is overkill. 1-3 pieces per day will be fine. If there is some extra reason, more is possible.

Why use stories:

• For short-term offers and discounts;
• For games with subscribers: in each episode you can give some kind of bonus or hint;
• For broadcasting events (video + at least 20 photos in a row);
• Announcements of upcoming events;
• To create trust - backstage shooting without filter and embellishment.

In current stories (those that do not disappear after a day), you can post descriptions of basic services, customer reviews, cases from your work, answer common questions, and talk about the values ​​of your brand.

Here's how it's implemented in the account of the Star Smile dental aligner manufacturer. The saved stories here contain answers to the most frequently asked questions from users: what aligners are, prices and treatment periods.

I haven't seen much response on IGTV yet. The same live broadcasts have more views and engagement. So for now, it makes sense to do live broadcasts, save them, edit them into clear videos and post these videos on IGTV.

What should you make videos about? It’s about the same thing that stories are about, only to work on the topic more thoroughly. You can show your product, answer questions, do reviews, collect user objections and work through them, show the internal processes of your business that may be of interest to subscribers, etc.

Publishing schedule: is there a “good” time to publish posts?

Instagram uses an algorithmic feed, that is, it displays posts in the feed not in chronological order, but based on internal algorithms. How can brands use this? How many posts should you make per day and at what time should you publish them to get maximum coverage?

Diana Remizovskaya, Bazilik School of Communications:

I determine the posting frequency for each account separately. I track how long subscribers see posts: if they actively like and discuss, the post is definitely in the feed, activity has dropped - that’s it, it’s gone, you can post a new one.

The activity period can be 3-4 hours or 12-15. The frequency of posting will depend on this: twice a day, once a day or once every couple of days.

There is an opinion that frequency does not affect anything, that Instagram will still distribute everything in its own way. But from experience I see that this is not so. If I make two publications with an interval of 3-4 hours, one gains popularity, and the second is almost invisible.

It is also important to understand how much content you can produce per unit of time. If you have enough resources and budget for 30 quality posts, you can post them daily. If only 10-15, it’s better to distribute them evenly across the calendar grid. But don't post hastily and don't go into two weeks of silence after two weeks of regular posting.

As for time, it is logical not to post posts and stories at night when everyone is sleeping. And from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., activity is almost the same.

Daria Manelova, Bright mind agency:

It makes no sense to make more than one post per day. If you have a store with a large assortment, okay, two posts: in the morning and in the evening. Brands that are not tied to a product can make even five posts a week, and their performance will not suffer. Anything that doesn’t fit into the main feed, but you really want to show, is better to post in Stories.

Instagram algorithms are designed in such a way that one post per day gets maximum coverage. Post the second one - and it will draw attention to itself and “smear” the results for you.

Photos and videos in the feed: Insta-user loves with his eyes

The main feed is built from photographs and minute-long videos. People come to Instagram for aesthetics, so the visual content must be of high quality.

How to hook a user with an image? How to prepare and process illustrations for posts? What to shoot if there is no visual component in the brand’s work?

Daria Manelova, Bright mind agency:

I usually say: imagine that a screenshot of your account was published in Cosmopolitan or another good magazine. Do the photos fit into the concept of the magazine? If not, delete and reconsider your approach to the visual.

The first thing the user notices is the style of the page. The similar design of the photo and the repetition of some visual elements create the impression of a general idea.

How to achieve this? Together with the Instagram designer, develop a unified concept for the photo and provide clear specifications for the photographer (light, color, filters, etc.).

If you want to show a process, a product from different angles, or different combinations of a product, it is convenient to use a photo gallery. If you need dynamics, shoot a video.

If your business is a service business or you work on a computer 90% of the time, it can still be interesting to illustrate. Use subject layouts, photos from the office, photo and video reviews from clients.

If it is possible to add the founder’s personality to a brand account, add it. His face, history, values, characteristics of his work, cases from personal practice, etc.

Work with the designer to develop templates for individual sections. These may not even be photos, but hand-drawn templates. This helps if the visual is really difficult.

For example, for a law office account, I take a template with a photo, write “Divorce History” on it and make a provocative post with the question: “What would you do if you were a lawyer.” And this approach attracts attention.

The Moscowlegal law office maintains its account using the same principle. They use dies, templates with text. This helps maintain the overall style of the profile and illustrate services that don't have a visual component.

