Curious about Instagram carousel posts and how to use them? Then allow me to explain a little more about why they really are the posts that keep on giving!
What are Carousel Posts?
A carousel post is a series of images or videos that are grouped together in a single post. It’s a brilliant opportunity for you to present a lot of content in an easy-to-digest format. In addition, Instagram often shows a carousel post more than once, displaying a different image from your carousel to a user a second time. Your post may well appear in your audiences feed twice, helping you increase your engagement.
So how do you create content for your Instagram Carousel posts? Here’s 8 ideas to get you started:-
1. Those Who Can, Teach
Sharing our knowledge with our audience is a great way to create engagement. Breaking down your knowledge on a particular subject into step by step instructions works beautifully as a carousel. Sharing tips with your audience ensures you become a go-to for useful information. To further increase engagement, always encourage your audience to save these kinds of posts to refer to later.
3. Lots To Say?
Sometimes we need our audience to dig into the details, however a single image accompanied by a long caption doesn’t always grab their attention. If you need to get a bit more in-depth about a product or a service, a carousel containing eye catching graphics enables your reader to quickly swipe through and scan read.
5. How Does It Work?
How about a carousel showing your product in situ, followed by a product close up or a detail shot? This is a great way to show how people use your product or service. Or if you don’t have a physical offering, perhaps you could share images of your customers using or benefitting from your service.
7. Before and After
Can you share a story of a transformation, from beginning to end? Before and after reveals are a great way to show the real-life impact of your products or services. Plus, the promise of a reveal often sparks curiosity, prompting more swipe-throughs.
2. More Than One Option
Carousels are a great way of showcasing a variety of your products or services in one handy post. Maybe you can group certain offerings into categories and create a carousel for each. If you have a physical product that comes in more than one colour or size, use a carousel to showcase the options. If you offer a particular service, does it have different price points to suit multiple budgets?
4. Tell Your Story
Carousels are a great opportunity to share your journey with your audience. Begin your carousel with an image that shows your end product or service, and then follow it with images of your journey, from that initial inspiration, then maybe a behind the scene snapshot, to any funny stories or failures that you experienced along the way.
6. Glowing Reviews
A brand’s success is often heavily influenced by customer reviews – and if you’re getting good ones, it makes sense to share them through Instagram carousel posts. Build trust with your audience by sharing what your clients say about your offering. Showcase written client testimonials or even better - a video testimonial! I've seen amazing results from these.
8. Get Inspirational
Allow your audience to discover what inspires you with a carousel of beautiful quotes from people you admire. This gives your audience a chance to see who you relate to, who you look up to and who lights your fire.
Carousel FAQ’s
Do Carousels increase engagement?
Carousels can be amazing. They can be filled with so much useful info that they get saved and share a lot and very often your carousel post will be served to your audience twice, giving you double the opportunity for engagement.
Can I use Hashtags?
Instagram users have reported in the past that their carousel posts generate very little impressions from hashtags… although more recently I have seen much better results from hashtags on carousels.
To conclude…
Instagram Carousels really are worth exploring. Served twice to your audience and an easy to digest way to consume your message. That has to be a winner.
I hope you find this guide to Instagram Carousel Posts useful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or DM me via Instagram.
Connect with me on Instagram if you haven’t done so already @sarahrichardssocial.
Sarah x