What to post on Instagram when you run a shop: 12 ideas that work

For most shop owners, the problem with Instagram isn't the technical side: it's the blank page. You open the app, wonder what to show, and put it off until tomorrow. Yet your business produces enough every day to keep an account alive. You just need to know where to look.

Here are 12 ideas that work for almost any local business, from restaurants and florists to hair salons and garages.

Show what customers don't see

Behind the scenes is the easiest content to make, and often the most popular. Your customers see the result; they love finding out how you get there.

1. Opening up in the morning. The shutter going up, the lights coming on: ten seconds of video is enough.
2. The preparation. Prepping the kitchen, the morning bake, unpacking a delivery, putting a bouquet together.
3. A close-up of something you do every day. Plating a dish, a haircut, grouting tiles: what you do without thinking fascinates people who can't do it.

Put faces to your business

People buy from people. A photo of the team almost always gets more reactions than a product shot.

1. Introduce one team member per post: their role, how long they've been with you, what they love about the job.
2. Tell your story: why you opened, where you come from. A few honest lines and a photo of you.
3. Thank a customer, with their permission: their Google review over a photo of what they bought.

Be useful

An account that helps people is an account people follow.

1. A professional tip: how to make a bouquet last, how to look after a hair colour, how to check your tyres before winter.
2. The questions you get asked most, with the answers, as Stories saved to your highlights.
3. Your opening hours and how to find you, pinned to the top of your profile and updated before every bank holiday.

Give people a reason to come now

1. This week's new arrival: a dish, a product, a collection, with the price.
2. The big dates of the year: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas… announced one to two weeks ahead. Our marketing calendar lists all of these dates for your trade.
3. The slots or tables still free, as a Story, on the day.

How to keep it up

Consistency matters more than perfection. Two posts a week kept up all year are worth more than ten in January and then nothing. Keep a list of ideas in advance, mix up the formats (a photo, a short video, a Story) and prepare your posts in batches rather than day by day.

For ideas that fit your business, our free post ideas by trade tool has more than 220 of them, sorted by format. And if you'd like a whole month of posts prepared for you, that's exactly what LibPost does: the agent suggests the topics and writes the captions, you approve, and it publishes.