Curious about what Instagram’s audience is interested in? Well, as luck would have it, Statista is here to give us relevant data about that.
Below, you’ll find a chart showing the preferred types of content on Instagram worldwide as of February 2022.
| Type of Content | % of Respondents Who Prefer a Type of Content |
| Funny | 51% |
| Creative | 48% |
| Informative | 43% |
| Trendy | 40% |
| Relaxing | 40% |
| Inspirational | 37% |
| Engaging | 36% |
| Personable | 36% |
It seems that more than half of Instagram’s worldwide users want to see funny content on the platform, with the next most-preferred type of content being creative one.
Informative content is in third place, showing that people aren’t necessarily looking to learn the news or learn something new on Instagram.
The platform doesn’t have a reputation for fostering learning and knowledge acquisition, either way.
It makes sense that funny/enjoyable content would take first place since this is a social media platform we’re talking about, not an academic circle of professors and students. Even Twitter, hailed as this century’s political and debate colosseum has a marked preference for fun content among its users.
Unfortunately, this is where the technical analysis of stats begins and ends. I couldn’t find any more stats regarding Instagram users’ preferred types of content.
However, I will list out several branches of content that get the most engagement on Instagram. Since engagement = interest, we could easily conclude that these are also the most preferred types of content.
Keep reading to learn what they are!
Types of Instagram Content that Gets the Most Engagement
Disclaimer – I won’t be listing these in a proper, relevant order based on which gets the most engagement because there are no such stats anywhere.
Anyway, let’s start. Here are the most engaging types of content on Instagram, based on my and others’ experiences:
1. Inspirational Quotes
Inspirational quotes attract attention and make people empathize with their message, whether they’re cheesy or not. And they’re cheesy, most of the time.
Many of these quotes are constructed in a way that many people can find themselves in the message. You could say that these quotes are specifically built to create a lot of engagement.
And they do. Even world-renowned businesses post some inspirational quotes now and then to interact with their followers.
2. Food
Everyone likes food, especially good food that looks and tastes amazing. It’s no wonder that the food niche gets so much engagement on a daily basis.
There are several sub-niches in the food industry on Instagram:
- Tutorials on how to cook various dishes
- Showcasing of what the content creator has eaten in various places around the world
- Unique takes on known recipes
- Lifestyle-specific foods
That food-type content is thriving on Instagram is an understatement. It’s mind-blowing how much engagement it gets.
3. Traveling (Landscapes)
Just like with good food, people are naturally attracted to beautiful landscapes, which means that the traveling niche gets enormous engagement on Instagram.
There are countless content creators who travel around the world and post their adventures on Instagram, getting massive following and interaction.
This niche subtly touches on many people’s inability to travel to those beautiful places instead of living out their desires through others.
4. Animals (Fluffy ones in particular)
I bet you’ve let out a yelp of joy when you saw the picture above. That’s because fluffy animals, kitties especially, attract a lot of attention and engagement on Instagram. Quite expected.
If you ask me, they evoke our desires to love and protect that which seems small, innocent, and incapable of protecting itself.
But fine, they’re pure bundles of joy, and we love them because they make us happy.
5. Funny Videos
That’s right, funny videos are one of the most engaging types of content on Instagram, and it doesn’t really matter what the topic of the video is.
In fact, videos are much more engaging than pictures, even though Instagram seems to have focused on pictures for the vast majority of its lifespan.
To Wrap Up…
If you were to ask me, I’d say that funny videos are the most engaging and popular type of content anywhere, not only on Instagram.
In recent years, Instagram has been capitalizing on the video content format, which is good to see. After all, there’s a reason people like videos so much.
I hope you’ve learned some interesting things from this article, and if there’s anything else you’d like to know about Instagram, feel free to comment below. I’ll be replying shortly!
