Blink, and you might miss an Instagram trend: keeping up with what’s hot on this 2 billion monthly user app could be a full-time job. Or, you could read all about top trends, new Instagram features, expert advice, and the best way to stay relevant with content creation tips and content strategy insights, right here.
Because with the right social media strategy, you can stay on top of the hype and leverage the functionality of Instagram’s latest updates come 2025.
20 Instagram trends to keep an eye on in 2025
1. Boost engagement with bigger carousels
Instagram carousels are great for engagement, and now, you can add up to 20 images and photos per IG carousel.
It’s a great opportunity for photo dumps and storytelling (the latter is exemplified in the apartment tour below). Carousels are irresistibly scrollable.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Instagram now allows up to 20 photos and videos per carousel post (that’s 20 opportunities to engage your audience!).
- Make your carousel Instagram content thoughtful and diverse — if the first few images in your carousel are too similar, you’ll likely lose the interest of your target audience.
- Try posting a photo dump that embraces the more imperfect, blurry, or messy photos. It shows your brand’s authentic, fun side and helps your audience better connect with you.
2. Give trending audio a go
Using trending audio for your Instagram Reels (or feed posts — more on that later) is a great way to embrace what’s popular and increase your chances of being favored by Instagram’s algorithm.
To find trending audio, use Instagram’s native Reels publisher. The platform also regularly suggests Instagram Reels trends audio as you scroll, as in the example below.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Trending audio is simple to find and can be used for just about any Instagram content, so you can easily add it to your photos and videos.
- Using trending audio indicates to Instagram that your content is timely and relevant to viewers who have already engaged with the audio — this helps your ranking in Instagram’s algorithm.
- When searching for trending audio, be sure to watch several videos using the sound to get the vibe of the trend (and for inspo for your own content).
3. Experiment with Story stickers
Instagram regularly updates interactive Story stickers: some of the latest Instagram trends include Frames, Cutouts, and Reveals. Story stickers make your content more engaging and can help communicate a message or call to action.
For example, the clickable hyperlink sticker used in the post below encourages viewers to attend the brand’s warehouse sale.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Check-in on the new features available to keep up-to-date on what’s new.
- Test out multiple kinds of stickers to see what works best with your audience.
- Use an analytics tool like Hootsuite to determine what stickers your viewers respond most to and track those metrics.
4. Be sustainable (and show it)
Hopefully this “trend” sticks around for a long time. People all over the world are embracing values like co-consciousness, supply chain ethics, and sustainability, and showing how your brand is walking the earth-friendly talk is a good thing.
Take the Reel below, for example — the secondhand T-shirt merch made by this influencer was very successful on social (and sold out IRL).
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Make sustainable choices whenever you can, and (if appropriate) share the behind-the-scenes details to encourage others to do the same.
- This “trend” is easy — you don’t need to be up-to-date on pop culture references, you just need to be mindful of your environmental impact.
- Some trends are okay to fake (we’ve all seen “prank” videos that are obviously staged) but this one isn’t. Be sure you’re actually making the sustainable choice that you say you’re making… social media detectives will always uncover the truth.
5. Start a subscription
Instagram subscriptions are new for 2024 and an opportunity to directly monetize your Instagram account. Essentially, users can subscribe to you (for a fee) and get access to exclusive content and promotions.
Subscriptions are currently available in 44 countries — to check if your region is on the list, go to the subscriptions eligibility page or go to your Professional dashboard and see if there’s a button for “Set up subscriptions” on your account.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- It can be tough to figure out how to make money on Instagram marketing, but subscriptions offer a way to earn income directly through the mobile app.
- Subscriptions can include access to exclusive content, lives, stories, chats, promotions, and a unique subscriber home page.
- The hard part? You have to actually deliver on your subscription: offering exclusive content means you need to create exclusive content, so consider your workload and resources before making promises to paying customers.
6. Embrace text posts and memes
Social media is ever-changing, but memes have managed to stay as relevant as ever. A simple text/photo combo will get you far, especially if you can jump on a viral trend (like Moo Deng, the adorable baby hippo from Thailand).
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Don’t be afraid to get a little silly — memes are, first and foremost, for entertainment.
- Make your memes as relevant to your industry and branding as possible.
- Include alt text when sharing memes to make your content more accessible.
7. Take note of celebrity animals
Speaking of Moo Deng, viral animals make for excellent content: they’re pervasive, funny, and rarely controversial (always a plus when you’re dealing with the tricky landscape of social media platforms).
If you’re looking for a trend to participate in, look on the wild side.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- There’s almost always an animal that is trending (does anyone remember grumpy cat) so keep an eye out for four-legged inspo.
