Content plan for Instagram: what it is, types and how to create it

Promotion on Instagram without a specific plan is like traveling through unknown territory without a map - you are moving forward, but you do not know where and why. Therefore, in order to promote your account, you need to create a content plan and strictly follow it. Now we will tell you what a content plan for Instagram is, what types there are and how to create it correctly.

What is a content plan and why is it needed?

A content plan for Instagram is a publication calendar with a certain sequence, where each topic is tied to a specific date and time. It helps to control the account, generate ideas for posts and improve the quality of materials.

Developing a content plan is necessary to:

• Speed up the development of topics and headings;
• Have a stock of ideas for the future;
• Improve the quality of materials;
• Regularly publish posts and stay in front of subscribers;
• Get maximum coverage thanks to a well-thought-out content strategy.

It should be noted that a content plan does not guarantee an increase in the number of subscribers and promotion of the account in search results. But it greatly simplifies the analysis of content and the solution of routine tasks.

What should be reflected in the content plan

When developing, you need to consider the following aspects:

• Defining specific dates for posting;
• Establishing a time frame for posting content;
• Selecting regular topics for discussion;
• Developing titles for each post;
• Collecting information about media materials (images, video, audio, graphics) and providing links to them;
• Forming ideas for future publications;
• Collecting SEO data;
• Selecting hashtags.

How to look for ideas for content?

Sources of inspiration for creating posts:

• Study competitors' accounts and thematic communities on Instagram. Analyze successful ideas and adapt them to your style;
• Follow publications on social networks and blogs on your topic;
• Communicate with your audience, conduct surveys and stimulate discussion;
• Read news on major news sites and use it to create content;
• Pay attention to old publications and consider updating them;
• Read and watch content on the topic;
• Use the Gennady bot to generate random ideas;
• Look for new topics, experiment with formats and present familiar topics in a new light.

Write everything down in a document with descriptions of potential topics for future publications.

How to conduct a content plan analysis

A content plan also includes an analysis of already published content, which helps determine the correctness of the chosen direction for account development. Such analysis can be short-term and long-term.

Short-term analysis is carried out over one to two weeks and consists of the following stages:

• Identify the two most popular and two least successful materials for the specified period of time;
• Study the common features of successful materials and use them to create new content;
• Determine the reasons why other materials did not appeal to the audience and consider whether they can be improved;
• Regularly make changes to the plan depending on the performance of past posts.

Also conduct a long-term analysis of posts. Within its framework, it is necessary to analyze data for 2-3 months and take into account the dynamics of changes. This analysis is carried out in several stages:

1. Select the most popular materials and determine the reasons for their success.
2. Consider the possibility of expanding or narrowing the topic to create new materials based on relevant information.
3. Study less popular materials and determine whether it is worth referring to them in the future. If so, suggest an alternative approach.
4. Conduct a weekly analysis of the content plan and determine the most successful week and its reasons.

To analyze the content plan, you can use manual methods or specialized analytics services, such as:

• DataFan in SMMplanner is a special tool for collecting information from social networks, providing reports on content effectiveness, audience reach and other indicators. Integrating your account with DataFan through SMMplanner will allow you to easily access statistics;
• Popsters - allows you to quickly track the popularity of posts and sort publications by various parameters, such as format, text volume, publication date and content;
• JagaJam is an analytical tool that allows you to deeply analyze content, evaluate the level of user engagement and the quality of materials. With its help, you can determine the most popular posts and choose the optimal time for their publication.

Regular analysis of the content plan helps to improve the quality of promotion, detect and eliminate shortcomings, as well as create templates, determine the interests of the target audience and facilitate work.

Conclusion

A content plan helps you publish content regularly, which maintains active communication with your audience and expands your reach. This way, you will gain the trust of potential customers.

There are many ready-made content plans for Instagram* on the Internet, but I recommend developing an individual plan for your account. Using someone else's plan can lead to the emergence of similar accounts and the irrelevance of the proposed topics for objections to your target audience.