How to Create Instagram Content That People Actually Share and Save
We've all been there. Checking our follower count daily, feeling good when the numbers go up and feeling a disappointed when they go down. For years, your follower count has been the golden metric of Instagram success. But it’s no longer the metric that matters most.
Why? Because followers can be bought. They can be inactive. They can follow you and never engage with your content. And most importantly, Instagram's algorithm doesn't really care how many followers you have.
What the algorithm cares about is how people interact with your content.
That’s why if you’re a creator or business owner, you need to be thinking about two other metrics: shares and saves.
Prioritising meaningful interactions
Instagram's algorithm prioritises content that creates meaningful interactions. And nothing says "this content is valuable" like someone saving or sharing your post.
When someone saves your post, they're essentially saying that they like it so much they want to come back to it later. When they share it, they’re organically recommending it to their friends or followers. These are powerful signals of content quality:
They indicate longer-lasting value beyond the initial scroll
They show that your content is useful enough to reference later or share with others
They extend your content's reach to new audiences organically
They tell the algorithm your content deserves more visibility in the feed and Explore page
Instagram has even confirmed that saves and shares heavily influence how widely your content gets distributed!
Creating Content That Gets Saved and Shared
Creating shareable and saveable content requires a little bit of a mindset shift.
Basically, you want your content to give value to your audience. The best way to provide value is to do one of three things: inform, entertain, inspire.
Think about the ways that your niche or brand can give value to your audience. If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ideas that I’ve been using recently.
Getting more saves:
Create genuinely useful reference content, such as checklists, step-by-step guides and valuable tips. My recent post, “Places in Kyoto I wholeheartedly recommend” had over 8,484 likes but 14,925 saves 😱 This indicates to me that it was a valuable post!
Compile resource lists that people can refer back to. For example, in the case of Tokyo travel, “5 Useful Apps for Navigating Tokyo Like a Local”, or something like that!
Create seasonal content ahead of time, for example the best places to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo.
Use carousel posts strategically. The swipeable format encourages people to save the entire post to view all slides later, as opposed to people just screenshotting one slide.
Getting more shares:
Tap into relatable emotions. If you make content that makes people think “Oh my god, this is so me” then they’ll likely share it. For example, every time I make memes for Tokyo Weekender about living in Japan they get shared thousands of times.
Use humour strategically. I find that content that makes people laugh is the type of content they want to share.
Create infographics. People may be surprised to discover new information and might feel to compelled to share with their own audience.
Some other practical tips you can implement right away
Going beyond the actual content you make, here are some other practical tips you can start doing right away to encourage more saves and shares.
Use a call-to-action (CTA). Sometimes people need a gentle reminder, so give them a nudge with wording such as “save this so you don’t forget” or “share with a friend who needs to hear this”.
Design with mobile in mind. Make text large enough to read without zooming, and make sure your colours are high contrast so they’re easy to read.
Ask your audience what kind of content they want to see from you. This is the best way to get direction!
Use interesting hooks. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention, so you need to think about how you’ll do that.
Make it visually appealing . Use clean, easy-to-read graphics and high-quality images. Need professional photography? I might know a gal…
If sharing information, break it up into chunks. Try not to overload your audience with too much text.
Encouraging genuine interaction
Creating saveable and shareable content is about providing genuine value. Whether that's practical information, emotional resonance or entertainment, make content so good people can't help but want to keep it for themselves or show it to others.
When you shift your strategy from "How can I get more followers?" to "How can I create content worth saving and sharing?", you'll not only see better engagement metrics but also build a more dedicated community around your Instagram presence.
And in 2025's social media landscape, that's what sustainable growth is all about :)
You’ve got this!
Lisa xx
