When it comes to sharing content on Instagram, there is one post format that is beginning to stand out as the most popular, engaging, and informative method of storytelling. Over the last few years, Carousel Posts have seen a positive growth in global engagement amongst Instagram’s diverse user-base.
In the past year alone, carousels overtook video posts as the top performing media content in North America and they ranked as the second most popular format globally for the platform. A large reason for its popularity is due to the fact that carousels allow users to convey a full story using multiple elements of visual designs, text, and animation.
Carousels are a great way to share a brand story, promote a product, or directly connect with your audience. With that being said, we’ve compiled some examples of carousels that your team can use as inspiration for your next few posts!
Humanize Your Brand with Photo Dumps
One of the quickest methods to use carousel posts for your brand is through ‘photo dumps’. Photo dumps are a popular method of sharing organic photos and videos about a specific event or person. We recommend using photo dumps as a way of showcasing your leaders and celebrating moments that are important to your brand in a way that will feel relatable to your audience.
As brands and leaders develop over time, it is important to maintain human connections with your audiences. Photo dumps are one of the most natural ways of doing this since they can consist of selfies, event photos, or direct videos from the event. This means that your audience’s perspective will feel like they are directly in attendance and can celebrate your leaders and major milestones with your brand.
Here are some tips for your next photo dump post:
- Evaluate the ‘lens’ that your brand will use for the post. This can range from content from a mobile device, multimedia from an official event photographer, or footage from a specific broadcast. Don’t be afraid to try different formats to see what your audiences align with.
- Keep your editing to a minimum. Feel free to color correct and fine tune your content as you please, but you don’t need to add any special graphics or designs to your posts.
- Organize the order of your photos and videos before you post. Sometimes the organization of your content can enhance and build excitement for the story you are telling. To make things easier, consider using Mention’s Publish tool to review the order of your photos in one space.
Share Statistics About Your Industry
Data and statistics are a great way to show that your brand is an industry leader that is filled with knowledge about the services you provide. With carousels, you’ll be able to share multiple graphs and visuals that almost feel like a presentation of slides.
For these carousel posts, you will be able to specifically target current and new followers that are interested in the industry that you service. These posts will show them that your brand conducts research and understands the landscape of trends. Overall, you will stand out against your competitors as a leading voice.
Here are some helpful tips to create these carousels:
- Visuals are key! You’ll want your graphs to be clear and direct. We recommend adding your graph with a few bullet points to drive your analysis, but don’t fill your images with too much wording.
- On top of statistics and graphs, we recommend enhancing your posts with designs that illustrate your data and brand. These designs will make your data easier to understand for casual followers and might even capture the attention of new prospects.
- If you are scheduling your content through Mention Publish, you can pre-upload your designs to the Content Library at any time. This will allow you to re-use the same media content on other social media platforms if you decide to share the statistics across your multiple media channels as well!
Create Seamless Panoramic Carousels to Promote a Product or Information
Panoramic posts that provide a seamless set of illustrations are a great way to maximize the usage of carousels. These posts use the ‘sliding’ feature of carousels to consolidate a core message using multiple photo sets that appear to be one larger design.
While these posts may take some time to design and share, they are an exciting way to boost engagement amongst your diverse audiences. As users scroll through each photo, they will see your captivating designs and receive information about the topics you are promoting. We recommend using these posts to promote a new product or feature as your core message.
Here are some helpful tips to create these panoramic posts:
- These posts are meant to be captivating and visually appealing! Don’t be afraid to embrace creative designs from your team to ensure that you capture the attention of general audiences.
- In order to create a panoramic post, you’ll want to use a design tool externally and then upload it to your Instagram account. We recommend platforms like Photoshop or Canva for the best capabilities.
- We also recommend using Mention’s Publish calendar to preview the layout of your images with ease! Through Publish, you will get a direct preview of all of your slides so you can verify that the design and flow of the post is up to your standards.
A Story is Told in Three Parts
As you compile your photos and videos for carousel posts, it is also important to consider the impact of your caption as well. The caption can be used to share an extra layer of knowledge and information to your audience.
You can use a caption to support your carousel in multiple ways that will benefit your content and brand. For example, the caption is a great way to share your brand’s voice and provide audiences with insight on your values. On the other hand, you can use a caption as context to the images or videos that are appearing on your post especially if the multimedia is ambiguous.
For your next carousel posts, please consider these tips for your captions:
- Make sure to include a call to action in your captions to encourage your audience to engage with your brand.
- Within your post, add a few hashtags and location tags that are relevant to your content. This will boost your post across Instagram’s interface and display your posts to a wider audience.
Don’t want to write your own captions? Check our list of best captions for Instagram!
Conclusion
We hope these tips will inspire you for your next carousel posts! Carousel posts require time and effort to curate depending on the content you want to share. To make things easier, we encourage you to use Mention Publish to schedule all of your carousel posts with ease. You will be able to upload, edit, and automatically schedule your content in a single calendar that is shared with your team.
