Instagram carousels are a great tool for increasing engagement for everyone, but especially for brands. You can also make the Instagram algorithm work in your favor by mixing up the kinds of content you post. Incorporating Instagram Carousels into your marketing strategy is essential if you’re not using this potent feature.
Not sure where to begin? In this post, I will show you 9 ways I use Instagram carousels to boost my brand engagement. But first, let’s look at what Instagram carousels are and their benefits to brands.
Key Points:
- An Instagram carousel allows users to share multiple photos or videos in a single post, which can be viewed by swiping left on mobile or using the arrow button on the desktop.
- Carousels enable the sharing of several photos or videos with different looks in a single post.
- Instagram carousels are ideal for promoting written content through text image teasers.
- Carousel posts typically have higher engagement rates as they encourage more likes, shares, saves, and comments.
- Instagram carousels support multiple videos in one post, with each video lasting up to 60 seconds.
What Is An Instagram Carousel?
An Instagram carousel is a post that has multiple photos or videos that users can view by swiping left on a post through the mobile app. On desktop, users may view a carousel post by selecting the arrow button on the right of a post. Imagine it as a manually controlled slideshow of posts.
If the first slide of your carousel post is compelling enough, it will encourage users to stop and interact with your material. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Instagram carousels receive more engagement than both photo and video posts.
Note that carousel postings receive better interaction rates than images and videos, based on the most recent Instagram statistics.
What Are the Benefits of Using Instagram Carousels?
Instagram carousels are often used and enjoyed for a number of reasons, including:
#1. More information in a single post:
Instagram carousels are great because they let you share several photographs or videos without taking up too much space in your feed, unlike single-image posts. This might be particularly helpful if you are exhibiting several products, influencers, or models demonstrating various looks.
#2. Storytelling:
You can narrate a story to your audience by using the swipeable feature of carousels, which will make their experience more engaging. This is especially useful for sharing behind-the-scenes photos or displaying experiences.
#3. It Increases engagement:
Instagram carousels, which feature numerous pieces of content in a single post, are more likely to grab your followers’ attention and pique their curiosity, resulting in greater engagement rates and likes.
Read Also: 15 Ways to Use Technology to Improve Customer Engagement
#4. Aesthetic appeal:
Since all of the photos or videos may be viewed at once in a single post, carousels enable a more aesthetically pleasing and harmonious arrangement. This can support retaining a visually appealing brand image and gaining additional followers.
#5. It inspires creativity.
Instagram carousels provide a plethora of creative opportunities, ranging from displaying before-and-after makeovers to assembling collages. Additionally, they enable the blending of several Instagram content formats—including text, videos, and photos—into a single post.
9 Tips On How To Use Instagram Carousels To Boost Engagement
I use Instagram Carousels to express my creativity by including both photographs and videos, which have the best engagement rate. You can try experimenting with these content ideas to observe how your intended audience reacts.
#1. Offer Product Tutorials
Of course, courses don’t always have to focus on merchandise. Instagram Carousels are a popular tool for business accounts to provide tutorials on a variety of topics, including phone hacks, fashion ideas, and cosmetic advice.
Instagram Carousels can be used for how-to content tutorials to showcase your items. You can provide detailed usage instructions for a particular function in the form of still photos, quick videos, or a combination of the two.
#2. Offer Educational Content
You may not be able to encourage people to read through your caption to uncover an interesting statistic or data point, no matter how compelling it is. Therefore, consider using basic graphic pictures to draw attention to a few important points.
You can create text graphics and share the content in an Instagram carousel post when you have intriguing information to share. Make a sequence of pictures to communicate interesting facts, explore a little history, or clarify a subject.
If someone is drawn in by the image, they are more likely to read your caption or look around your profile page to find out more information.
#3. Offer Behind-the-scenes Content
People all enjoy taking a peek behind the curtain. You can share the final product along with the images and videos taken during the process by using Instagram Carousel posts.
Additionally, “Instagram versus reality” content is one of the most well-liked kinds of Instagram carousel posts. Real life doesn’t appear like the perfectly edited finished result. Display the altered photo next to the original to give your fans the relatable content they want.
Furthermore, you can use Instagram Carousel posts to show off your video setup, how a product is created, or what goes into framing the ideal product snap.
#4. Storytelling
In no more than ten slides, you can tell a story by making a brief presentation using text, photos, or a combination of the two. For example, this Tesco Foods carousel advertisement makes people swipe through each image to view it in its entirety. This is an excellent illustration of guiding a user through a story—in this case, one that looks quite appetizing.
Note that Instagram Carousels can also be used to showcase the progress of a particular project, the preparations for a product launch, or even the history of your business.
Read Also: 13 Digital Storytelling Examples that Will Inspire You
#5. Promote Your Products and services
For me, Instagram carousels are a fantastic method to introduce a product to my audience because the feature allows me to share multiple images, videos, and graphics in a single post.