- Remember to always bring it back to your brand — the artist in the above example does an excellent job of this.
- Celeb animals generally aren’t relevant for long, so don’t plan a months-long campaign around a baby hippo. Stick to posts or stories that you can generate efficiently.
8. Lean into Meta’s AI features
Meta is all-in with AI and often launches new products and updates that are great to experiment with.
Because it’s a relatively new technology, AI is both timely and trendy, and will easily pique the interest of your audience (for example, you can create an AI character specifically suited to your brand).
Top takeaways for marketers:
- AI is ever-evolving and rapidly changing our digital world, and it’s important to experiment with and understand the technology as it develops.
- Never use AI for private or sensitive info (or medical or legal advice, duh).
- Remember to always proofread anything generated by AI. At the end of the day, you’re responsible for everything you publish, and AI isn’t perfect.
9. Reply with a Reel
Instagram took a note from TikTok trends for the feature “reply Reels”. When a user leaves a comment on a public Reel, the poster of the Reel can reply with another video, creating a dialogue with the commenter.
Sometimes, reply Reels answer questions or draw attention to positive feedback. It’s also common for users to use Reel replies to respond to negative comments… to clap back, if you will.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Use reply Reels to meaningfully engage with your audience (and encourage them to comment on your content).
- Reply Reels help you build your community and build real relationships with your viewers.
- Remember to focus on the positive as much as possible. Replying to too many negative comments can cause you to lose the plot (and spend all your time arguing).
10. Test video memes
Videos tend to be more engaging than still photos, and video memes tend to be more engaging than photo memes (what can we say, the modern social media user loves visual and aural stimuli).
Using video memes that are trending displays a fun, in-the-know vibe for your branding.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Look for trending video memes as you scroll through your feed, and always think about how you can cater the memes to your specific niche.
- When using a video meme and your own content (as in the Reel above), keep your own video simple so that the post is easily understandable. Don’t block text or important images with the meme.
- That said, video memes are inherently a bit messy — this isn’t pro editing or realism we’re talking about. Embrace imperfection.
11. Add audio to your still images
Remember how great trending audio is? Well, videos can’t have all the fun: you can add audio (trending or otherwise) to your still images on Instagram. This creates another opportunity to hook and engage your audience.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Adding music to your images makes your posts more engaging for viewers.
- You can find trending audio to help your content rank higher on the algorithm.
- Follow your heart when selecting your audio — songs don’t have to be new to be a great fit (the audio in the post above is 20 years old).
12. Try quiet advertising
Instagram ads often don’t look like ads, and a well-designed sponsored post has a much more authentic vibe.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Keep your Instagram ads clean and simple, with limited (or no) copy in the image or video.
- Ads should look just as beautiful as your feed posts — go with lifestyle images whenever you can get them.
- Use Instagram shops to direct viewers to your product.
13. Call out the generational divide
Instagram unites the generations, but it also divides them, and pointing that out is always “in,” even if the specific trends that do so change.
A lighthearted comment on Gen Z, Millennials, Baby Boomers, or Gen Alpha will often generate a lot of engagement.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Don’t be mean — embrace positive stereotypes as well as funny ones (the video above does a good job of this).
- Workplaces (where there’s often people of different generations working towards the same goal) make good subjects for this trend.
- This trend is a great engagement hack: encourage your audience to comment (or argue) in the caption.
14. Use AI for Instagram hashtags
Another AI trend, and this one is for the artificial intelligence averse. You don’t need to use AI for brainstorming content ideas or copywriting (though, you can); instead, you can use it for one of the less creative elements of social media management: hashtags.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Use a tool like Owlywriter AI to come up with hashtags for your Instagram posts.
- When using a tool like this, feed it as much specific information as possible to get the best results.
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15. Add a note to your post
This is Instagram’s version of a sticky note, and it’s the perfect middle ground between a caption and a Story. Instagram notes are short text that appear on a post for three days and are visible only to followers that you follow back.
According to the platform itself, adding a note to a post or Reel makes your friends more likely to see your content (it’s an algorithm hack).
To add a note to an Instagram post, tap the share button, then hit “Add note.”
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Because notes are visible only to friends, there’s an air of exclusivity to them — this is your chance to share with a more intimate audience.
16. Get UGC through branded hashtags
User-generated content is, simply put, brilliant: you get great content for free, users get featured on your Instagram page, and both parties build a stronger sense of community. Branded hashtags are an excellent way to build your own user-generated content library.
For example, jewelry brand Mejuri uses #mymejuri, and users tag their content the same way. A quick search for that hashtag yields hundreds of results — a social media manager’s dream.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- User-generated content increases your brand’s perceived value (it’s proof real people are proud of supporting your business).
