The complete list of UK Instagram trends for brands and businesses

According to Sprout’s Q1 UK Consumer Pulse Survey, which involved surveying over 2,000 consumers across the country, 90% of Gen Z now have Instagram profiles. Instagram popularity in the UK isn’t limited to Gen Z; almost 35 million people of varying ages in the UK, according to Statista, have an Instagram account. This makes Instagram a significant marketing and sales opportunity for UK brands.

To ensure you’re crafting a winning Instagram marketing strategy, you must be aware of current social media trends. We’ve listed today’s most significant Instagram trends across content types and approaches to help you stay relevant.

What are trends on Instagram?

Trends on Instagram are any popular social strategies or approaches being used across the network by a large number of accounts. These trends naturally go in and out of fashion as audience behaviours, and the Instagram algorithm, change. The 2025 Sprout Social Index^TM found that 91% of UK consumers use social to keep track of trends, with 54% of them specifically using Instagram.

UK Instagram trends in content and user engagement

Content creation is a fundamental part of managing a successful Instagram account. Here are today’s most impactful UK Instagram trends that attract engagement.

Relatable imagery and video content

In the UK, resonating with your audience means creating content that feels relatable and taps into shared cultural references. Create content that reflects real-life experiences, addresses a desire or concern‌, and uses relatable language and visual cues to connect with your audience.

It’s tempting to chase viral content formats, but the Index shows that 34% of UK consumers find brands chasing trends embarrassing, with 28% saying it’s only effective within the first 48 hours. Long-term success comes from creating original and authentic content that connects on an emotional level.

This means having a strategy that combines knowing what’s trending and performance data with a deep understanding of UK cultural references. You need to go beyond surface-level engagement to build meaningful, lasting connections.

For example, UK fashion brand Lucy & Yak have over 700k followers and promotes inclusive, relatable content that directly targets their audience. They employ several tactics to engage their Instagram audience in the UK, including:

• Prioritising user-generated content.
• Treating customers as influencers.
• Fostering community.

Lucy & Yak have honed in on Instagram for engaging video content. They use the network to share their sustainability and ethics, which their audience cares about.

Hashtag strategies and Instagram SEO: An evolving approach

Instagram still uses hashtags, which means brands need them to be seen by the right UK users.

Create an Instagram hashtag strategy with a list of popular hashtags in your niche and how you’ll use them. Make sure you’re researching new hashtags regularly. You can also create unique hashtags for events, campaigns, product launches, UGC engagement and more. An evolving strategy will get your content in front of more people.

Hashtags also form a core part of your social SEO strategy on Instagram. Instagram SEO takes traditional SEO practices and applies them to the network to help your account reach more users. Brands should have clear keyword strategies and other SEO approaches in place to make sure they appear in relevant searches.

Authenticity in the UK: connecting through shared values

According to the Sprout Index, authenticity is paramount when it comes to brand content in the UK. Instagram users in the UK expect authenticity from everyone they follow—brands and influencers.

Authenticity on UK Instagram is about being true to what your brand represents, and preserving those values in your content and how you behave on the network. Consider everything your brand does online, and ask why you’re doing it, and the messages and values you’re promoting while doing so. This will help you get closer to living and communicating your values on social.

For example, Mikaela Loach is a children’s author who posts reflective, open and honest content on her Instagram account about her life as a UK influencer and climate campaigner.

Popular UK Instagram content categories are diverse

Brands and influencers create a variety of content on Instagram, with many gaining popularity through their niche. Some of the most popular UK Instagram content categories roughly correspond with the most talked about topics online in the country.

These include food and drink, entertainment (including music, films and gaming), travel, beauty and fashion. Each of these categories has a notably interested audience in the UK, but their popularity can lead to increased competition.

UK Instagram trends in marketing

These are some of the leading marketing Instagram trends in the UK.

UK influencer marketing: Integrate ads with influencer content

Influencers are the latest digital marketing channel worldwide, and over half of the people in the UK who follow influencers do so on Instagram.

Partnering with UK influencers whose interests align with your audience can boost your reach. They can also help your brand stay culturally relevant because they often have a pulse on trends.

A good example of this is Stella Artois’ collaboration with “London Dead Pubs”, who reviews UK pubs. They collaborated on a recurring series called “The Perfect Serve”, where Stella’s product (their beer) is promoted within the influencer’s personal style of content.

Celebrity collaborations

Alongside influencers, a popular trend on UK Instagram is content partnerships with celebrities. These partnerships allow brands to connect their products with recognisable faces that fans know and trust.

