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

Day	Format	Pillar	Formula	1-line angle	Goal	Time
Mon	Reel	Educational	IG9 Pattern-Interrupt	"you post Reels at the worst time"	shares	12:00 PM
Tue	Carousel	Educational	IG5 Listicle	"7 portfolio mistakes"	saves	11:30 AM
Wed	Story set	Engagement	poll + question	"which layout wins?"	comments	7:00 PM
Thu	Carousel	Story	IG6 Before/After	"my first $0 to first $4k"	follows	11:00 AM
Fri	Single image	Engagement	IG3 Relatable	"opening Canva for one graphic"	comments	1:00 PM
Sat	Reel	Educational	IG10 How-I Teardown	"how I edit a Reel in 20 min"	saves	10:00 AM
Sun	Story set	Promotion	reshare + link	"course doors open"	follows	6:00 PM

(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:

Goal	Formulas	Weekly target
Saves	IG1, IG5, IG6, IG8, IG10	at least 3 (the headline lever)
Shares	IG2, IG7, IG9	at least 2
Comments	IG3, IG4	at least 1
Follows	IG4, IG6, IG8	at least 1

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

Pillar	Preferred formulas
Educational	IG5 Listicle, IG8 Framework, IG10 How-I Reel, IG1 Number-First
Story	IG4 Confession, IG6 Before/After
Engagement	IG3 Relatable, IG9 Pattern-Interrupt Reel, story stickers
Promotion	IG6 (results that imply the product), IG1 (your own data)

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.
4. Set the weekly saves + shares goal and the daily story cadence.
5. Run the weekly balance check and the goal-mix check; flag anything missing.
6. 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