Valentine’s Day is no longer reserved for romantic couples sharing loving selfies across social media. Brands and businesses create an endless amount of creative social content yearly in honor of #ValentinesDay (there are 20M+ usages of that hashtag, by the way!).

Not sure what type of Valentine’s Day content to create for your small business? Here are 7 engaging Instagram content ideas to help your brand spread the love.

1. Change up your feed

Plan for your feed colors to match the pinks and reds of Valentine’s Day from the start of February through the 14th. This will not only give your ‘gram an impressive aesthetic, but can actually increase your IG engagement – people are more likely to interact with your brand’s content if it’s timely & matches the mood of the season.

Get inspired by @dunkin’s on-trend feed from 2020:

If you’re searching for a wide variety of Valentine’s Day themed images – Unsplash is a great resource for free, high-quality photography (here’s a Valentine’s Day Collection that they’ve compiled).

2. Create a Valentine’s Day Video

Did you know that the average person will spend 100 minutes per day watching online video in 2021 (source: Zenith Media)? Creating videos for social media doesn’t need to be complicated or time consuming. Try downloading Boosted, the video creation app with professional, ready-to-go templates.

Here’s a video that you can customize for your brand using Boosted:

3. Share your love…for your IG community!

You probably don’t typically think of your followers as your valentines, but hey – you wouldn’t be where you are today digitally without them! Share a post or Story expressing appreciation for your audience, to your audience (the more sincere and authentic, the better!). Detail specific reasons as to why you appreciate them, and share what you’ve accomplished thanks to their support.

4. Host a giveaway

Who doesn’t love a good giveaway? Here are a few suggestions for running a successful Valentine’s Day Instagram contest:

• Get creative – think outside the box for your contest concept! One idea: You can ask your audience to share their love stories – either as a comment on your giveaway post, or as their own feed post or Story. Remember to celebrate all different types of love – romantic, familial, friendship etc. Create a branded hashtag for the giveaway and be sure to tie the prompt back to your brand.
• You can also hold a simpler, more classic giveaway (follow/like/tag). Here’s some brand inspiration from a 2021 Valentine’s Day contest @espyexperience is currently running:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKxXCrphpO2/

• Prize – offer a product, service or experience for two that the winner(s) can share with their loved one.
• Keep in mind – Read up on Instagram’s Promotion Guidelines when planning the details of your giveaway. You can also check out our guide here for more tips on running a successful Instagram giveaway.

5. Create a Valentine’s Day themed Reel

Have you created Instagram Reels yet for your business? Accounts of all sizes have the opportunity right now to boost their engagement (and potentially go viral!) by creating short-form video content for Reels. Some Valentine’s Day related Reels ideas include:

• Showcase the Valentine’s Day products / services that your business offers
• Share 3 Valentine’s Day fun facts – this can be 3 things that you love about the holiday, 3 Valentine’s Day traditions that you have etc.
• Share a video that you create with Boosted (see tip #2!) to Reels. Be sure to export the video in 9:16 format.

Reminder: Reels content – like TikTok content – is meant to show off your brand’s personality! Focus on providing value to your audience in an engaging, casual & fun way. Check out our guide here for everything you need to know about Instagram Reels.

6. Share a few of your favorite things

Create a listicle of the Top 5 (or 10, 20 etc.) things that you’re currently loving. Listicles are a very popular content format (you’re reading one right now!) – they’re digestible and easy to understand. Some ideas:

• Favorite books
• Favorite podcasts. Some inspiration from @gurlgonegreen:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJmsXZFhpDt/

• Favorite Instagram influencers to follow for inspiration within a certain area (such as ‘Top 5 Favorite ‘Grammers to Follow for Social Media Marketing Inspiration’).

This can make a great feed post, Story (or both!) and you can easily repurpose this content for your blog and other social channels.

7. Put together a last minute gift guide

Valentine’s Day is now the 2nd biggest commercial day in the US (acc. to ValueWalk). Total spending in 2021 is expected to reach $21.8 billion in retail revenue! Compile a gift guide (last-minute gift guides work great as well!) and share it as a Story and carousel post . Bonus points if you tie your products or services into your roundup!

Remember to use the right hashtags. No matter which content idea you decide to go with, make sure to optimize your hashtags to make your content more discoverable.

Here are 5 hashtags we recommend incorporating (listed by volume of Instagram hashtag usage, from largest to smallest):

#valentines

#valentineday

#valentinesdayideas

#valentinesdaygiveaway

#valentinesday2021

Spread the love on social by getting a head start on planning your Valentine’s Day 2021 Instagram content! For further Valentine’s Day inspiration, check out 5 Unique Ways to Promote Your Business This Valentine’s Day.

Action Items:

1. Review these content ideas and pick one to pursue on Instagram. You can also search through the hashtags mentioned above for inspiration.
2. Create your content. Try to find a way to utilize both your feed and Stories.
3. Get sharing. Spread the love on Insta! Remember to engage with your audience and to check your Insights often to see how your video is performing.