FAQ 5: how do I keep coming up with new ideas for posts?
... the short answer: you don't
This post is part of series where I answer some of the questions I am most frequently asked about social media. To browse or read the rest of the series click here.
Writers often come to me feeling like you’re in a losing battle with Instagram because ‘feeding the beast’ requires more creative energy than you have - or want - to give.
Keeping up with the volume of posts Instagram requires is like running on a treadmill set to sprint until your lungs are bursting, your heart is racing, and your feet slam flat-footed into the rubber.
Except this time, before you shoot off the back and land in an undignified heap on the floor, someone - me - reaches over and presses a button, and the treadmill slows to a walk…
Before you read on I’d like to invite you to read FAQ 4: I have nothing to say. What am I supposed to post about? if you have not done so already. The suggestions I make in this piece will work best if you’ve thought about the ingredients you want to put into your soup (I promise that will make sense once you’ve read FAQ 4;-).
Three ways to slow the content treadmill
1. Reuse idea(s) but change how you present them
Within Instagram this can mean turning a reel into a carousel post, or a static image and caption into a reel, but this also works off Instagram. You can take a punchy sentence from a Substack or newsletter, and turn it into a reel or, if you’ve written a long-form piece with some story-telling followed by advice, you might turn the advice section into a carousel post for Instagram.
An example of this is how I turned the questions at the end of this Substack post:
Reasons to stay on Instagram
In quick succession last week I read Substack posts from Erica Perry Claudia Wilde Charlie Rewilding and Kylie-Ann about their reasons for leaving Instagram, or considering doing so. Their pieces are so beautifully written, disarmingly honest and moving that I started to question my own commitment to the platform. I recognised much of what they described in my own experiences of using Instagram, as wel…
into this Instagram carousel:
Revisiting ideas repeatedly (in different formats) will also give your account a clear identity. This will clearly communicate to new people what your account is about, and will make it more likely the algorithm will suggest your account to people who will be interested in it (based on the kinds of content they habitually interact with).
Finally, by exploring the same idea in different formats, you may find that you engage different sections of your audience. An audience member who rarely reads through a carousel post, may watch a video, and vice versa.
And so the treadmill slows…
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