The Ultimate Guide to the 4 Content Formats on Instagram (+ Tips for 3 Under Utilised Formats) — Part 1

Content formats are an important part of an Instagram strategy and calendar. While Instagram keeps experimenting with the various content formats on the platform, the approach behind each remains the same.

Use this 2-Part Ultimate Instagram Content Formats Guide to strategically devise your content for your audience.

1. Static Posts: The Basic Photo Format

Regular Static Posts are indeed Instagram’s longest-standing, most trustworthy and familiar format for sharing content. Intended for people to share their day-to-day lives ‘insta-ntly’, it has evolved as a powerful branding tool for accounts, both personal and business.

Tips:

1. Capture the audience with eye-catching visuals: Use high-quality, captivating visuals to stop your audience from scrolling. Using a thumb-stopping headline on your design is also paramount to an effective post, so do give some thought to the copy of your post. Make sure that the branding of the visuals is also on point so that they know that it’s your post when it comes on their newsfeed, and looks professional on your profile.
2. Craft engaging captions: In the case of single static posts, captions play a very important role. Your captions should have a purpose. The caption is an extension of the post, so it should provide context, tell a story, or evoke emotions to encourage users to stop and engage with your post. Don’t forget to add a CTA to your captions to prompt a response from the audience.
3. Use hashtags effectively: Use 3–5 relevant hashtags, which are a mix of popular and niche hashtags in your industry. Don’t spam your caption with hashtags. A good hashtag strategy can increase the discoverability of your posts and help you reach a wider audience.

Formatting:

• Image files that can be used on Instagram include traditional file types, such as JPG and GIF files.
• For a square layout, the ideal Instagram image size is 1080 x 1080 pixels or px. A 1:1 aspect ratio.
• The best Instagram image size for those uploading landscape posts is 1080 x 566 pixels with a 1.91:1 ratio.
• Vertical, or Instagram portrait, images should be in a 4:5 aspect ratio with max dimensions of 1080 x 1350 pixels.

Content Ideas:

• Saveable content
• Quick information and Infographics
• Quizzes and giveaways
• Inspirational quotes
• Promotional posts and sales
• Testimonials

2. Carousel Posts: The Storytelling Format

We know that users love to swipe. Carousel posts are a format that allows you to share multiple images or videos in a single post, and the viewers can swipe through them horizontally.

When someone swipes through your carousel post, they end up spending more time on your content, which tells Instagram that your content is valuable and they are interested in your content. Instagram will then show more of your content to that user, and other users having similar interests.

Tips:

1. Tell a story: Carousels are ideal for storytelling content. Start with a strong hook in the first slide, and then use each slide to progress your narrative, ending with a call-to-action on the last slide.
2. Maintain visual consistency: Ensure the visuals are cohesive with your branding and throughout the carousel.
3. Call to action: Carousels generate the most engagement on Instagram. Don’t forget to add a call to action on the last slide to encourage users to engage with your content. Also, add a CTA like ‘swipe left’ on each slide to prompt users to swipe through the carousel.

Formatting:

• File size: Same as static posts
• For videos on carousels, the video length is 3–60 seconds, the maximum weight is 3.6 GB, and the recommended format is .mp4

Content Ideas:

• before-and-after transformations.
• showcasing an entire product line
• step-by-step tutorial

3. Reels: The Swiped Format

A copy of Tiktok’s main feature — Reels are Instagram’s version of short-form vertical videos. Having a separate tab on your Instagram profile, Reels have become the most important feature on Instagram right now.

As users now spend more time on their phone swiping on reels than doing anything else, you can reach thousands, even lacs of users through reels, even if you are a small account.

Tips:

1. Grab Attention with a hook: The first 3 seconds of your reel are very important for you to hook your audience to your reel. Directly address the audience with the word “you”, or touch their pains, or do something surprising to grab your audience’s attention and make them stay for the whole video.
2. Create snacky content: People generally swipe on reels during their spare time. So keep the videos short, simple and snappy.
3. Utilise Tools: You can creatively edit reels, and add filters, music, effects, etc. Experiment with all tools available within Instagram to create a captivating reel.
4. Thumbnail: The thumbnail of the reel is paramount as reels have a separate tab on your profile, and also show on your feed. Keep the thumbnail copy and visuals catchy, and in line with your brand identity. Keep the main elements on the thumbnail in the centre square so that they don’t get cut when shown on the feed.

Formatting:

• For reel size, Instagram recommends 1080 x 1920 pixels and an aspect ratio of 9:16.
• The thumbnails should also be in an aspect ratio of 9:16.

Content Ideas:

• Quick tutorials
• Quick Listicles
• Behind-the-scenes
• Sneak peeks
• Quick tips and hacks

4. Stories: The Instantaneous Format

Instagram Stories are an ephemeral and spontaneous format for sharing content that disappears after 24 hours. Stories require to be posted more often at least once a day to be effective. They appear at the top of the Instagram users’ newsfeeds.

Tips:

1. Utilise all tools: There are multiple ways you can make your stories interactive with tools like polls, quizzes, Q&As, GIFs, etc. Stories are where you can have day-to-day interactions with your audience, and get them to know better, and Instagram provides excellent interactive elements to do that.

Formatting:

• All Instagram Stories will appear as 1080 x 1920 pixels and have an aspect ratio of 9:16 for both videos and photos.
• Images uploaded to Instagram Stories will be displayed for up to 5 seconds.
• Videos used in Instagram Stories can be displayed up to 15 seconds.

Content Ideas:

• Behind-the-scenes
• Sneak peeks
• Pols to understand audience preference
• Q&As to answer audience frequently asked questions

Static posts, Carousels, Reels and Stories are the 4 main formats of Instagram. If you are using these optimally, you are already way ahead in your Instagram game.

But there are 3 formats that are under-utilised and often overlooked on Instagram — Instagram Live, Highlights, and Direct Messages.

Here is Part 2 to help you master all of Instagram formats.