Creating a content plan

Creating a plan for your content on Instagram will help if you are unsure what you should be posting each day. Instead of spending tons of time trying to come up with a photo to post and some interesting captions to go along with it - make a plan and ease the pain.

If telling stories and sharing come easy for you - then great - go ahead and wing it and post as the moods hit you and try to stay consistent.

I cannot tell you how many days I have thought forever about what I could say in my post. Sharing funny stories and bits of my life don't come easily to me since for the most part, I am a fairly private person. You don't know what I am up to each day and what I am eating most of the time - because I am not in the habit of oversharing on social media. So when it comes to posting funny stories or anecdotes with my photos - I have to think a bit about what I might post.

Having a plan for your content will make this process a bit easier if you are more like me and don't know what you should share to be authentic and get good interaction.

I have a content plan below that you can take a look at and consider following. Change it up a bit to suit your needs - the goal is to just have a plan that is going to be workable for you.

For the photos - follow the guidelines we have already covered. Be consistent, post only your best work, work on having a cohesive feed, keep the processing similar, etc...

For the captions - consider the below content or something similar you have tailored to your needs. You could have a 7-day planner you rotate or a 30-day planner you use for the whole month. After using your planner for a bit - go back and evaluate what worked best and what didn't work and adjust your plan as needed going forward.

• Day 1 - Tell a story from when you were a kid with your photo.
• Day 2 - Post something inspirational with your photo.
• Day 3 - Show something behind the scenes.
• Day 4 - Ask a question with your photo.
• Day 5 - Tell a funny story from that day with your photo.
• Day 6 - Post an offer or promote something with your photo.
• Day 7 - Share a favorite quote/poem and what it means to you with your photo.

You can rotate the 7 days all month - or come up with some different content for each day. Do some research on the accounts you follow - what captions appeal the most to you and which ones are just so-so. If they catch your attention - add that type content to your calendar - if you like it - good chance others do too.

You don't have to plan out exactly what you are going to say all month unless you want to - but by just having a guide for that day's content will make it easier to think up what you want to say with the photo you posted. If you are pre-planning your posts with the Later site then you might go ahead and come up with all the captions in one go so that when they are ready to post - you don't even have to think about them again until you fill up your calendar next time.

Keep a notebook with you - and when you randomly think up things you think would be good to share - make note of them. I think of funny things and then promptly forget them later - if you make a note of them - you'll have a list of ideas to refer back to.