A great example is US-based hot sauce brand Frank’s RedHot, which recently expanded into the UK market. They’ve teamed up with Danny Dyer for a recurring content series on Instagram to tailor their product promotion to UK audiences.

Videos vs. carousels

Videos and carousels are two of the most popular content types on Instagram in the UK. Both gain a lot of engagement; reels have a 2.08% engagement rate worldwide, whilst carousels have a 1.7% engagement rate.

To decide which is right for your account, think about what your audience prefers to engage with. As an example, the UK publishing house Fitzcarraldo Editions often uses carousel posts with text because their audience is made up of readers.

Think also about the skillsets of your team, and what you’re promoting. If possible, a mix of both videos and carousels can help diversify your content.

Humour as an engagement tactic

UK brands and influencers often use humour to build a recognisable brand identity. Aldi UK is a popular example with over 850k Instagram followers. They post light-hearted and often comedic content. These posts have helped build Aldi UK’s brand identity as an accessible, friendly supermarket brand. Aldi is a discount supermarket known for lower prices, so this comedic and lighthearted tone lends well to an open and welcoming brand ethos.

Think about what type of comedy may work for your brand image. But don’t overdo it, as trying too hard to be funny can backfire.

UK Instagram trends in social commerce and monetisation

Instagram isn’t just for expanding your reach, it can also become a powerful sales channel for your business. By leveraging these Instagram trends, you can unlock new monetisation opportunities.

Social commerce through Instagram Shopping and Instagram Ads

Instagram Shopping was launched in 2024 and allows users to directly sell through the network.

Social commerce in the UK is a huge trend, and using these features can represent a significant growth opportunity for brands looking to sell more products. Read up on the best tactics for selling on Instagram in the UK. This is particularly important if you’re trying to master using social media for retail in the UK.

Alongside posting content organically, Instagram offers brands the ability to create paid ads that can reach more users.

For National Pizza Day, Pizza Express combined an Instagram ad campaign with a free pizza giveaway at their restaurants. This was a smart campaign as it promoted UGC (user-generated content), and meant more people were visiting their local Pizza Express restaurants to take advantage of the free offer. Combining this promotion with National Pizza Day made the campaign topical and increased its ability to trend.

Remember ASA regulations

All advertising on Instagram in the UK is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). They have set rules for social ads, including always stating clearly when you’re advertising something.

All brands and influencers have to follow these ASA laws when creating partnership campaigns, when promoting products and when managing competitions on social media, among other situations. It’s vital that you keep up to date with their regulations.

UK Instagram trends in demographics

These trends explain who is using the network, why they’ve chosen Instagram and how they prefer to engage based on current social media statistics.

UK Instagram user base and youth popularity

One of the key Instagram stats for the UK is the country’s overall user base of around 35 million users.

Instagram is often in the top four most used social platforms in the country, behind YouTube and Facebook (including Facebook Messenger), but ahead of TikTok.

Almost 30% of UK Instagram users are between 25 and 34. It also has a large number of UK users between 18 and 24.

Balanced use among genders and queer-friendly

Instagram use in the UK is roughly balanced between genders, with around 55% of its users being female and 45% male.

This data doesn’t account for UK Instagram users who identify as genderqueer or non-binary. Queer Instagram is a commonly understood concept in the UK, and refers to how the network has helped create a safer community space for LGBTQ+ people.

User behaviour

UK Instagram users have been some of the most engaged on the network for the past few years. The overall time spent on social media across the country is also increasing.

With 63% of people in the UK using social media every day, many people say they respond well to advertising when using Instagram. Checking and engaging with Instagram has become a core part of many people’s daily lives.

How to create a winning strategy around UK Instagram trends in 2025

Knowing the current Instagram trends is half the battle; now, you need to apply them. Here’s how:

Keep a pulse on your audience with social listening

With social listening on Instagram, you can track conversations as they happen across your account.

A solution like Sprout Social can help you identify new trends that are highly relevant to your audience, and better understand what your followers expect from your content.

Lead with authenticity

Another approach is to embed authenticity into every corner of your strategy. Create a content strategy that includes behind-the-scenes videos, interviews with real customers‌ or day-in-the-life follow-alongs.

Content like this will give audiences a better understanding of who you are and what you stand for.

Pay attention to keyword optimization

Writing long-form, engaging captions with a clear SEO approach and keyword strategy is a proven way of getting your content seen by more people and standing out from the crowd.

With Sprout’s AI Assist, you can get help writing engaging captions at scale. Small teams should also consider outsourcing this work to a creator.

Invest in micro-influencer collaborations

The most effective influencer collaborations rarely involve partnering with a big name. Campaigns are often more effective with micro-influencers that have 10-100k highly engaged followers.

