Winter is approaching; the weather is getting colder; the skies are filling with clouds and it is occasionally raining. Whether you’re a fan of that season or not, if you’re working in the marketing or content creation field you need to get ready. A new season is an opportunity for a different strategy and new ideas to grab your customer’s attention. It’s a chance to create and share creative and original Instagram content ideas for your business.
If you’re having trouble coming up with Instagram content ideas for the winter, don't worry. We're here to help you.
In this article, we will explore 3 Instagram content ideas, to help you leverage your marketing game and help you engage with your audience.
3 Instagram content ideas for your business
Here are some content suggestions for an Instagram profile that's ready for winter:
- Take advantage of user generated content
- Organize an Instagram contest
- Use Instagram Stories
Now let's go through each suggestion:
1. Take advantage of user generated content
Instagram users enjoy sharing their travelling destinations, favorite meals, hot chocolate drinks and activities during the winter on their profiles and through Instagram stories.
Follow your Instagram account activity by following who tagged, liked or commented on your posts. This will help you see who is talking about you on the Internet.
Remember, the arrow in the upper right corner and the notifications in the heart icon below your profile show labels, comments, and likes.
When you come across great content shared with others about your business, don't just ignore it, share the post on your Instagram profile or story! You can either use a repost application or share the photo yourself and tag the user who initially shared the photo, give him credits and thank him.
You can check the example below of a local business that uses user generated content as part of their Instagram content strategies:
As you can see in the example above, the business has shared the user's Instagram account in the description of the post to give credit to users. Tagging users who publish content is a great way to engage with your customers. It can also encourage other customers to share content about you.
2. Organize an Instagram contest
Another Instagram content idea is organizing a competition. It is an interactive way to mobilize your followers and offer them something special this winter. You can offer free products, discounts or coupons and ask your followers to participate in your competition.
One of the best examples of this is organizing a sweepstakes. You’ll need to come up with a theme or an idea for your competition. For example, you can post a picture of one of your products and ask your followers to like and comment on the photo tagging 2 of their friends. Then, after a certain time you’ll do a random draw and choose a winner who will get that product.
Competitions will not only help leverage your business’s engagement rates and incentivize people to follow your account, but also help build awareness about your brand or business and might even lead to potential sales.
3. Use Instagram Stories
This winter, you can plan a consistent Instagram story strategy. Instagram stories are fun to use as they allow you to share instant content. The stories help keep your followers aware of what's happening in your business by sharing photos and videos from events, or displaying new dishes added to your menu or new products added to your store.
There are a lot of features that you can use in your stories to engage with your audience. Like adding your location, tagging your business/customers, adding stickers or emojis and adding hashtags. It’s not only that, Instagram recently introduced adding polls, question stickers and music stickers. The most recent addition to Instagram stories is the “chat sticker”, it will allow users to invite their friends to chat. People that view your story will be able to tap the sticker and request to join the chat, and you can see each request in the “Stories viewer list.” Users will be able to choose who to chat with, and the chat will live in Instagram Direct, and you’ll also be able to end the chat at any time.
You can use all these features and Instagram content ideas to engage with your customers, just don't try to compress them all in the same post at the same time!
As for your Instagram profile, you can use user generated content for Instagram stories too. Go to the Instagram app and click the arrow in the top right corner. If someone has tagged you in the story, a red notification will appear above this arrow.
Instagram gives you the option to “Add this to your story”. Once you've chosen this, you can edit the content as you like and share your customers' experience with your business on your own account.
Try applying the Instagram content ideas we shared in this article to your business's Instagram profile and Stories this winter. If you’re looking for more ideas and insights for your business’s social media activity, you can visit our blog and get inspired.
Note: When you create your website using GoDaddy's Websites + Marketing tool, you can connect your Instagram account to your website; which helps you manage your posts and track performance from your GoDaddy dashboard.
