Instagram is a social media platform where personal branding is a common practice. Business owners and entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk and Lebron James have invested in Instagram personal branding to support their personal goals and professional endeavors.
But carving out a fruitful presence on Instagram isn’t just reserved for celebrities. With the right personal branding strategy you can develop your own presence on the platform to support professional goals ranging from monetizing your personal brand to networking and promoting a business. Use these Instagram content ideas for personal branding in the execution of your own strategy.
The visual nature of Instagram’s content lends itself well to personal branding. Photos, videos, and story posts all present the opportunity to express creativity, and add a personal touch to content on Instagram.
Because of this, you will see both influencers and corporate brands take a more creative and personal approach with their Instagram content, with some brands speaking in the first person, posting stories that have a “day in the life” theme to them, and sharing polished photography and graphics. The fact that Instagram’s content style works well for influencers and corporate brand accounts means it is an excellent opportunity for individuals looking for a platform to establish their own presence.
Similar to the way in which influencers utilize platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok to develop their brands, entrepreneurs and business professionals from various fields are telling their stories on Instagram, and raising awareness for themselves and their businesses.
Whether you are trying to build a personal brand in order to grow a business, or are looking to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, Instagram is a great place to start.
A key factor in developing a personal brand is sharing relatable information with your target audience. Your personal brand doesn’t have to be all business, and the odds are adding personal elements will only increase how much people engage with you as they discover commonalities.
Gary Vaynerchuk exemplifies this in his personal brand, posting about his passion for the New York Jets NFL football team, and his hobbies like NFTs, trading cards, and flipping garage sale items.
Instagram Storytelling Ideas
To tell your own story, try adding these ideas to your Instagram content strategy:
Check out this personal branding tips blog post for more strategies to tell your story.
Inspiration and motivation are examples of the benefits Instagram users come to the platform to receive. You can answer this call by turning an inspirational quote or piece of advice into instagram personal branding content.
For example, creating a quote graphic that shares an inspiring quote, or writing out your piece of advice are ways to execute this content idea. Posting quotes and advice on your Instagram story, or filming a video in which you share your advice are additional ways to execute inspirational instagram personal branding content ideas.
You will see this with prevalent thought leaders and influencers, as they frequently share their tips and content intended to motivate their followers. Not only will this type of content come across as valuable insight for your audience, it also has the chance of sparking conversation in the comments section of your posts, or via DMs for additional engagement.
Regardless if the goal is business growth or personal brand development, providing value to your target audience should be at the core of every Instagram personal branding content strategy. One way to accomplish this is to help people by answering their questions.
When questions, trends, or controversial topics arise in your industry, it’s an opportunity for you to weigh in and help people to make sense of them. An example for Brand Credential would be explaining the key things to consider when selecting the social channel that is most appropriate for your company.
This technique can be executed within Instagram post captions, videos, or branded graphics by restating a question you’ve read elsewhere, and providing your own answer, or answering questions you’ve received from your followers.
When trends or controversial topics arise in your industry, there’s an opportunity for industry experts to weigh in and help make sense of it for their audiences. For example, when new social media platforms launch and gain popularity, professionals in the marketing industry share their opinion on the platform’s benefits and downsides, and report on their early experiences with the platform. An example in the food and restaurant industry would be sharing posts that offer commentary on the rising popularity of app-based delivery services.
Keep your ear to the ground for similar topics and news moments in your own industry, and take the opportunity to share your thoughts on them. This will generate conversation among your peers, and well thought out takes on the trends will help to establish your reputation as a thought leader.
Sharing engaging content from 3rd party creators and brands makes for content that you always have at your disposal when you need an idea for a post, and it also gets people in the habit of coming to you for thought leadership content. That way, when you start working your own videos, graphics, or other content into your content calendar, it’s natural and on brand.
