Do you ever wonder how people create perfectly curated educational Instagram content? Whether you are a blogger or a lawyer, you've probably seen a fun Instagram carousel dedicated to a topic you wanted to know more about. Today on the blog, I am going to show you how to write stellar content, design it on Canva, and publish it with Tailwind.
1. Pick A Topic You Want To Discuss
Before you head over to Canva, you need to pick a topic you want to discuss. You can get as specific as you wish, but make sure that you can speak to the topic and share great advice on it.
The best topics are something that involves various steps or tips such as “Seven Tips For Improving Your Bad Credit,” or “Five Steps To Creating A Valuable Blog Post.”
When picking a topic think about:
- Your niche
- What you're passionate about
- Current events
- Upcoming promotions you'll be running
- Past or current content you want to bring attention to
2. Understand The Delivery Method You Want To Choose
Before you write the content, you need to get clear on the delivery method you choose. Instagram has tons of ways to deliver valuable content.
Information In The Caption
One of the most common ways to deliver valuable content is by putting the information in the caption. Instagram has a 2,200 character limit for picture captions. You'll have room to explain your concepts, but you won't have as much room as you think. The positive part about putting the information in the caption is that it helps people who can't see (since they'll be able to get the information you are sharing through a screen reader.)
Carousel Post
Back in 2017, Instagram finally let users upload more than one photo at once (in fact, you could add 10 photos at once.) This has become known as an Instagram carousel. These images can be woven together to tell a story, and so many people have used carousels to educate their audience. Carousels aren't the most friendly for visually impaired Instagram users, though. You can add alt descriptions to those images to help, but alt image descriptions are usually limited in character length.
Don't Forget About Video
Instagram feed posts can be video posts. Instead of sharing an image, you might want to share a video with your audience on the feed. Again, you'll probably want to caption these videos so that people can listen to them on mute or read the captions if they can't hear.
Instagram Story
Another option for educational content is creating an Instagram Story. Instagram Stories are amazing for creating educational content. You can teach your audience something in Stories and save it as a highlight reel for people to look back on later. Instagram Stories take time to create, but there is so much you can do to jazz them up and make them interactive. Don't forget to take time to caption your videos so that people who can't hear well can still take part in your Stories.
Instagram Live
Instagram Live content can be a wonderful way to teach your audience. You've probably been to a webinar or two in your life online. Instagram Lives can work like more open webinars. You can teach a topic on Instagram Live, turn it into an IGTV video, and download it to your phone afterward and turn it into other educational content (like a podcast.)
Instagram Reel
Last but not least, you can also use the Instagram Reels feature to educate your audience. Some of the best Reels on Instagram are people teaching a quick topic to music and dancing. You've probably seen the Reels where people are pointing at the information they've written on the screen. There are so many other ways to teach content on Reels, though!
3. Write The Content (Or Outline)
Now that you understand what you want to teach and how you want to teach it, it's time to write the content.
Plan The Type Of Content You Want To Create
Before you write any content, you need to plan the type of content you want to create. There are so many types of things you can share on Instagram. Let's walk through a few ideas.
Quotes
Whether you are sharing something you said or something someone famous said, quotes are great for Instagram educational content. You can share a quote image and then extrapolate on that quote in the caption. Talk about why the quote is important, what it means for your audience, and how they can take action on that quote in their daily lives.
Comparisons
As humans, we love to compare things. Comparisons make great content for Instagram, and you can really help your audience make important decisions no matter your niche. For example, as a personal finance Instagram page, you can compare traditional 401(K)s to Roth IRAs. As an education Instagram page, you can compare going to a private college to a public college. Get inspired and create amazing content that is bound to get shared, commented on, and saved.
Before/After Or Transformations
Humans also adore transformations or before and after. Before/after isn't just for nutrition or fitness Instagram content. Transformations happen all the time, and you should be trying to get your audience to a transformation in your own niche. Think about your story, what transformations have you made? If you have clients, what transformations have you helped them achieve? Talk about that in your Instagram content.
Reviews
People are naturally curious about what other people think about certain products, tools, and resources. If you have a popular product, tool, or course, create a review about that and share that on your Instagram page. Be honest and show them how whatever you are reviewing helped you in your life.
Case Studies/Testimonials/Reviews
In general, hearing from your clients and customers can be great educational content. Share a testimonial or review from your customers and then take your audience behind the scenes. Let your audience know how you worked with this particular client or customer to achieve whatever they are talking about in the testimonial or review.
Charts/Graphs
Data is empowering. Whether you are collecting data yourself or pulling data from other trusted resources, charts can be extremely engaging on Instagram. Share a chart or graph featuring data related to your industry. From that graph, spark a conversation in the caption. For example, if you are a mommy blogger you could poll your audience on a topic related to motherhood or get data from a more nationally recognized source. Create a graph out of that data and use it to spark a larger conversation around motherhood for your audience in the post caption. Charts and graphs can help your audience feel less alone (because they'll be able to see the stats of people who think like them or went through the same thing as they did.)
Quizzes
Last, let's talk about quizzes. Quizzes can be as simple as a true/false question or you might want to create something a bit more complicated. Quizzes are great because they breed interaction with your audience. Experiment with your audience by not giving the answer right away. After a few hours of your audience guessing and sharing their thoughts, comment on each person's answer with your thoughts (along with the correct answer.)
Think About How Much Content You Need To Write
An Instagram Reel probably doesn't need as much of a script written out as an Instagram caption. Different Instagram mediums require a different level of savviness. An Instagram Reel, for example, will require you to get your point across quickly. Based on the type of content you want to create and the medium you want to create it on, you can think about how much content you need to write to make it happen.
Write The Content
Once you understand how much you need to write, it's time to write down everything you need.
Different delivery methods require different levels of content creation:
- Captions: Whether or not you decide to write all the information in the caption or use the image/video to your advantage, you need to write out some sort of caption. You can write up to 2,200 characters in an Instagram caption.
- Instagram Video: Instagram feed videos can be up to 60 seconds. You can also create a video carousel which means that you can add up to ten minutes of video across the carousel. I probably wouldn't do that much video on the feed, though.
- Instagram Story: You can teach Instagram Stories in 15-second intervals. You might want to create text-based Stories, or you might decide to do 15-second videos instead.
- Instagram Live: You can live stream for up to four hours, but you'll probably want to keep it under 45 minutes. You'll need an extensive outline of topics to discuss, but you'll likely want to create most of your talking points as you go.
- Instagram Reel: If you're posting an Instagram Reel, you'll need to focus on sharing everything in up to 30-seconds. This will cause you to be creative and way more focused as you are writing content.
Spell Check Everything
Canva doesn't have the best spelling and grammar checking capabilities. I usually run all of my words through a site called Grammarly, so I can make sure that everything is spelled correctly and is written with grammar in mind. Grammarly has a tendency to strip out character in your voice though. If you typically use certain slang or colloquialisms with your audience, don't let Grammarly take those out of your writing. Whatever you write on Instagram needs to sound authentically you.
Refine The Content
The last part of writing content is refining the content and editing out unnecessary information. Even if you have a lot of space on your images, you don't want to create cluttered images. Cut out as much as you can before you create the content.
I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
–Mark Twain
4. Source The Right Images
Images can be really powerful and help you tell your story when creating educational Instagram content. If you want your images to stand out, you need pictures that don't look too stock-like. If you don't feel like taking your own photos, there are tons of places to source fun imagery online.
Here are some sites I use to source images:
Canva also has a ton of amazing images in their library, especially if you have a Canva Pro account, so don't be afraid to hop right into Canva at this point.
5. Have Fun Designing The Graphics
Next, let's get to the best part: designing the graphics! I love designing with Canva because it's so easy to design with the program. Canva is always adding new features and templates to help you design what your heart wants you to do design.
Sketch Out Your Design On Paper
Before you open up Canva, take some time to sketch out what you want from your design. Taking five minutes to do a rough sketch of how you see this content being displayed will help you find the perfect template later on.
Get Familiar With Canva's Tools
If this is your first time working with Canva, take some time to get familiar with all the tools Canva has to offer. Orient yourself with some of the fonts, color options, elements, etc. that Canva has available. Canva's features page is a great place to start when it comes to getting familiar with this design tool.
Start With The Instagram Dimensions You Want
If you search for Instagram in the search bar on Canva, you'll see a ton of various sized Instagram templates to choose from. Pick the one that best fits your needs whether you are looking for an Instagram feed post or an Instagram Story post.
Pick A Template That Helps You Tell Your Story
Take a look at your sketch and the templates offered on Canva. Which one of those templates best matches the design you wanted to sketch? If you find one that's close, use it. If not, you can always design from scratch on Canva. I encourage you to find a template that can tell your story, though, because that will save you a ton of time!
Customize That Template With Your Content, Colors, Fonts, And Logos
Now that you have the template, customize it with all the writing work you did! If you are doing a carousel post, design each image on a separate page so you can see the images side-by-side in Canva.
Add in any pictures from Canva or other image sources and make sure to update the images with your own color palette (you can even upload your color codes to Canva before you edit any template.)
If you want, you can add a logo or simply type out your blog address or Instagram handle at the bottom of your photos. Adding a logo or wordmark will help you get credit if your images are posted on other Instagram feeds or shared to other people's Instagram Stories. Sometimes people might crop out your information, and you can't get too up in arms about that, unfortunately. Even reporting images as stolen to Instagram will only take down that one instance (policing how other people use your creative work can get exhausting.) Hopefully, most people on Instagram will give you credit for the work that you do, and you'll gain followers from their audience.
6. Post Your Images On Instagram
Next, it's time to post your educational Instagram content. I love using Tailwind to plan my content and post on Instagram. If you don't already use Tailwind For Instagram, it's definitely worth a trail run. Of all the Instagram tools, it's probably my favorite, and they recently released a Tailwind Instagram app.
I've seen other people use tools like Buffer or Planoly if Tailwind isn't your style.
Find Some Great Hashtags
One thing I love about Tailwind for Instagram is that they help you come up with interesting hashtag ideas. Instagram will tell you if your hashtag is niche, good, best, or competitive. It's important to have a mix of all these hashtags on your post.
- Niche hashtags help your post get seen in a small, but most likely carefully curated group. For example #ArkansasBlogger is niche, but I know that my content would be seen with a bunch of content from Arkansas bloggers.
- Good and best hashtags are either closely related or they have a bit more reach than niche hashtags. These have enough use to where you can get some positive ROI from these hashtags without your content being buried in the hashtag feed too easily.
- Competitive hashtags typically have millions of uses on Instagram and are extremely hard to get any steam on. These hashtags are worth it, though, because if you happen to get a little steam from them, they take you much further than a niche hastag might.
You'll also want to consider using branded hashtags if you are mentioning a specific product or service or any local hashtags that allow you to get in front of the right people.
Use The Right Call-To-Action (CTA)
Using a call-to-action or CTA is extremely important on Instagram. We often get agitated because our audience isn't doing what we want, but when is the last time you told your audience what you want. Unless your audience is made up of bloggers, they probably don't understand what creators want from them. It's your job as a blogger or Instagrammer to let people know what you need. Is it a save or a comment or a follow? Let the people know.
The important thing about a good CTA is that you keep it simple. You shouldn't be asking your followers for a million and one things. Here are some good examples of short and sweet CTAs.
- Save this post, so you can come back to it later.
- Share this post with a friend, if it helped you today.
- Double-tap this post if you want to see more like it.
- Comment below and tell me how you feel about this topic.
- Give me a follow if you are new here.
Tag The Right People
Last but not least, you want to tag the right people. Tagging other great accounts can help your educational content be seen by way more people! Instagram doesn't happen in a vacuum. You never know what you could accomplish by tagging the right person. If you tag an account they might reshare your content on their Instagram feed, like it, comment on your post, or any number of engaging things. You can tag up to 20 people in a feed picture/carousel. You can also tag up to ten people in your Instagram Stories, so don't forget to tag relevant people there too.
7. What To Do After You Post
Educating your audience doesn't stop after you post a picture. The fun has just begun! Now you need to support your content on Instagram with some good old fashioned engagement. Here are a few things you should do after you post.
Share The Content To Different Parts Of Your Instagram
Don't just share to your feed or Stories and leave the app. There are so many ways you can share a piece of content across Instagram. Some people go on Instagram, watch their Stories and leave while others are addicted to their feed. If I'm being honest, I spend most of my time on Instagram using the Stories feature. I scroll my feed, but I would much rather see what people are doing in their Stories (because I'm nosy.) You might have some people on your follower's list that are similar to me. Figure out how to get those followers' attention. Here are some ideas on how to share your content throughout the Instagram ecosystem.
- Share a feed post to your Stories.
- Create an IGTV video from your Stories.
- Share your Stories in your feed.
- Do a live directing people to your Stories, Feed, or IGTV video.
- Share your IGTV video in your feed.
- Share your Live as an IGTV video.
- Add your feed content to an Instagram Guide about the topic.
- …and so on!
There are so many ways to reshare your Instagram content. Instagram is always adding new ways to share content, like the new Guide feature they recently released. Don't feel the need to do all of this at once, either.
Experiment With Instagram Ads
If you want your content to be seen by others outside of your immediate circle, you might want to experiment with Instagram ads if the content you posted is resonating with your audience. Instagram Ads can easily become a money pit, so you'll want to focus on the why behind sharing the content with your audience (and any new audience you share it with.)
Since you added a call-to-action to the caption, your new ad audience will likely follow that same CTA. Make sure you create a strong CTA before putting dollars behind your content.
Share Your Content On Other Platforms
Instagram can be a great way to test new content ideas. If you are looking to test a potential blog topic, start with a fun Instagram piece first. If your audience is engaged with the topic, create a full-fledged blog to expand on the topic. Link back to your original Instagram content within that blog post so that you are constantly pushing traffic to your Instagram feed.
Do you know what to do after you create a piece of educational content on Instagram? Amanda from @happyarkansan is sharing exactly what to do. Click To TweetConclusion: Educational Instagram Content Can Help You A Ton
Creating educational Instagram content is just the tip of the iceberg. We love to feed our brains and learn more about niches that matter to us. By taking a little bit of time to create amazing content, you can create an engaging Instagram presence that your audience shares for you.
I hope this content helped you come up with lots of content ideas to share while teaching you the basics of creating content with Canva and posting with Tailwind.
What will be your first piece of educational Instagram content after reading this blog post?