You might wish to share product variations, such as several styles or colors, or you might want to draw attention to a few key points.
Note that no matter what you are promoting—a product, service, or piece of content—Instagram carousels offer an excellent way to delve into the specifics, educate your audience, and drive clicks.
#6. Showcase Customer Reviews
Customer reviews have a big impact on a brand’s success, therefore, it makes sense to publish positive ones on Instagram through carousel posts.
Additionally, posting gratifying feedback to your followers is a terrific way to become more visible, spark interest in your goods or services, and establish brand credibility.
Overall, carousel posts can boost credibility and drive more sales, and Instagram is a great platform for sharing customer feedback.
#7. Make Use of Repurposed Content
Using Instagram carousels is a great method to reuse content from events, webinars, blogs, and more.
For instance, since it may be challenging to promote written content on Instagram, you can utilize Instagram Carousels to generate text image teasers for content, like blog posts, and direct viewers to your bio link for additional information. Text graphics that convey highlights are an excellent method to repurpose long-form information, like white papers or books. These images can also function well as stand-alone pieces of content.
Overall, Instagram Carousels may be used to reuse a variety of content, including quotes from webinars, product demo images, and video snippets from recent events.
#8. Before and After Content
Show your followers those changes. Use Instagram Carousels to post full-sized photographs rather than dividing one into two.
Posts with before and after photos are beneficial for a range of businesses, including DIY projects and beauty parlors. Instagram carousels are a fantastic method to demonstrate how your product or service improves things.
Check out this “Before and After” Template on Canva:
Note that when distributing before-and-after images, think about releasing the final images first, followed by the before images. It’s always best to draw people in with attractive content on Instagram.
#9. User-generated Content
Including user-generated content on your account is one of the finest methods to foster a relationship with your audience. Instagram Carousels offers an ideal platform for sharing compilations of user-generated content.
Shout-outs are always appreciated; acknowledge them publicly and express gratitude for their support.
You can promote the use of the branded hashtag to easily gather excellent user-generated content to highlight on your Instagram account by monitoring the hashtag.
Instagram Carousel Template
Click on the image link to access our Instagram Carousel Template:
Read Also: How to Find and Use Templates on Instagram to Generate Massive Engagements
When Should You Use Instagram Carousels
Instagram carousels are a fantastic choice for strategic Instagram content because of their distinctive features. Using an Instagram carousel post in the following ways is among the best:
- Educational content
- Data and infographics
- Tutorials
- Brand storytelling
- Before-and-after reveals
- Photo dumps
- Product reveals
- Product/brand updates
- User-generated content
- Event highlights
- Behind-the-scenes looks
What Are The Instagram Carousel Size Requirements?
It’s important to make sure a carousel post you create on Instagram looks fantastic. Thus, it’s crucial to adhere to the size guidelines and criteria. Keep in mind these three alternatives for aspect ratio when you design and optimize your posts:
- Square (1:1)
- Horizontal (1.91:1)
- Vertical (4:5)
Instagram suggests that the resolution of photographs be 1080 x 1080 pixels. Videos can be as low as 600 x 600 pixels and as high as 1080 x 1080 pixels in resolution.
Are Carousels Better Than Single Posts On Instagram?
The engagement rate of carousel posts is higher than that of ordinary postings. This increases the likelihood that more people will like, share, save, and comment on these postings. Content with a narrative and visual flow is something you can produce. This makes it possible to create information in a more narrative style that draws viewers in deeply.
How Many Photos Are In An Ig Carousel?
The Instagram carousel post feature on the platform has been expanded, enabling the attachment of up to 15 images and videos to a single post, as opposed to the previous limit of 10.
Do Carousels Still Work On Instagram?
Yes, carousels still work on Instagram.
How Long Should An Instagram Carousel Be?
Carousel posts should have a maximum of 10 images or videos per post and recommended dimensions of 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels.
What Is The Instagram Carousel Video Length?
Instagram added the ability to use the carousel function to upload many videos in a single post. For content creators and businesses looking to present their work more dynamically, this has been a terrific addition. Instagram states that each video can have a maximum duration of 60 seconds. This implies that you can have ten videos, each lasting 60 seconds, for a total of 10 minutes.
What Is An Instagram Carousel Splitter?
Instagram Splitter is a creative tool that allows you to publish up to ten photos or videos in a single post, resulting in a smooth and eye-catching carousel that your followers will want to swipe through. You can quickly split a picture into many posts or a carousel post with the splitter tool.
Can You Schedule Instagram Carousel Posts?
It is possible to schedule Instagram carousels. This may be done with social media management tools like Later, Hootsuite, or the Meta Business app. To get started, simply add several photographs as you would in the Instagram app, and then use your preferred social media tool to schedule them according to standard procedure.
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