Being trending on Instagram doesn't mean shootings in luxury outfits and traveling to fashionable locations. The main requests in 2021 are meaning, value and authenticity.
These changes are depicted in visuals, captions and communication in DM. Read below how you can adapt and update your content strategy for this year and attract people who will turn into your loyal fans.
What's trending on Instagram this year?
UNFILTERED AND AUTHENTIC IMAGES
We are taught not to judge a book by its cover, but Instagram is all about visuals – a viewer should be intrigued by an image firstly, and only after that will they be willing to read your captions. So, the main thing you should know in 2021 is: don't edit images and videos to become trending on Instagram.
It's good news for those who don't know how to retouch images– this year you can skip the filters and other adjustments. Instagrammers don't want to be cheated, and that's why truthful visuals with imperfections are on the cusp.
This trend concerns not just selfies but product photoshoots for your Instagram shop. Don't try to lie about your goods' actual appearance – shoot in daylight and do just minor edits. If you sell clothes, ask ordinary people and your customers to be your models. The quality of images should be high, but you can continue filming and shooting with your phone camera.
Read our guide dedicated to Instagram aesthetics to learn how to make your account attention-grabbing.
THE EXPANDING ROLE OF DIRECT
Direct is not just a private Instagram messenger – it's used by the algorithms to determine with whom you communicate the most to show your updates to these people.
If you manage a business account, you have two crucial tasks for DMs:
- Respond to Direct messages reactively.
- Stimulate users to slide into DMs through posts and stories.
For the first task, you might think you need to spend 24/7 online checking your inbox. But it's not true. You can set up automated replies to first messages, by keywords, to stories reactions and mentions with the Direct Module. Users who text you will get replies in 5-10 minutes after they messaged you – it's a great solution for managing customer support issues on IG. Read the fully-fledged guide How to sell on Instagram with DM for brands and influencers (strategies for 6-figure sales and 300% engagement growth).
For the second one, you need to stimulate engagement via stories and posts. For example, use question stickers that really boost conversations. Users that are actively responding to your stories will be among the first to view updates from your account. Also, you can incite shares of feed posts and stories in Direct – simply ask the audience. Surely, valuable content is the key.
DEEPEST SECRETS REVEALED
Instagram of 2021 is getting new meaning – people are not struggling to look perfect, and sincerity is a new marketing technique. Users of this social network don't like to read the same information they could find on Google. What makes your content high-value is a personal experience (even negative and painful), secret details, confidential data, and corporate secrets.
Obviously, this type of content is not easy to produce – you can't copy and paste it. After all, can all brands and shops have something intriguing to share? Well, try to expose the behind-the-scenes, share mistakes that you've made while growing your business account, present the members of your team, and don't be afraid to share even the accountant details.
Before posting something, ask yourself these questions: Is it valuable? Would I share this with my friends?
LONGER CAPTIONS
This trend is closely tied to the previous one. Longer captions mean that content is getting more meaningful – you can't share that many thoughts with one emoji.
If you experience troubles when writing, the best tip is to firstly voice-record what you want to share with words. Imagine that you are recording a voice message to your friend. After this, you can convert this into a text with little edits.
What is trending about captions – a clear headline that people see firstly while scrolling the feed. These 2-3 rows should be catchy and slightly touch the main idea of your post. In 2021 you don't necessarily need to use emojis, but if a copy is lengthy, let it breathe with line breaks. You cannot do them by default in the app, so use special services to format the text.
The huge trend about texts is using fonts – bold, italic, minimalistic, and other stylish symbols. Check out the Fonts Generator if you need to highlight some words and expressions to help readers notice them better.
EVEN BIG ACCOUNTS USE HASHTAGS
Hashtags are built-in reach boosters offered by Instagram for free (unlike the ads). Ignoring them for your promotion is just dumb. The reason is that users that find you through hashtags are seriously motivated to discover your content, products, or services. They typed these keywords in the IG search bar, or even more, they might even follow these hashtags and see the updates in the feed.
Hashtags let you get into the feeds (and minds) of people who are your target clients. They already want your content. Why not help them find your posts?
According to the trends, even communities with over 375K followers use hashtags. How can you find trending hashtags on Instagram today?
- Find broad trending hashtags free of charge on our website. You can browse top tags by topics or alphabetically.
- Research niche hashtags via the Hashtag Generator. When thinking about more specific hashtags, include related and synonymic ideas for the keywords. For example, if you are selling sports footwear, you can use not just the words "sneakers" and "footwear," but "healthy lifestyle," "running," and "jogging." While brainstorming, think like your client – what words would you use to find your goods on Instagram?
- Inspect your competitors' tags and produce more ideas via the Hashtag Generator. If you are lazy to brainstorm, you can discover what hashtags are used by accounts in your industry. With the help of the Profile Analyzer, you can view the top tags they use – no need to check manually for every post. Afterwards, copy these hashtags and paste them into the Hashtag Generator to obtain more relevant ideas suggested by Instagram.
