Last January, we launched Professional Dashboard, a central destination of tools and resources for creators and businesses to track their performance and grow their brand. But what if a business doesn’t know what to post on Instagram? Today we’ve added a hub where businesses can find inspiration to spark more content ideas for those unsure where to start. Instagram users with business accounts can now browse a collection of quality organic and promoted posts from other businesses in the hope it will inspire them to post their brand-specific content.

At Instagram, we believe in empowering business owners to turn their passion into a living. According to a 2020 Facebook-commissioned online study by Ipsos Marketing, 44% of people surveyed strongly associate Instagram with discovering local/small brands¹. The first step towards making that happen is posting consistently, but we know that can feel overwhelming.

“What should I post?”
“What are other businesses posting?”
“Where should I go for inspiration that is relevant to my brand?”

For businesses facing questions like these, this new resource can help them see how other businesses are connecting with people and growing so they can confidently share and promote their brand.

To get a dose of content inspiration, follow these steps:

1. Click View Professional Dashboard at the top of your Instagram profile.
2. In the Stay Informed section, click See How Other Businesses Connect with People guide.
   
3. Scroll down to see how businesses are connecting with people via organic posts or growing with promoted posts.
   
4. Click into a post to see a feed view of organic or promoted posts.
5. Take note of what makes this post stand out. What catches your eye? What makes you want to learn more? How does the post capture the business’ voice and vision?
6. Think about how you can incorporate these aspects into your business’ content.
7. Design your own masterpiece. Learn the basics if needed and learn more about products like Stories, Reels, and Branded Content.
8. Create a post to share to your feed or to promote on Instagram.
   

This new way of surfacing quality content is part of Instagram’s ongoing commitment to build a suite of solutions to help businesses of all sizes unlock their potential. In addition to surfacing content, we also want to ensure that our community is empowered to use their prior performance to help shape future content. That’s why we’ve also launched additional flexibility in Insights. Creators and businesses are now able to view insights in a custom date range of up to 60 days, so that they can understand performance trends over a longer period of time.

Learn how to get started with Instagram Business and stay inspired with House of Instagram and the Instagram for Business Blog.