49. AI for Instagram: The Future of Content Creation in 2025 (Part 3)
AI is here, and it’s revolutionizing how entrepreneurs approach Instagram marketing. In part three of my Instagram Marketing Trends for 2025 series, I’m sharing the tools and strategies that have completely changed how I plan, create, and refine my content. From generating content ideas to streamlining workflows, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you leverage AI without losing your unique brand voice. Whether you’re a busy solopreneur or an entrepreneur ready to scale, this episode will inspire you to embrace AI as your new content BFF.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[00:00] Intro: Why AI is the key to working smarter, not harder, on Instagram in 2025.
[01:42] Elizabeth’s Win: How experimenting with LinkedIn content taught me about persistence and storytelling.
[06:00] How AI Simplifies Content Creation: Using AI tools for brainstorming, creating scripts, and repurposing content across platforms.
[12:20] Practical AI Applications:
Automating captions, emails, and social posts.
Editing with tools like ChatGPT, Canva Magic Design, and Instagram’s "Cut Silences."
Planning content calendars and generating viral ideas.
[19:12] Favorite AI Tools for Instagram Marketing:
Canva’s AI-powered features for quick graphic creation.
Planoly/Later for smarter scheduling and audience insights.
Descript for seamless video editing.
[23:40] Start Small with AI: Tips to integrate AI into your workflow without feeling overwhelmed.
[29:00] Refining Your Brand Voice: How to use AI to sharpen messaging while staying authentic.
[32:45] Experimentation is Everything: Why testing and refining your strategies is crucial for long-term success.
Key Takeaways
AI isn’t replacing you; it’s your creative assistant that saves time and boosts impact.
Consistency + strategy = the perfect formula for successful Instagram marketing.
Experiment with AI tools to find what works for your unique business.
“You won’t be replaced by AI, but you might be replaced by someone who knows how to use it.”
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Try Descript for AI-assisted video editing
Part 1: Instagram Marketing Trends 2025: How Creative Bravery is Helping Brands Stand Out (Part 1)
Part 2: The Instagram Growth Hack No One’s Talking About for 2025 (Part 2)
S3 Ep49 Transcript: AI for Instagram: The Future of Content Creation in 2025 (Part 3)
00:00
If you've ever felt like there aren't enough hours in the day to tackle your content strategy, this episode is for you. Welcome to part three of our Instagram marketing trends for 2025 series. Today we're diving into a game changer for business owners and that is artificial intelligence or AI. I'm sharing exactly how I'm using AI in my business, tools you can start using today, and practical tips to weave AI into your Instagram strategy. Are you ready? Let's go.
00:32
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole-led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
01:01
Let's dive in.
01:09
Welcome back to the show. I'm Elizabeth, your hostess with the mostest. And today we're diving into part three of our Instagram marketing trends for 2025 series. I'm so excited to talk about AI and really using it strategically as a tool in your business.
01:26
A few months ago, I recorded a four part mini series on really how to use chat GPT specifically in your Instagram marketing strategy. Those are some of my most popular episodes ever recorded. So if you missed that four part mini series, we're going to make sure we link it in the show notes. I go into a lot of depth as to how specifically to use ChatGPT in your Instagram marketing strategy for target market research, Instagram profile optimization, content strategy, content ideas.
01:56
So if you want like a full on deep dive on how to use ChatGPT in your Instagram marketing strategy in 2025, make sure you go back and listen to those episodes. But I'm thrilled to record this episode with you today because I know so much more now than I did even a few months ago about how to exactly use AI tools to work smarter and not harder in my business.
02:24
and I'm really excited to share that with you so you can really harness the power of these modern tools that are available to us. Before we dive in, I wanna share a really fun win, which is that I have kind of secretly been trying to grow my LinkedIn presence in the last few months. LinkedIn is not a platform that I typically ever show up on and I have been really feeling called to show up
02:52
over there more. I know it's great for B2B and of course with my Instagram marketing, coaching and consulting business, I work primarily with business owners. So it makes total sense for me to invest some time and energy in showing up there. But the reason why I'm telling you the story is that I felt like a total newbie when I first started posting. And to be honest, I kind of still feel that way. And I'm kind of back in that like beginner mode of
03:19
just kind of posting and not really knowing what I'm doing. Everything that I know, of course I know a lot about marketing. So it's not that I don't know what I'm doing, but when I say that it's more like, I don't totally understand the culture of LinkedIn yet. I don't spend a ton of time on there. I don't use it a ton. So I'm just really trying to learn and study.