Moscowlegal law office account: how to illustrate a business without a visual component

Daria Andreeva, SMM agencies wishdo:

When buying on Instagram, a person cannot touch, try on your product and get emotionally charged. There is only one way to evoke an emotion - good content, which consists of high-quality visuals and interesting text.

The user associates good photos with the quality of the product itself, so don’t skimp.

How to stock up on good content?

• Think about the topics and categories that you will use in your content plan and determine how to visualize them.
• Draw up technical specifications for the photographer: what you want to see in the frame, what colors should prevail, what processing is needed. What not to do: such props and such angles are unacceptable (this is also important).
• Work with the designer to develop a general style for the ribbon, for example, rubric dies or backings.
• Order several photo sessions at once with different surroundings: subject matter and photos with models, photos on the street and in the studio. This material will last a long time.

Content plan templates: do it as you please

Getting a ready-made template and simply laying out your content in a grid is a tempting idea. But it doesn't work. Each brand has its own purpose and audience. This means that the communication style, proportions in content and topics for it are also selected individually.

But some nuances will help you build a content plan grid that is easy to use and that you can explain to a colleague in a nutshell when you go on vacation.

Diana Remizovskaya, Bazilik School of Communications:

My content plans are rubricators where I mark out what topics the brand will communicate with users on.

There should be few headings: four or five are enough. Then you can assign a day for each section, and those who follow your account will know what post to expect today. It turns out something like a TV series, where a new episode is released every week.

Daria Andreeva, SMM agencies wishdo:

There is no universal template for a content plan. Its design depends only on your tasks and convenience.

What, in my opinion, should definitely be in the content plan:

• technical aspects: date, day of week, time of posting, what social network, type of post
• the topic of the publication, written in clear language. Write it down in detail so that two weeks later you won’t have to guess what you meant by “Useful post about food.”
• visual: if there is a ready one, a link to it. If there is no ready-made one, write down the idea, add a reference and a link to the technical specifications.

Additionally, write down a content plan for stories and IGTV. Posts in these formats should not be chaotic; they need to be prepared in advance in order to have time to do something really worthwhile.

Content plan templates are developed individually for each brand. But in any case, they contain all the information for convenient posting.

Cats summarize the experts' experience

Don't trust universal formulas. Instead of looking for “the best, trouble-free, 100% productive content plan template for every occasion,” take the time to find your own uniqueness and study your audience.

Find 5-8 reasons why all these people should want you, with your product, service and stories. Beautifully reveal these reasons every day, fortunately, Instagram has a lot of opportunities for this. Monitor the reaction of your subscribers, replace what doesn’t work, experiment with presentation, get a response. And what you will get is not universal, but unique and living, your own plan, convenient for you and understandable to the people who read you.

A competent content plan for Instagram is needed not only for your convenience: after all, you won’t have to think every day about what post to publish today and where to get the idea for it. Weekly or monthly plan It will also help you determine in advance the promotion strategy and target audience that will be interested in your account.

Many people, not knowing how to create a content plan for Instagram, simply create a table in which they write down the date and time of publications and set the type of content. This is partly true, but it is advisable to supplement such a layout with the headings of future posts so that before publishing you understand what you wanted to say on that particular day. And also It’s better to write your own posts in advance and upload them to the service . In the article we will look at all aspects of creating a content plan, and at the end of the material we will provide a link to download the finished template.

Determining the account type

In it they share their experiences, thoughts, opinions about a particular situation. For example, the accounts of many media personalities like Olga Buzova belong to the personal blog format. Despite the fact that sometimes they advertise some products, 90% of the content is personal posts.

The main features of content for a personal blog are your own style, your own vision for each situation and 2-3 topics that appear in all publications. You can’t just write about everything, turning Instagram into some kind of personal diary: such publications will be uninteresting to most readers. It is better to identify in advance a few topics on which you have something to say and actively develop them. You can also touch on the topics under discussion: for example, even the federal media wrote about the battle between Oksimiron and Gnoyny, and this is a good reason to also express your opinion and get an influx of subscribers.

..Or speak about the Mayweather vs. fight. McGregor

A strategic approach to organizing content will help you monetize your account in the future. If you schedule a plan for a week or a month, you will know in advance which target audience your posts are interesting to and will be able to attract interested readers. This will help you gain a large number of subscribers.

His main goal is to sell. It doesn’t matter what: information, product, service. The lion's share of content consists of selling posts. But, as practice shows, if you publish 100% of “sales people,” the audience perceives it negatively. Therefore, in the content plan it is worth leaving room for entertaining and informational posts.

