Instagram posts that don't sound like ads

A post doesn't sound like an ad when it shows something real from your business and talks to people like a person. In short: more process, people and real questions, fewer "Don't miss out!" and "Top quality guaranteed." Offers have their place, but post them rarely and say them plainly.

What Instagram says it looks for

In June 2021, Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, publicly explained how posts are ordered in Feed. The app tries to predict how likely you are to do five things with a post: spend a few seconds on it, comment, like it, share it, and tap the profile photo of whoever posted it.

How often you've interacted with that account over the past few weeks matters too.

For a small business, the takeaway is simple. What counts are the posts that stop people mid-scroll and get them to write something. A sale flyer with big text rarely does that. A photo from the kitchen at 6 a.m. often does.

Show the work, not the flyer

People follow a local business to see what goes on inside. A few ideas that work almost anywhere:

• The process: dough rising, a car before and after polishing, a tattoo sketch before it becomes a tattoo.
• The detail customers never see: why you change the fryer oil daily, how you picked your coffee supplier.
• The people on your team, with their consent: who does what, how long they've been at it, what they like about the job.
• Customer questions, with your answer: "You often ask us whether…"

A working rule: if any business in your field could post the same photo, it says nothing about you. Look for the one that could only be yours.

The first line does all the work

Feed only shows the start of your caption. If the first line is "We look forward to seeing you!", people scroll past. If it's "We got this recipe wrong three times before it came out like this.", they read the rest.

A few short rules for the caption:

1. Open with the fact, not the greeting.
2. Write the way you'd talk to a customer at the counter. No "products of the highest quality."
3. One message per post. If you have three things to say, that's three posts.
4. End with a question you actually want answered: "How do you like it, crispier or softer?"

And reply to comments. Mosseri's explanation makes it clear that back-and-forth between you and your followers affects what they see from you next time.

When an offer is fine

Offers aren't off-limits; they just can't be the only thing you post. When you have one, say it as directly as everything else: what it is, until when, how to get it. A real photo of the product works better than a text-heavy flyer, and the details can go in the caption.

If you pay someone to talk about you (a creator, a local blogger), say so. The EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive bans using editorial content in the media for paid promotion without making it clear to consumers that it's paid. The same list includes a trader passing themselves off as a consumer. The principle carries over easily to Instagram: mark paid collaborations as paid, and don't write "customer" recommendations yourself.

A detail few businesses use

Since 2018, Instagram has let you add alt text to photos from the post's advanced settings. Screen readers read the description aloud for people who are blind or have low vision. It takes ten seconds and makes you look at the photo differently: if you can't describe what's in it in one sentence, it may not have been the right photo.

Your Instagram profile works better alongside your Google Business Profile, where people nearby look you up. If you want a posting plan that sounds like you, we can build it together. Details on our marketing services page.