03:42
and kind of reverse engineer everything that I have already learned with Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and all the places I already feel so confident with and show up on LinkedIn. So I just wanna share this part of my story with you because I feel like so many of you are gonna be able to relate. So I would just post and not super consistently but at least once a week. I was committed to, okay, I'm gonna show up and post once a week.
04:08
and it would get maybe like 25 impressions or like one like, or I can't tell you how many times I posted and it got like zero likes and I'm just like, okay, whatever. And I definitely just had that awesome mindset of like, I don't really care. Like I'm just posting and every post is giving me more information. I'm gonna keep trying different things. I'm gonna keep experimenting.
04:33
Right now, LinkedIn is really pushing video format, that short form video format over on LinkedIn. And so when I learned about that, I was like, okay, this is literally like what I do. I love creating short form videos. And so I posted when Meta had their big announcement about trial reels. That morning, I recorded a reel about what are trial reels, how do you use them? I posted it on LinkedIn and I could not believe it.
05:02
It totally blew up, it went viral. It got over 70,000 impressions. That video ended up being linked on a LinkedIn News Asia post that has over five million followers. And I just couldn't believe it. And then I posted a few more videos and those also totally blew up and went viral. Within a day or two, I had someone from LinkedIn reaching out to me directly saying,
05:32
We'd love to showcase more of your videos on LinkedIn. We wanna invite you into this inner circle thing. And essentially what it is, is I have a place now where I can submit my videos for consideration. If LinkedIn likes them, they could potentially be pushed out on their feature news pages and things like that. So I just shared the story with you because like so many of you, when I first started doing it, I was just like.
05:57
What the heck am I doing? And to be totally honest with you, I still feel like I'm in like beginner intermediate land over there on LinkedIn, but I'm not afraid to fail publicly. I'm not afraid to post and have no one see it. Like moving on, who cares? Because a lot of times too, I wanna remind you, you'll get no likes, you'll get no views, two likes and five views and you're just like, oh, what a disaster. But I'm telling you, people see your content, even if they're not interacting with it.
06:26
People are seeing what you're doing and you just have to be consistent. You have to keep showing up. And that's what I did. And I didn't just keep doing the same thing that wasn't working. What did I do? I changed it up. I posted a video instead of a static post. And by the way, I had posted several other videos that did not do well before that video did well. So it's not like, oh, Elizabeth just posted that one video and it went viral. I should have mentioned that I also had posted some other videos that didn't do well.
06:54
but I was relentless, I kept going. I think I've gained over 100 followers on LinkedIn in the last month or so, which is awesome. And I'm committed to continuing to grow over there. As I learn it, of course I'll share it with you, but I just want to share that we all start at zero. We all start at zero, like zero views, and you've just gotta keep going. The more content you create, it gives you more data points. You can learn, refine, and grow.
07:24
All right, so let's get into leveraging AI to grow our businesses. So AI tools are really built to help you brainstorm, plan, create, and even analyze your content. So I want you to think of AI as your virtual assistant. It really takes the heavy lifting off of your plate in so many ways, and that's what I have learned. And as you start to learn how to do that,
07:52
how to use AI, it frees up so much time so you can focus on showing up authentically for your audience and of course, serving in your zone of genius, whatever that is. For many of us, that's not on Instagram, that's off in our business or in our families or wherever it is, but AI can really be a game changer in terms of automating tasks and really making our content and workflows so much smoother. Don't just take it from me.
08:22
In fact, according to the Hootsuite Social Trends 2025 report, 83% of marketers say AI tools help them create more content in less time. That stat is really important and this is why this particular topic is in the 2025 Instagram Trends report, is that this time last year, of course, AI, it's been around now, it's been on the scene for quite some time.
08:52
People are coming out of the closet and everyone's like, I'm using AI. Whereas when I, even when I recorded this, I don't know when I did that for per series, but a few months ago, it was still just sort of like, it's kind of like whispering like, I'm using chat GPT. That's not the world we live in anymore. Again, 83% of marketers say that AI tools are really helping them to create more content in less time. And it's really not just about creating more.
09:18
It's about creating smarter, more impactful content that really resonates and drives conversions. So if you've been on the fence about using AI, this is your sign to download ChatGPT or Google Gemini, start to play with it. And really I want you to have this mindset of this is a new skill that I'm learning. I think it's really funny. I see people sometimes post where they're like.