As an example, English food producer Brandston created a new potato brand, Nanna Tate, and partnered with food influencer Joe.Oxley on a unique recipe to engage his 50k+ followers who are all interested in food.

Humanise your brand

Going viral might still sound appealing, but sustainable success on Instagram is a long-term process that involves community building.

That means regularly responding to messages and comments, commenting on influencer content related to your niche, and promoting and engaging with user-generated content. Use your brand’s Instagram account to foster meaningful connections with your fans, and as a way of showing the human side of your business.

Keep up with the latest UK Instagram trends

With these UK Instagram trends and strategies, you can start to refine a stronger Instagram marketing approach.

Social keeps evolving, so download the 2025 Sprout Social Index to find out more about what people in the UK expect from social brands.

 

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How to schedule LinkedIn posts for Profiles and Pages

LinkedIn is a leading social network for brands looking to gain authority, build their network and connect with potential customers. With 82% of B2B marketers achieving their greatest success on LinkedIn, it’s clear that LinkedIn is a preferred channel for B2B marketing.

With so many brands competing for users’ attention, managing and growing a LinkedIn account takes enormous time, dedication and effort. To stand out, you need to post consistently and at the right times. That’s where social media scheduling tools come in.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to schedule posts on LinkedIn two ways. You’ll also find helpful scheduling tips for maximizing the reach and engagement of your posts.

Can you schedule posts on LinkedIn?

Yes, you can schedule posts on LinkedIn in two ways. The first is through LinkedIn’s native scheduling tool, which is available to all users and lets you schedule posts directly within the platform while you’re creating drafts.

Alternatively, you can use a social media management tool like Sprout Social to schedule your posts. This way, you can also benefit from Sprout’s other capabilities, like automation, analytics and AI writing assistance, to amplify your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

How to schedule LinkedIn posts natively

LinkedIn’s native scheduling tool is a convenient, built-in feature that lets you plan and schedule your posts ahead of time without leaving the platform or relying on third-party LinkedIn tools.

Follow these steps whether you’re scheduling on your own LinkedIn personal profile or a LinkedIn Company Page.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account and click the Start a post box at the top of your feed.
   
2. When Create a post pops up, enter the body text of your post and attach any images, videos or documents. You can also create a poll if you want. If you’re posting a video, you can add subtitles by enabling auto-captions (English-language videos only) or uploading an SRT file.
   
3. Click the Clock icon in the lower right corner to open the schedule dialog.
4. In the scheduling dialog, select a date and time to schedule your post. If your audience is in a different time zone, consider scheduling in their time zone.
   
5. Select Next to save your schedule settings and return to your post preview.
6. When you’re all done, review your post for spelling errors, formatting issues and make sure it matches your brand’s guidelines and tone. Also, review your image and hashtags so they’re accurate for your post.
   
7. Click the Schedule button, and you’re done.

That’s it. You’ve scheduled your first post on LinkedIn.

Limitations with the native LinkedIn scheduler

While it seems straightforward to schedule content with LinkedIn’s native scheduler, there are several limitations that social media managers should be aware of. These limitations may hinder your ability to schedule posts effectively, especially if you’re using LinkedIn for business.

• Limited scheduling options: LinkedIn’s native scheduler provides fewer options for scheduling posts. For instance, it only allows scheduling for up to three months in advance. Also, LinkedIn doesn’t allow bulk scheduling, which means that each post must be scheduled individually.
• Limited analytics features: LinkedIn’s analytics only provide a basic insight into your LinkedIn content performance and audience behavior. It doesn’t give you much freedom to track your audience demographic data or metrics like click-through rates, follower growth or engagement rates.
• No support for managing multiple LI accounts at once: With the native LinkedIn scheduler, you can only schedule posts for one account at a time. This is a drawback, especially for social media managers who manage multiple accounts.
• Limited posting options: You can’t schedule events, jobs or services with the LinkedIn scheduler. This has to be done manually.
• Limitations on approval collaboration: The LinkedIn scheduler discourages the collaboration of teams in real-time. Posts can only be made and seen by one person, so every review, approval or collaboration must be done outside the tool.

How to view, edit and reschedule scheduled posts on LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to view your scheduled posts so you can delete, edit or reschedule them.

Yes, that’s right. LinkedIn posts can be edited after uploading. If you’re wondering how to edit scheduled posts on LinkedIn, you can do so using the native scheduler.

Follow the steps below to view and edit your scheduled posts.