A consistent cadence of 3rd party posts, Instagram stories, videos and infographics can be a strategic pillar for building your personal brand on Instagram. It is a strategy you can deploy an unlimited number of times, and represents low hanging fruit in terms of free impressions and engagement, as the only cost associated is your time spent researching content ideas, and writing copy to share them in your posts.
Try sharing stories from brands and influencers that you think your audience would find valuable, or repost graphics and videos from other creators—ensure you tag the account and give credit for the post where it is due to ensure the creator receives promotion for their work. This also increases the likelihood the creator will engage with your post, which would give it additional engagement and impressions.
For Brand Credential, an example of this would be sharing a marketing tips story from a popular marketing or business influencer. Sharing this kind of content only takes a matter of minutes, and is great in a pinch if you’re struggling to come up with new personal branding content ideas.
A classic Instagram marketing strategy among B2B companies, highlighting customers and colleagues is a technique that can also be used to generate instagram personal branding content ideas.
From a customer perspective, sharing news from your customers, highlighting the success they’re found with your products or services, and communicating your appreciation has the dual benefit of making them feel valued, and providing case studies that highlight your own business success.
In terms of highlighting colleagues or peers, try sharing their work, shouting them out and showing appreciation for their insight, and congratulating them for their accomplishments. This will create dialogue and encourage engagement on their part, while demonstrating the value of your network and encouraging people to perceive you as another thought leader.
It is no surprise that the best personal brands come across as personal. These individuals communicate tangible value, and manage to do so in a way that exudes their values and personal touch.
A content topic that can help you accomplish this within your own Instagram personal branding content strategy is behind-the-scenes content. Just as businesses often share an inside look at their day-to-day operations to build brand loyalty with their customers, you can share your own behind-the-scenes updates.
If you are a business owner, you can post videos, photos, and Instagram stories that share what it’s like to run and manage your business from your perspective every day.
If you are a professional seeking to build your thought leadership footprint, you can share the daily routines that you find to be most effective, or explain how you’ve overcome challenges in your own professional development. An example of this would be a marketing professional explaining the steps that went into a recent product launch, and asking their followers how they would have approached it in a video post or story.
Regardless of what content you share with this strategy, the goal is to share a personal perspective that will make you and your Instagram personal brand content relatable.
Instagram is a platform that offers ample opportunity for visual branding. Try creating simple graphics or your own logo to include within your image posts, videos and stories to up your Instagram personal branding game.
Instagram Visual Branding Opportunities
Try taking advantage of these visual branding opportunities within your personal branding content strategy:
Humor is something that is relatable to everyone, and it’s even better when it’s related to your audience’s interests and industry. For example, remote work memes have become common on LinkedIn since the shift to hybrid and remote work. Kids in the background of Zoom calls, people apologizing for being on mute every call, etc.
To utilize this strategy on Instagram, find a meme that’s relatable for your niche audience, or create your own that will resonate with them and turn it into a story or post. This will be a good change of pace in your content mix, especially if your content is generally more serious in tone and subject matter.
Polls are an Instagram story format that gives your audience the opportunity to vote from a selection of choices, or input their own response. Try creating a poll related to your industry to engage your audience.
Polls also create the opportunity for follow up content, as you can create another post recapping the poll results once the poll closes. An example for Brand Credential would be asking people which social channel they would use for their marketing strategy if they could only pick one.
Instagram has emerged as a platform for personal brand development that presents users with rich content options, and the opportunity to take advantage of the platform's engaged audience. Use these tips and Instagram personal branding content ideas for building your own brand on Instagram, and check out our personal branding guide for more tips.
Hi, I'm Justin and I write Brand Credential.
I started Brand Credential as a resource to help share expertise from my 10-year brand building journey.
I currently serve as the VP of Marketing for a tech company where I oversee all go-to-market functions. Throughout my career I've helped companies scale revenue to millions of dollars, helped executives build personal brands, and created hundreds of pieces of content since starting to write online in 2012.
As always, thank you so much for reading. If you’d like more personal branding and marketing tips, here are more ways I can help in the meantime:
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