09:45
I tried to use ChatGPT today to write an email and it was just so generic and you know like they're just so like angry about it in my brain. I'm like well that's because you don't know how to use it. That sounds really snappy but that's just what I was thinking. So remember this is a skill like anything else just like you learning how to create a reel when you first learn how to create a reel it's going to take you two hours. You're going to be like okay.
10:09
Like what button do I hit to record? How do I set the timer? How do I add text on the screen? How do I add the caption? Where do I, like, it's gonna take you time. But as you do it more, now I can create reels in five minutes. Same thing with AI. It's a skill that you can choose to invest your time and energy in learning and mastering. And I've mentioned this in previous episodes and I don't know who said this, quote, I wish I could quote them.
10:36
but I love this quote, it always sticks with me, and it's that you won't be replaced by artificial intelligence, but you may be replaced by someone who knows how to use artificial intelligence. I wanna share with you how I'm personally using AI in my business, and I hope it will give you some ideas as to how you can start to play with this within your company as well.
11:01
Number one, I use AI and specifically ChatGPT. I have the paid version, the four per no, I believe it's like 20, $25 a month. To me, that's a no brainer investment in my business. I use every single day, I'm not even kidding you. And by the way, I didn't start using it every single day. Again, it's just like anything else. I had to start to fumble my way through it and really understand how to seed, seed S E E D.
11:31
ChatGPT with all of my company information, my branding, my brand voice, who I serve, how I help them, what my offers are, what my podcast is about. It is an investment of time upfront to train ChatGPT on your business, on your brand voice. What's really awesome is it has a memory so it can remember all of this stuff and you don't have to do this every time you're going in to create content.
11:59
And if you're unsure as to how to seed S-E-E-D, again, I talk about that in depth in that four part mini series, you can go check that out. But yes, I use it for podcast planning and scripting. So AI helps me to outline and script episodes just like this one. And it's really helpful for me. It keeps me organized and ensures that I cover all the key points that I wanted to include. So of course I come in, I'm the human.
12:26
I'm the driver of the business. I'm the brain. I'm the visionary. I tell AI exactly what I want to do. I want to create. And sometimes I'll even like go back and forth. I'll say, you know, I wanna do this Instagram marketing trends series for my podcast. I'm thinking it should be a three-part series. Here's all the things I wanna cover. Like, what do you think? And then in going back and forth, AI helped me to discover, oh no sister, this is not a three-part series. This is a four-part series.
12:55
So this is what I mean where it's like this other brain outside of me that is actually helping me. It is so cool. And especially for me, ADHD brain, I have a lot of trouble. Sometimes I get so many downloads, like hundreds of downloads and I'll tell ChatGPT like all my ideas and I'll say, okay, help me to structure this into like a 60 minute workshop and it will do it. And it will connect all my ideas. And I can even say like, that's not flowing right.
13:24
This doesn't make sense. It's just like anything else. You're in dialogue, you're giving it feedback, but it really truly is like having a personal assistant with me at my desk every single day. This person doesn't get tired. I should say this robot. This robot does not get tired. This robot does not sass me. I guess I'm paying this robot like 20 bucks a month, but it is just a game changer. So podcast planning and scripting, I use it a lot to repurpose content. So in...
13:53
Both of my businesses, I'm constantly creating content, website copy, Instagram copy, Facebook copy, LinkedIn copy, email copy, all of the things that you are already creating for your business, instead of making it so hard on yourself, what if you created one piece of content and then you allowed ChatGPT or Google Gemini or whatever you want to use to repurpose your content? So I use AI to turn podcast episodes into emails.
14:22
Those get turned into LinkedIn posts. Those get turned into Facebook updates and Instagram reels. So one piece of content can become a whole week of visibility for my business. And the cool part about that is now my marketing messaging is getting more dialed in because it's not like I'm talking about a hundred different things all week long. I'm talking about one thing in seven different ways.
14:48
It's a much more effective way to work and it's a much more effective way to manage your time and effort in the content creation you're already making, in the content creation you're already doing. I just used ChatGPT yesterday. I applied for a keynote speaking opportunity. Don't get it twisted. It's not like I put in the application was like, fill this out for me. I wrote what I wanted to write and then I'll use ChatGPT to help me edit it for flow, for grammar.