1. Click the Start a post box at the top of your LinkedIn feed.

2. Navigate to the Clock icon at the bottom-right of the Create a box pop-up.

3. Click View all scheduled posts to see all your scheduled posts and their publish dates.

4. Now you can edit, delete or reschedule. Select the three dots next to the post you wish you modify:

• To delete a post, simply click on the delete icon.
• To reschedule a post, click on Modify schedule to edit the scheduled publishing time.
• To edit, select Edit post and make any changes or corrections to your scheduled LinkedIn post.
• To publish immediately, select Post now.

How to schedule posts on LinkedIn using Sprout Social

LinkedIn’s native scheduling tool is great, but if your business is active on multiple platforms, you might need a more robust solution to handle your social media strategy, like Sprout Social.

Sprout’s powerful social media publishing tool makes it easy to cross-post on different platforms, collaborate with your team, set permissions and access in-depth analytics—all from one central hub.

You can schedule posts on LinkedIn using Sprout from both desktop and mobile. Just upload your content, add images, links and videos, and then schedule your post when it’s ready to go.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Create your LinkedIn post

The first step is to create your post. Before writing, be clear on the goal of the post and how it’ll benefit your audience. A good LinkedIn post starts with an attention-grabbing hook, which could be a question, a story, a compelling statement or a relevant statistic.

On the Sprout dashboard, click the Compose icon to draft a new post. Input your post in the text box provided and format it for a better reading experience. You can also add emojis, links and relevant LinkedIn hashtags to your post.

On the right side, you can preview changes to your posts to see the outcome on LinkedIn in real-time.

2. Add media to your post

Upload approved media content to your post to make it stand out. This could be a single image, multiple images or a video to enhance your post and make it stand out.

If you’re publishing an image or a video, you can add alt tags for your images, upload an SRT file for video subtitles and even add a custom video thumbnail.

After uploading, you can edit your images on Sprout with the integrated image editor tool or resize them using our social media resizer.

Here, you can crop the image size and add filters, frames, new texts, overlays or stickers. Once you’re done, export the image to save your changes.

3. Preview and optimize your post

After editing your post, click the profile picker to select the LinkedIn profile for your post. Sprout Social allows you to manage multiple LinkedIn (and other social media) accounts at once and lets you post to a LinkedIn company or personal page.

If you’re posting from a company page, you can also tweak the audience targeting settings to ensure your posts show up in front of the right people.

Set up approval permissions for collaboration and approval of each post. This is useful for social media teams and marketers who need their clients’ or managers’ feedback on posts before they go live.

4. Finalize your post

After your content is optimized, you can submit your post for approval and save it as a draft. Posts that need approval can be saved as drafts until all reviews are complete.

On Sprout’s calendar, you can view, share and collaborate on your monthly scheduled content in a calendar view. You can add notes to each comment from another team member. And if you’re bulk scheduling your posts, you can view all your scheduled posts at once and correct them accordingly.

5. Schedule your post for publishing

Once you’re all set, select when you want the post to go out. You can publish your post immediately, auto-schedule with Sprout Queue or schedule it for later.

Pick a specific date and time to schedule your posts. Better yet, take advantage of Sprout’s tool, ViralPost, to pick optimal times when your audience is most active on LinkedIn.

You can also auto-schedule your posts with Sprout Queue to fill engagement gaps and publish posts automatically throughout the day. You don’t need to input a time or day when the post will go live; Sprout Queue takes care of that for you.

Why should you schedule posts on LinkedIn?

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts allows you to optimize the execution of your LinkedIn strategy, which provides an efficient means to distribute your content on the platform effortlessly.

1. Saves time and reduces unnecessary workload

Establishing a LinkedIn presence requires much time, effort, and dedication, which is time-consuming. By scheduling posts, you spend less time on manual publishing on LinkedIn, freeing you up to focus on higher-level tasks such as content creation, analysis, and engagement.

2. Helps you stay consistent

Following a social media posting schedule allows you to plan content in advance and set them to post at the right times. This way, you maintain a consistent LinkedIn presence without staying on the platform or worrying about posting daily.

3. Grow your profile engagement faster

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts will help you reach your audience at the best times when they’re most active on LinkedIn. Our research has shown that LinkedIn Company Pages see higher engagement on weekdays, generally Tuesdays through Thursdays between 10 a.m. to noon. Use this data as a starting point and test when you’re audience is most engaged with your content.

4. Keeps you organized

Keeping track of your LinkedIn account can be stressful, especially if you manage multiple accounts simultaneously. Scheduling your posts takes the burden off of that. All you need to do is create your posts and schedule a publishing time.

5. Helps you scale your LinkedIn efforts

Growing your audience on LinkedIn comes with much dedication and time. Scheduling makes it easier. When you schedule your posts, it gives you the advantage of posting consistently and growing your account.