- Sharing a branded hashtag with your audience and encouraging them to use it creates a useful library of content that can be turned into UGC.
- It’s best practice to always ask permission before reposting another user’s content, even if they’ve tagged you — don’t skip this step.
17. Drive traffic with multiple links in bio
At first, Instagram only offered one link in bio (and thus, the link tree was born). Now, you can add up to five links in your bio to drive traffic to your e-commerce site and beyond.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Include up to five links in your bio.
- Use action-focused language (“Follow us on TikTok”) to direct viewers toward other facets of your brand.
- Update and check your bio links regularly.
18. Be part of a trend’s evolution
How trends change over time is a trend in itself — often, a trend will have several iterations as more social media users participate.
For example, there was the “I hope she plays Love Story” trend that developed into the “I hope she plays Hot to Go” trend that quickly evolved (or devolved) into a somewhat bizarre phenomenon of its own.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Specific trends evolve, and it’s important to keep up-to-date: you want to participate in a current version of a trend, not one from a year ago.
- Trends can also change as they cross platforms. Many Reels trends are born on TikTok, for example, so keeping up with TikTok can help your Instagram marketing strategy.
- Don’t be afraid to take a trend in another direction — you might start something totally new.
19. Comment on Instagram Stories
One of Instagram’s newest features is Story comments — instead of replying to a story in a private DM, you can now leave a public comment. Before this, interacting with an Instagram story was just a way to connect with a single account (and maybe hint to someone that you had a crush on them).
Now, Story comments allow you to publicly share support, ideas, and opinions, which can be great for building community. It’s an easy way to engage with other businesses in your industry, with your followers, and with Instagram users and content creators you may want to establish partnerships with.
Top takeaways for marketers:
- It’s important to invest time not just in content creation but also in engaging with others’ content: that’s how you build a community and foster meaningful relationships.
- Instead of replying to a Story, try commenting on it — your comment will be seen by the followers of that account, which will help increase your brand’s visibility in real-time.
- Remember that Story comments are public and should always be professional (and generally positive) when coming from a small business. This engagement can also help boost your SEO and align with current social media trends.
20. Keep it simple
Time to breathe a sigh of relief: low-investment videos are trending on Instagram. A single-shot Reel with some smart text can yield even better results than something you’ve spent tons of time on (it’s both a blessing and a curse).
Top takeaways for marketers:
- Not all of your content needs to be an aesthetic masterpiece or a complex edit — mix up your high-effort posts with some lower-effort ones to keep yourself sane.
- These kinds of videos are often evergreen, meaning you can reshare them again and again.
How to find what’s trending on Instagram according to West Point Cycles’ Social Media Manager
Strategic trend-watching requires expert insight. We asked Chris Girard, Social Media Manager of Vancouver-based bike shop West Point Cycles, for his advice on rolling with the trends.
Scroll, engage, and explore
The most organic way to find Instagram trends is to be a regular user of the app — the more you view, like, comment on, and share content that is relevant to you, the more your feed will suit you (and the more related trends you’ll see).
“I like to start by browsing Reels on my feed and see what ideas are popular,” says Girard. “Sometimes, I’ll look at the Explore page as it’s already catered to my niche.”
Search relevant hashtags
Find out what kinds of trends other brands in your industry are hopping on by doing a deep dive into hashtags.
“For the bike shop’s Instagram, I’ll explore hashtags relating to bicycle content,” says Girard. Looking up hashtags (for example, #bicycle, #cycling, #mountainbike, #gravelbike, #bikelane and more) and scrolling through the results will reveal the hottest trends.
Psst: to get relevant hashtag ideas, you can use Hootsuite’s free AI hashtag generator.
Keep up with industry blogs and resources
“Googling ‘Instagram viral trends’ doesn’t lead to helpful results,” Girard says. Industry blogs, digital marketing social media accounts and other professional resources (including, ahem, Hootsuite’s blog) will do a lot of heavy lifting for you.
“Social media management resources are extremely detailed and help give me a lot of insight into the happenings on Instagram,” notes Girard, “so I don’t have to go searching for them.”
Put brand values first
Participating in trends is fun (and may increase your chances of internet virality) but it’s important to always keep your branding in mind when searching for the next cute dance or popular prank.
If you’re not using a call to action or somehow directing viewers towards your brand, you’re missing out on the most meaningful part of social media marketing.
“Whether it’s a trending meme, workplace gag, or funny audio, ensuring that it fits our brand’s voice and messaging is always a part of it,” Girard shares. “I look for trends that are inspiring, achievable, relevant, and small business-appropriate.”
Business-appropriate can still be fun — for example, the Reel below.
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