15:18
Okay, I wanna say this, but how could I say it in a more powerful way? Or this is the person who's gonna get this application. Like, help me to really speak to this point. So the first draft always comes from me, and then AI helps me to really refine it. I've been playing with chat dbt a lot lately in creating viral hooks. So one of the things I've taught you is that you don't always have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to Instagram content. You find a piece of content that's
15:47
already performing well, that's going viral in your niche, or even in a different niche, and you see the hook on the screen, you see how they're doing it, and then you reverse engineer that for your niche. So I do that a lot. I've been playing with ChatGPT where I say, okay, it's this formula, like I've been in the Instagram marketing world long enough, I can see these formulas on the screen and I can share it with ChatGPT and say, I wanna repurpose this for my brand. Here's kind of what I'm thinking.
16:16
Can you give me like 10 different examples of how we could do this? So that I actually have had some viral videos thanks to ChatGPT and I, you know, doing our dance back and forth and it's pretty awesome. So these tools don't just save me time, they give me mental space to focus on big picture strategies that really move the needle in my business forward.
16:42
So that is why I love it so much. I feel like I couldn't even tell you, but I need to do a better job of measuring this. But I would guess that the tools I'm using right now are saving me about 10 hours a week. I wanna highlight that AI isn't just for brainstorming, it's really reshaping how we create content across the board. So some different examples of how you can use tools like ChatGPT are captions.
17:11
Content ideas, content planning, content strategy, target market research, workshop outlines, product launches. I mean, literally anything that you can think of, you can use ChatGPT to help you refine your strategy. Now, does this replace a mentor? Does this replace a coach? Does this replace a copywriter? I don't think so. You still are going to need to have brains and people.
17:40
who bring that creative vision onto your team. Now, one thing to be careful of is sometimes ChatGPT can hallucinate and what that means is it just makes things up. And sometimes it will just share statistics that just don't even exist. So you really have to do your research, make sure that what it tells you is actually true. And that's why honestly, this tool, even as they get better,
18:09
they're not gonna replace humans. You have to think about it as humans are going to start to integrate AI into their phones, into their computers. Like literally it's just gonna become such a normal part of our day-to-day lives. We're not even gonna think about it. There's not gonna be as much resistance as some of us have to it. It's just gonna be really woven into our lives, but we're always gonna need both. We're gonna need that human.
18:36
brain and creativity and human story and real life experiences. And we can use this tool to help us to express ourselves, to organize ourselves, to automate some of those tasks that we just don't love or maybe we're not great at. So I think it's really incredible. There's also a lot of new AI video editing tools, platforms like Descript.
19:02
and InShot use AI to automate video editing. They trim, cut, and add captions, which can make real production fast and stress-free. Full disclosure, I used Descript for my podcast episodes, recording those. I have not yet played with it in terms of my Instagram reels. I will let you know when I do. Instagram actually recently released a new feature where it's called cut silences. So if you do a direct to camera reel and you're talking,
19:32
When you're editing the reel, you can hit cut silences and the AI will try to cut out those blank spots, you know, where you take a breath or you pause. And so all of the tools that we already use are working as fast as they can to integrate with AI. And that just kind of further reinforces this marketing trend moving forward that AI is here to stay and the sooner you can get on board with using it.
20:00
You don't need a million different tools, you just need a couple that actually save you time and energy. It's totally worth your investment. AI is now helping with graphic design. Canva came out with magic tools, which can create polished Instagram posts and stories that match your brand aesthetic with minimal effort. I have not tried that out. I'm not really a big Canva user. My incredible assistant, Kristen, does all of my Canva stuff for me because that's not my zone of genius.
20:27
It's not something I really enjoy doing or creating. So I outsource that to her, but that's really cool that Canva is coming on board with integrating that into their system for incredible graphics, content scheduling and insights, AI driven tools like Planely and Later, those tools analyze your audience's activity and tell you the best times to post for maximum engagement.
20:53
As the AI gets built into all of these social media management tools, it helps you to track your metrics, it helps you to analyze your metrics. There's so much fun stuff to play with. So when you combine these tools with your unique creativity, you are gonna be totally unstoppable. In one of my Hot Reels clients, she is using ChatGPT to just help her sometimes. She's in that phase right now of
21:22
really trying to refine her messaging and like what her brand has to say to the world. And it's not like you sit down and you open up a Google Doc and you just nail it, right? You find your messaging by creating a lot of content, by writing a lot of captions, by writing a lot of emails. There's just no way around it. Your brand evolves over time. That's why, you know, if you hire someone to build out your website, in six months from now, you're gonna go back and look at that copy and be like, oh.
