There’s an interesting trend I’ve noticed in the past few months of managing my family’s donut shop page on Instagram: more content = more visibility. And Reels tend to generate more views from non-followers, while carousels and regular Feed posts get more views from followers.
These highlight the need to get strategic with your Instagram content creation efforts. So in this post, I share some of the best content for Instagram in 2025 and how you can use it for your business.
There are study after study proving that Instagram carousels are the most engaging content format. Socialinsider found that in spite of a year-over-year decline in Instagram engagement, carousel posts still see the highest engagement. While Reels engagement has dropped to 0.50%, carousels still see an average engagement rate of 0.55%.
One reason for this is the ability to swipe through a carousel post, which gets people to pause and engage with the content. Carousels also see the highest number of saves compared to Reels and single-image posts, indicating that people are more likely to find value in this type of content.
This makes them an excellent format to create value-driven content, especially with a focus on sequential storytelling and educational visuals.
Use carousels to share a series of visuals that tell an interesting story – whether it’s about your brand or its mission. You can also use them to share employee stories, behind-the-scenes images, snippets from a brand event, and more.
Alternatively, make the most of the swipe-through feature to share step-by-step instructions, tips, or other educational info that would interest your audience.
I love how Patagonia uses carousel posts to tell impactful visual stories through the lenses of brand ambassadors and photographers. The brand uses these posts to share the beauty of nature and highlight “what’s still worth defending.” It aims to use these visuals to educate the community and drive people toward environmental action.
Carousel Post Ideas for Instagram:
Instagram Collabs has to be one of the coolest features introduced by the platform in recent years. This feature allows you to co-publish content with other accounts, so the post shows up across more than one account.
It displays to the audience of both collaborators, instantly maximizing reach and engagement. You can even collaborate with more than one account, which is a great way to exponentially increase your content reach.
Thanks to Collabs, I’ve been able to discover some amazing content from brilliant creators that I’d never heard of before.
So it’s the best content for Instagram influencer collaborations to ensure that influencer-generated content shows up organically in your brand feed. Or in some cases, your branded content featuring influencers will show up organically in the creator’s feed. Either way, you’re reaching more people and creating more opportunities to engage non-followers.
Spoonflower leans into Collab-tagged Reels for their influencer partnerships. The brand relies on the creativity of influencers and entrusts them to create engaging Reels in their unique voice. By becoming collaborators, Spoonflower ensures that this influencer-generated content shows up on their feed as well to maximize reach and engagement. The following Collab resulted in 17.3k likes and hundreds of comments.
Collab Post Ideas for Instagram:
Instagram Stories disappear within 24 hours, which makes them a key content format for sharing time-sensitive updates. Think of: flash sales, promo announcements, and limited-time offers.
The possibility of missing out on the offer after the Story disappears could urge many customers to take immediate action. So you could make the most of them to share conversion nudges, especially as you can directly link to items in your Instagram Shop or website. Combine these Stories with product stickers and link stickers with custom CTA text to encourage action.
Businesses like Mae Jean Vintage use Stories to update their product availability and booking availability. They include a link sticker for customers to take action. This is an excellent strategy for establishments where exclusivity is the main business model.
Brands like Fenty Beauty even make use of Instagram Stories to share teasers for upcoming launches and international expansions. Interactive stickers further add to the fun, getting followers to engage with the content and gauging their reactions. Similarly, you could share teasers and countdowns for upcoming product launches, brand events, and more.
Alternatively, you can make use of the temporary nature of Stories to share real-time updates during brand events or factory tours. This is a great way to take your audience along on a journey even when the event is exclusive to invitees like employees or influencers.
Notice how CLEARSTEM Skincare shares real-time updates of an event for their creator community. The brand reshares content from invited influencers to their Stories, giving the audience a glimpse into the experience.
Collab Post Ideas for Instagram:
Although carousels may be better at driving engagement, nothing beats Instagram Reels when it comes to generating impressions. Another Socialinsider study found that Reels have the highest impression rate among all Instagram content types. The number is significantly higher for smaller accounts with 1k-5k followers, which generate an impression rate of 30%.
This makes Reels the best content for Instagram virality and boosting awareness, especially if you’re running a smaller account that needs to maximize reach. Create Reels based on the latest internet trends, leveraging viral sounds and music that could help you gain more visibility on the platform.
Chipotle regularly creates Reels based on the latest internet trends to entertain their audience and get them to share their content. For instance, they created a Reel based on the “this is the whole point” trend taking over social media. This Reel generated over 20k likes and hundreds of positive comments from dedicated fans.