5 tips for scheduling your LinkedIn posts

Ready to start scheduling your LinkedIn posts? Consider these five tips to help you effectively set your posts up for maximum success.

1. Know your audience

Before posting on LinkedIn, define who your ideal audience is. You need to know: who are you talking to? What do they do? What do they like? A generic response like “CEOs” or “marketers” won’t do. You must dive deeper and answer specific questions like:

• Location: Get clear on your audience’s location so you can customize posting times to when they’re most active.
• Professional details: Find out what they do and their position.
• Buying power: Find out their role in the buying process. For example, content heads often suggest project management software for their team.
• Industry: What industry are they currently in? Do they use familiar lingo?
• Online behavior: Pay attention to the type of content they engage with. Find out what content gets the most shares, likes, comments and reposts. This will give you an idea of what topics and content types resonate with your audience.

With Sprout Social’s AI listening tool, you can collect in-depth data about your audience. Dig into demographics and preferences, track conversations, analyze sentiment around specific topics, and even keep an eye on your competition to truly understand your target audience.

2. Post at the right time

The best time to post on LinkedIn is during optimal hours, when your audience is most active and likely to engage with your post. Our research at Sprout Social found that the best time to post on LinkedIn, on average, is Tuesdays through Thursdays starting at 10 a.m.

However, use this data to guide your posting strategies. Scheduling posts on LinkedIn and engagement can vary depending on industry and demographics.

Keep a close eye on your LinkedIn analytics to determine which posts perform well and adjust your posting schedule accordingly.

3. Experiment with different content types

The best post types on LinkedIn can differ depending on your industry. We studied 3,000 LinkedIn posts and found that long-form “how-tos” perform 31.5% better than every other content type. This is unsurprising, as LinkedIn is a community of professionals who share ideas and learn from one another.

However, we also found that posts with a single image perform 2x better than text-based posts and have a 98% higher comment rate, whereas posts with videos get 5x more engagement on LinkedIn. This means uploading video content from webinars or tutorials would perform well on LinkedIn.

In our 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, we also dug into content formats consumers want brands to share more of on social media, not just LinkedIn.

Experiment with different post formats to find your audience’s sweet spot for engagement. Depending on the vibe, you could choose to alternate content types for each posting day.

For example, posting a meme gives off a relaxed feeling, which fits into a weekend mood. Meanwhile, text-based posts, videos or slides would fit well for other days.

But if you’re still clueless about what to post on your company’s page, check out this post on LinkedIn’s best practices for marketing professionals.

4. Take time to engage with your audience

Scheduling a post is one part of a successful LinkedIn strategy; the other is engaging with your audience. Engaging with your audience humanizes your brand and fosters a positive customer relationship. This helps you gain credibility, build authority and increase brand loyalty.

More importantly, engagement is what your customers really want from you. According to Sprout’s research, 37% of consumers think the most memorable brands prioritize direct audience engagement over publishing lots of posts.

Also, engaging with your audience increases your account’s visibility on the channel. Think of it this way: the more you show up in the comment section, the more people engage with you, which gets more eyeballs on your profile.

You can engage with your audience by:

• Leaving meaningful comments on people’s posts
• Reposting content that’s meaningful and true to your brand
• Replying to comments on your posts
• Responding to questions, comments and messages

5. Optimize your LinkedIn marketing strategy with data

At intervals, study your LinkedIn analytics to measure what’s working and what’s not, so that you can adjust your content accordingly. Sprout Social provides in-depth social media analytics and reporting capabilities to help you measure your content performance, track your brand mentions and monitor your competition.

Don’t just create multiple posts in advance without looking at past results. Leverage data to:

• Analyze your best-performing posts and how you can re-create them for more success.
• Break down your least-performing posts and list possible mistakes.
• Optimize your LinkedIn strategy to suit the audience’s needs.

Optimize your LinkedIn strategy with scheduled posts

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts is a great way to plan your content in advance and boost engagement on the platform. Without it, you’ll have to manually post your content on LinkedIn, which can be time-consuming and make it harder to stay consistent.

Regardless of how good you think your LinkedIn content strategy is, it’s always best to schedule posts in advance, especially if you’re planning to scale your business or simply want to dedicate more time to strategic tasks like creating and analyzing content.

Sprout Social’s LinkedIn scheduler makes it easy to schedule posts on LinkedIn. Plus, you get additional features like in-depth analytics, social listening, automation and more. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

The post How to schedule LinkedIn posts for Profiles and Pages appeared first on Sprout Social.

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