Instagram Content Planner

Produce a weekly Instagram plan built around a pillar discipline and the format mix Instagram rewards: Reels for reach, carousels for saves, stories for the relationship. The plan sets a weekly saves-and-shares goal, because sends per reach and saves are the 2026 levers.

When to use

• User asks "plan my week on Instagram" or "what should I post this week"
• User wants to escape ad-hoc posting and establish a rhythm
• Before a launch week (the plan aligns a product pillar)

Input

• Theme (optional): e.g. "launching our design course"
• Audience description: e.g. "junior designers, career switchers"
• Pillar mix (optional): defaults to 40% Educational / 30% Story /

20% Engagement / 10% Promotion

• Posting cadence (optional): defaults to 4-5 feed posts/week + daily stories
• Voice samples (optional): past captions for voice calibration

Output

A markdown plan with:

7-day calendar

(The skill fills real angles from the theme. Stories run daily underneath the feed posts.)

Weekly saves goal

• Set a concrete saves + shares target for the week (the primary lever).

Default heuristic: at least 3 of the week's feed posts are save-bait formats (IG1, IG5, IG6, IG8, IG10) and at least 2 are send-bait (IG2, IG7, IG9).

• Track saves and shares as the headline metric, not likes.

Daily story cadence

• 2-4 story frames/day: behind-the-scenes, a poll or question sticker, and at

least one reshare of a recent feed post (a send-equivalent signal that pushes the post to followers who missed it).

• Stories deepen the follower relationship; they do not chase non-follower reach.

Weekly balance check

• Format mix: at least 2 Reels (reach), at least 2 carousels (saves), stories daily
• At least 3 save-bait posts and 2 send-bait posts
• At least 1 real first-person story post (build trust, earn follows)
• No pillar over 50% of the week's feed posts
• No formula repeated more than twice in the week
• Promotion pillar 1-2 posts max
• Goal mix spread across saves, shares, comments, follows

Goal mix (balance the week)

Every formula earns a primary signal. A week that is all save-bait or all relatable reads as engineered. Spread the goals:

Rules

• Consistency beats frequency. 4-5 quality feed posts/week with daily stories

beats a daily dump of filler. Do not pad to hit a count.

• Reels for reach, carousels for saves, stories for the relationship. Use the

right surface for the job.

• Reels can run more often than carousels without fatigue, because each

reaches a fresh non-follower audience.

• Best windows: weekdays 11 AM-1 PM and 7-9 PM local, plus Sunday evening.

Check the user's own insights when available.

• Promotion pillar max 1-2 posts/week. Overuse buries reach.
• One formula per slot, varied across the week. Do not stack three IG5 carousels.

Formula -> pillar mapping

Steps

1. Gather inputs. Ask for theme, audience, pillar preferences if not provided.
2. Validate the pillar mix sums to 100%; warn if any pillar is over 50%.
3. For each day, pick: format (Reel/carousel/image/story), pillar, formula (do

not over-repeat), angle, posting time (audience timezone), goal.

1. Set the weekly saves + shares goal and the daily story cadence.
2. Run the weekly balance check and the goal-mix check; flag anything missing.
3. Return as markdown, plus optional JSON for import.

Example

See references/example-week.md for a filled-in 7-day plan.

Files

• SKILL.md - this file
• references/example-week.md - worked 7-day plan
• references/pillars-framework.md - the Instagram pillar discipline explained

Related skills

• ig-caption-writer - draft each single-image caption from the plan
• ig-carousel-planner - draft each carousel from the plan
• ig-hashtag-strategist - rotate sized hashtag sets across the week
• ig-hook-extractor - study competitors' posts while planning