Registering a commercial account

The main feature of a commercial account is its focus on attracting new customers and motivating repeat purchases. For the owner of such an account, the number of subscribers comes second, and the number of sales comes first. After all, you can sell 100 cakes a week to 50,000 subscribers, or you can sell 10-20 cakes with more than 150,000 subscribers.

A well-developed content plan will help not only to sell competently, but also to further analyze posts, select the most successful and unsuccessful ones in order to improve content for subscribers.

Determining the content structure

Selling posts. They are only relevant for commercial accounts or personal blogs from which they have ordered advertising. The optimal percentage of selling posts for commercial accounts is 20-40%, depending on the topic, target audience, and competitiveness of the niche. In a sales post, you sell a product or service and present its positive aspects. You can do this in different ways:

• tell a short interesting story that evokes vivid associations;
• publish a list of the main advantages of the product/service/company;
• handle objections from potential clients;
• limit the time of purchase or give a discount for 1-2 days, while showing the advantages of the product.

The last technique should not be used too often, otherwise readers will have a double impression: they may think that you are selling a low-quality product if you are constantly running promotions and rushing them to buy.

Entertainment posts. They are published both in commercial accounts and on a personal blog. The percentage of entertainment posts in the overall content plan fluctuates around 30%. Usually this is a cute picture, short video or gif, 2-4 sentences. The main feature of such content is that it does not force subscribers to think or actively process the information provided. The categories of such posts include publications such as “good morning”, “landscapes of our hometown”, “our workshop from the inside”.

An example of an entertaining post

Information posts. They are also suitable for both types of accounts. True, in commercial accounts their percentage rarely exceeds 50%, but in a personal blog it reaches 100%. In such posts they talk about goods and services without or with emotions and subjective opinions, express their point of view, describe some famous event and provide other information. The main feature of such publications is bright action or rich text: it doesn’t matter whether it will be under a picture or in video format.

A bright photo to attract attention and a short list of what you can bring from a trip to Bali

An example of creating a content plan for Instagram step by step

1. Select the account type

If you already have an account, you probably know its type. Do you want to sell something through it? This means this is a selling account. Do you want to have many subscribers, share your opinions with them, and then make money from advertising or other monetization methods? So this is a personal blog. Well, if you don’t have an account yet, just create one.

2. Decide on the purpose of promotion

It is clear that the main goal is to increase profit from the account. But at this stage you need to set yourself a short-term goal: for example, attract more subscribers or sell 1.5 times more than last week. Based on this goal, it will be possible to formulate a content plan.

3. We create a content structure in accordance with the goal

Think about what posts will help you achieve your short-term goal. For example, to attract subscribers, you need to publish interesting information and entertainment content, and to increase the number of sales, you need to increase the number of selling posts. Also think about what publication format would be appropriate: a picture with text, just a photo, video or GIF animation. There is no universal recipe here: the overall design of an account depends very much on the topic. You need to test, try different combinations, look at the result.

Each topic can be divided into several more topics

4. We write a content plan for the month

Determine the optimal number of posts per day. On average, this is 2-4 posts per day. Write down each number: the approximate time of publication and the type of posts - selling, informational and entertaining. You can immediately write headings for publications and briefly - their idea. Make sure that posts are distributed evenly: for example, you shouldn’t overwhelm your subscribers with selling publications the first week, and publish only informational posts the second.

Where is the best place to create a content plan?? Everyone chooses a tool that is convenient for themselves: some even work in a Word text document. But Excel and Google Sheets are much more convenient. They can create tables with a clear distribution of content.

Ideas for posts

Entertaining.If you don’t have your own ideas yet, use standard techniques:

1. Take a narrow topic that matches the concept of the account and make a selection of well-worn quotes.
2. Show the workflow from the inside: for example, photograph the stage of making flowers in boxes.
3. Share some funny incident related to you or your company.
4. Discuss a trend: take a well-known event and talk about your opinion, but without unnecessary negativity.
5. Share interesting statistics relevant to the topic of your account.

Information. As food for thought, the reader can be given:

1. News about a company that will affect customers—for example, a change in product prices. .
2. Some kind of section in which you will describe one topic - for example, interesting facts about the company.
3. Description of the company's business processes from the inside.
4. A story about an interesting case, place, important event - for example, about participation in a conference.
5. Information about yourself or the company, for example - an interesting fact about production volumes.

Selling. The following ideas can be used as selling posts: