(Update on November 14, 2021 at 9:00AM PT: This blog post was published in 2019. For up-to-date information, learn more about discovering inspiration on Instagram.)

Learn how you can find inspiration from photos and videos that other people and businesses are sharing on Instagram.

By following other people and businesses on Instagram, you can see what photos and videos they are sharing to get inspiration for your own content.

Here are 6 ideas about who you can follow on Instagram.

Follow people that you already know offline to build connections on Instagram.

Instagram curates the content on these accounts. Watch this space to get inspiration, learn tips for using Instagram, and hear stories from successful businesses.

Get inspired by other people in your industry by following businesses that offer similar products or services to your business. You can also find other businesses that provide products complementary to your offerings. For instance, if you run a coffee shop, you can find coffee roasting companies to follow.

You may have offline relationships with businesses in your local community that you can follow.

Get inspired by businesses who are leading your industry. Follow them to track new trends. They may even offer education, like tutorials, about the latest products and services.

Follow people or businesses that are creating photos and videos that are unique and interesting to you, even if they aren’t in your industry.

In addition to following accounts, you can also follow hashtags. Here are 3 ways you can follow them.

For example, start with #bakery, then narrow it down to more specific hashtags about your product or service (#baking, #pastry, #croissant), your physical location (#sfbakery), or hashtags that indicate your niche (#japanesebakery). The more specific the hashtag, the more relevant to your specific customers.

When you find hashtags on Search & Explore, you will also see related hashtags listed on the page. Tap on them and see if you want to follow them as well. Learn more about Search & Explore here.

Once you’ve taken a look at a variety of hashtags, tap ‘follow’ on the hashtag page to keep track of the ones that are most relevant to your business.

After following other accounts and browsing through their photos and videos, you may want to remember specific posts that you’ve seen. Save posts to keep track of photos and videos you want to reference at a later date. You can even organize them into collections when you see patterns emerging.

Learn more about how to save posts here.

Here are 2 reasons why saving posts is helpful:

When you save posts over time, you may notice patterns about types of photos or videos you like. Think beyond your industry—get inspiration from different types of accounts. Then, incorporate the looks you like in your own photos and videos.

Save posts as they appear in your feed to remember trends in your industry. For example, if you are a hairstylist, you can save cutting-edge styles from top hairstylists or hairstyles that are featured on other hair salon accounts.

You may want to save:

• The type of posts they share, like product shots, behind-the-scenes footage, testimonials, or reposting customers’ posts.

• The topics they cover that are relevant to your industry, like any current events.

• The hashtags they use in their posts, along with industry-wide hashtags.