21:52
That's interesting. Yeah, no, the brand has evolved since then. I need to edit this part. If your brand isn't evolving, something's wrong, right? So there's nothing wrong with always trying to refine your messaging, but I have found that ChatGPT is very helpful with that. And because it has that memory function, it's not like you're starting from scratch every time. So one of my Hot Reels clients oftentimes gets a little bit stuck in that messaging, is stuck with her hooks. And of course I've been supporting her and giving her the exact steps. We've been working through things.
22:21
but I'm not with her 24 seven. So it's kind of like a little Elizabeth in her pocket just helping her to come up with some hooks. And because she's been using this tool, she said that she can now create 10 reels. She loves remixing memes, which is really fun. And remixing memes are so simple and easy to do on Instagram, but they're only really effective if you have a really fantastic hook and you have it strategically aligned with your brand. So she's been doing that using the strategy that I've taught her.
22:51
And she said, oh, Elizabeth, now I can just batch like 10 reels in like 30 minutes, thanks to AI, and my content is done, you know, for the next few days. So this is just such a powerful tool. I know I've thrown a lot at you today, so let's talk about how you can start using AI to simplify your life. Number one, pick one task to automate.
23:17
So maybe it's brainstorming captions or editing reels or creating graphics. Choose one thing that feels like a time sack and then try a new tool like ChatGPT or Canvas Magic Design and see if that can help you shortcut the process for yourself. Number two, batch your content. So spend an hour creating captions, graphics or video edits in bulk with AI.
23:45
you can accomplish weeks of work in one setting. So maybe you sit down and you're like, I am going to figure out my system of using AI to bash content, just like I gave you that example of my HotRails client who is making 10 memes in 30 minutes and she's scheduling them out. And so now she doesn't even have to worry about her content for at least a week, right? Number three, analyze what's working. So you can use tools like Planly to track engagement.
24:14
and optimize your strategy. And you can let AI crunch the numbers while you focus on creating. You can also use ChatGPT for this. I haven't done this yet, but I've heard of other people doing this where they upload their P&L reports to ChatGPT and have them analyze them. It is incredible, this tool at our fingertips. If you can think about, if you think of a problem you have in your business or something where you're like, oh, I just wish someone could help me with this, ChatGPT can help you.
24:44
So I want you to think about maybe how you could use AI to analyze what's working and what's not with your Instagram marketing strategy, maybe your marketing strategy overall, or even your business strategy, your overarching vision for 2025. If this all sounds exciting, but you're not sure exactly where to start, I would love to support you using AI and specifically chat GBT to strategically.
25:12
grow your business on Instagram while also saving you so much time is absolutely one of the skills that I work on with my private clients in my mentorship programs. If you are curious about that and getting support from me so I can help you to really identify exactly what AI tools you need and teach you how to use these for your business so you can save yourself so much time and energy while also being more effective in driving conversions from your organic content.
25:42
then I invite you to apply for a complimentary Instagram breakthrough call with me. You can go to elizabethmarbury.com slash application or just DM me the word apply, a P-P-L-Y on Instagram. Make sure you're already following me so your message comes through. But I will send you over a short application that helps me to really maximize our time together so I can learn about you.
26:07
your business and your bold vision and also where you're struggling. And if I'm the right person to support you, I'll invite you into a free Instagram breakthrough session where we'll figure out your next three action steps. And then I may share with you an invitation into one of my invite only private mentorship containers if it feels aligned for both of us. So I would love to connect with you, go to ElizabethMarberry.com slash application or DM me the word apply.
26:34
That's a wrap on part three of our Instagram marketing trends for 2025 series. If you found this episode helpful, share it with a colleague or business bestie. Don't forget to rate and review. And if you haven't already triple check, you have followed the show, subscribe to the show because I am going to be bringing on an extra special guest coming up in the next few weeks. His name is Juan Galan. He's been on the show before. And in fact, his episode, we talked all about how he has grown his
27:03
Instagram account to over 40,000 followers with chat GBT. He's gonna be back on the show soon to share even more AI strategies and how to use it to plan your 2025 content calendar. You are not gonna wanna miss that interview. So make sure you have subscribed to the show. And next week is our final episode in our four part mini series. We're gonna be talking about how to build trust and transparency in your Instagram marketing strategy. It's one of my favorite topics.
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and I can't wait to dig deeper into it with you. Until next time, keep struttin' your stuff on Instagram and I'll see you back here next week. Thank you for listening to Strutt It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram.
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You can grab your guide at elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. If you've got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.