Instagram has long been a home for creativity. People not only turn to the platform to find innovative and inspiring content, but they also use it to express themselves. Instagram provides a range of tools and surfaces that make it possible for brands to tap into their creative side — and good news: expressing creativity can lead to real business outcomes.

Research can help brands understand the latest opportunities on Instagram, today and tomorrow. Learn more about how Instagram could help your business push its creative boundaries.

Compared to other platforms, people surveyed cited Instagram as one of the top places to express themselves¹ and one of the top places to keep up with their interests². Advertisers on Instagram are perceived as trendy, popular, creative, relevant and fun³. So the question is: what should brands post about?

The answer depends entirely on your brand’s goal and audience, but research can help point you in a general direction. 59% of active Instagram users surveyed agree it’s important for brands to post light-hearted or humorous content⁴, and 58% of respondents agree it’s important for brands to post real, raw, unpolished content⁵. That means there’s no need to sweat about not having the latest and greatest gear to film or produce content. Unpolished posts still make an impact.

Read more about finding inspiration and content ideas for Instagram posts.

Instagram is a one-stop shop for creating content, with tools like Stories and Reels that allow brands to share their stories and entertain current or potential customers. One in two active Instagram survey respondents say Instagram offers everything they need in one place, outperforming all other platforms⁶. Plus, 44% of people surveyed strongly associate Instagram with discovering local or small brands⁷.

Video content is especially popular; 91% of active Instagram survey respondents say they watch videos on Instagram weekly⁸, and 44% of people surveyed use features like shopping tags and the Shop Tab Instagram to shop weekly⁹.

To gain a deeper understanding of your customers and maximize your content reach, check out Instagram’s Insights feature for Instagram Reels and Instagram Live.

Instagram enables both creativity and collaboration. People can truly connect with businesses, sharing feedback and ideas. In fact, based on user interaction with polls, quizzes and Q&As, Instagram is the #1 preferred platform to interact with brands¹⁰. (57% of people surveyed say they’d prefer seeing polls and quizzes from brands on Instagram compared to other platforms¹¹!)

Not only is Instagram a place where businesses are welcomed and celebrated, it’s a place where businesses can interact with their customers in meaningful ways and gain valuable input to inform their strategies. 77% of active Instagram users surveyed said Instagram allows them to interact with brands in multiple ways¹², and this can help brands deliver the best experiences to their customers.

See how @TurkishCoffeeLady used polls in Instagram Stories to interact with customers and inform what products to invest more time and resources into.