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These days, it’s very rare to find an Instagram post that consists of just one photo. Introduced in February 2017, the “carousel” format has become insanely popular and is now used everywhere. A carousel post allows you to diversify your content within a single post and thereby capture your audience’s attention. Regular users and bloggers can add photos taken on different days or locations, publish videos or mixed posts. And companies can show their products from all sides, add customer reviews, a catalog, and information about pricing plans.
With that in mind, we thought it would be very useful to tell you exactly how to make a beautiful carousel post and show a few ways to use it. Well, let’s get started!
How to publish a carousel?
Let’s look at how to publish multiple photos/videos in one post from a mobile device.
In general, publishing a carousel is almost no different from publishing a regular Instagram post. Click on the “+” at the bottom of the screen. Then tap on the multi-square icon. Select the photos or videos you want — you can post a maximum of 10 photos or videos. Pay attention to the sequence of images. The picture under the number “1” will be displayed first. You can only change the order of the pictures before publishing by touching the picture and dragging it to the right or left. Click “Next.” From there, everything happens in the same way as in the case of conventional posts.
Source: https://www.theverge.com
It is important not to forget about the size requirements for photos and videos. Just like regular posts, you can use portrait, landscape, and square formats when publishing your carousel. But you can only use one format per post.
Photo requirements:
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px
Landscape: 1080 x 566 px
Square: 1080 x 1080 px
Aspect ratio: square (1:1), landscape (1.91:1), vertical (4:5)
Recommended image size: Width — 1080 px, height — 566-1350 px (depending on the format)
Video requirements:
Length: 3-60 sec
Recommended formats: .MP4 and .MOV
Aspect ratios: square (1:1), landscape (1.91:1), vertical (4:5)
Maximum video size: 4GB
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/asos/
Now that we know how to publish a carousel on Instagram, let’s look at a few examples of how you can use this format to improve your social media presence.
New product promo
The most obvious and easy way to use the carousel format is to present your new product. You can show it in detail from all sides and even attach a video. And if you have a new product line out, the carousel will fit perfectly into your feed.
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/vans/
Make your posts alive with videos
Video is an easy way to enliven your post and feed in a carousel format and make it more human. What’s more, users love this kind of content and are happy to share it, which positively affects your brand awareness.
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/queereye/
Tell a story
Instagram users love quality storytelling. And it doesn’t matter if the stories are fictional or real, photographed or drawn. You can accompany them with a text description or do nothing more than a visual component — the choice is yours. The main thing is that the story should be interesting!
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/pixar/
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/
Before/After
Carousel is a great way to show the results of a makeup artist, stylist, interior designer, and more. No more wasting time and effort creating collages. Just publish your content in a before/after format.
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/theacademy/
Use the carousel to convey an important message
Instagram posts are an excellent way to communicate socially important commentary to a broader audience. And the carousel does it even better. You can accompany your post with a few photos, or you can include part of the text in a picture (this is also good if your post is too long, by the way). The more photos, the more compelling the message!
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/nestle/
Behind-the-scenes
Another good way to make your brand more human is to show behind-the-scenes processes in your company. This can be office photos, production videos, or even the classic “behind-the-scenes” during a corporate photoshoot. Learn from the movie industry!
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/marvel/
User-generated content
Remember the golden rule of social media: some content doesn’t have to be made directly by you. Encourage users to share photos of your products or what they’ve been able to do with them. You can even reward the most active users with a promo code or discount. This format is also good for summing up social media contests. All in all, there are plenty of options!
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/marvel/
Make creative posts
Carousel on Instagram is a space for creativity. You can make beautiful merges to make the transition between photos smoother, more unusual, and unique. Users love this kind of thing, and your audience is sure to be fascinated when they see your post in their feed.
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/vans/
Use the carousel for a more accessible message
The carousel format is also good in terms of data delivery. For example, if you want to make an informative post and add some statistics or charts, it would be easy to do with this format. Design it nicely with your brand identity, and the post is sure to get a lot of likes.
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/refinery29/
The bottom line
The carousel format in Instagram is always a win-win if you want to make a beautiful, impressive, and informative post. Choose a few suggested options or use all of them, and you’re sure to succeed on this social network. The main thing is to use them wisely and don’t post carousels all the time — let users take a little break and enjoy just a pretty picture. If you, like us, are inspired by the idea of using a carousel, be sure to incorporate it into your Instagram marketing strategy. Here we’ve covered in detail how to develop it. Go for it!