At the same time, it’s important to avoid trend-hopping. This is an over-reliance on trends to create content, which means you’re basically jumping into every trend without adding value or substance. Focus on the trends that are relevant to your brand and mix things up with other value-driven content.
Speaking of, Reels are an excellent format to share valuable information with your audience. The audio-visual nature of this format makes it ideal for sharing instructions and tips or demonstrating how your product works. Some brands even use Reels to share other types of educational information related to their products or the industry as a whole.
Dyson does a great job of sharing short and entertaining Reels that demonstrate their products in action. Not only does the content educate the audience and improve product understanding, but it also helps to earn their trust.
Meanwhile, brands like Frank Body use Reels to share product information and answer pressing questions from customers. See the following Reel where they answer a question related to the product’s high price point. So they effectively remove barriers to purchase by addressing doubts and concerns.
Another creative way to use Reels is for sharing engaging teaser content to build hype for upcoming launches and events. You could combine enticing visuals with stimulating music to generate excitement on the days leading up to the launch. That’s exactly how Frank Body engaged their community for the launch of their Firming Body Cream.
On the weeks leading up to the launch, the brand shared a series of engaging Reels to tease the new product. These Reels featured a redacted image of the product to create a sense of mystery, while lively background music further adds to the thrill.
Reels Ideas for Instagram:
People are more likely to trust content from real people than from brands. That’s why user-generated content works so well in boosting trust and credibility. You can combine this strategy with influencer marketing and make use of UGC from creators in your industry to fill your Instagram grid.
Whether they’re experts or enthusiasts, these creators have a knowledge of the industry. This has helped them to build clout and following with a relevant audience base. The content they create resonates with the audience because it comes from a place of experience and truthfulness. Even if the creators are influential, the content still showcases real users sharing their real experience of using the product.
Make the most of influencer UGC to build trust through honest reviews, genuine unboxing experiences, and authentic first impressions. Additionally, demos and how-tos are a great way to improve product understanding and further give customers the confidence to buy your products.
Makeup and beauty brands, in particular, love to use influencer-generated Reels to share product demos, how-tos, tips, and more. This type of educational content, coming from real people, adds a layer of authenticity and relatability, helping brands to build trust with the audience.
I love the following Reel from Huda Beauty where Huda Kattan herself reacts of an influencer trying out the brand’s Lip Contour Stains. The influencer shared her honest review and surprised reaction when she realized that the product didn’t transfer, proving the authenticity of the brand’s claim.
Influencer UGC Content Ideas for Instagram:
Now that you know the best content for Instagram in 2025, you may be excited to start creating it. Let me share a few additional tips and best practices to incorporate these different content types into your Instagram strategy.
As you can see, each content format serves a different purpose. While Reels are great for boosting visibility, carousels can drive more engagement. So you need to be strategic with the way you use them in your Instagram marketing efforts.
Start by assigning a purpose for each content format. For example, Reels for driving awareness with entertaining content, carousels for sharing educational information, and Stories for conversion nudges. This will help you plan out what content to create and which format to use, ensuring a more organized approach to content production.
Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to limit each content type to just one purpose. For example, you can use both Reels and carousels for education, just with a different approach based on the format. While Reels could feature real people talking about the product or demonstrating how it works, carousels can feature infographic-type education.
Regardless of which content type you choose to use, avoid limiting yourself to just one type or focusing too much on a single format. Remember that you’re catering to a wide variety of people with varying content preferences. So diversifying your content calendar with different formats is a great way to appeal to a diverse audience.
It also helps you keep things fresh, so you don’t bore people by producing the same type of content over and over again. Try breaking up your Reels streak with a carousel post, for example. Or share a Reel after every couple of still image posts.
If you’re not sure how to mix things up between different content types, make the most of your performance stats to inform your decision. Use your native Instagram analytics to see which of your branded content is getting the most impressions and engagements. This will give you a fair idea of the formats that work well.
You can further break down your analysis to see what types of content people seem to enjoy the most with each format. For example, do you see more saves for carousel posts with infographic-type content? Or do you get more engagement on Reels where you recreate internet trends vs. the more educational ones?
Use these insights to inform how to make the most of each content format and optimize your Instagram content calendar.
As for your influencer marketing content, use a platform like Influencity to track which types of influencer content work best. Are you getting more conversions with honest reviews vs. product demos? Are you getting more engagements on Reels vs. in-feed posts? This will help you adapt the content strategy for your influencer campaigns and maximize results.
The best content for Instagram in 2025 isn’t just one specific format. Rather, it’s content that delivers value to your audience – whether it’s entertainment or education. And the various content formats serve different purposes for your brand. Make the most of the tips and ideas I shared above to strengthen your Instagram content strategy for growth.