How to Create an Instagram Carousel for Business
Instagram launched carousels back in 2015, making older than reels, but still on the newer end of social media features.
Through out the years carousels have slowly evolved and taken on their own etiquette and guidelines.
So before you hop onto the app and post your first carousel, let’s go over the do’s, the dont’s, and all the details in between.
What is an Instagram carousel?
An Instagram carousel is a collection of stagnant posts that you can swipe through (in a carousel-type motion) to view them all.
Why are Instagram carousels useful?
Single posts are one of the simpler types of posts. They help you convey a direct message in a straight forward way.
Common ways I’ve seen business owners use carousels are:
Graphics for an upcoming sale or event that has too much information for just one post.
Educational posts. The first graphic is normally the question the rest of the slides will answer, or a hook of some kind.
A “gen-z photo dump”: This is a newer trend often used by gen-z. It includes a bunch of random photos from different events in their life (from big events like a networking event to small events like the song they’ve been listening to on repeat). The purpose of this is to share a little more of a sneak peek into your life and make your page more personanable.
Inspirational or funny repost-able quotes or graphics. If you have multiple variations of one repost-worthy graphic (maybe the quote in different colors or a bunch of memes that use the same photo with different words) then I recommend using a carousel. This way someone wanting to repost can choose the variation of your post that they want to repost to their story.
What is proper Instagram carousel etiquette?
With Instagram carousels, there are a few best practices. To make sure you’re putting your best foot forward with Instagram carousels, make sure to:
Never put too many words on a graphic (always, but especially when you have multiple pages to cover the information with a carousel).
Choose an image that matches your branding and your feed to put first.
Use the first image as a scroll-stopper. Think of it like a header. You want people to stop, then continue to read (in this case scroll).
With graphics, prompt people to keep scrolling with a Call to Action (CTA) or an arrow.
Keep it cohesive. Each image in your carousel should connect to one another.
How do I make an Instagram Carousel?
The first step in creating a post is understanding what the purpose of your post is. Once you’ve gathered that, decide if you want to post images or a graphics.
To create a graphic, I recommend using Canva. They have thousands of free templates to create beautiful carousel graphics for your Instagram.
TIP: Make sure that you stick to using the same brand colors and brand fonts for all graphics you create. This will help your feed look more cohesive.
To post your carousel:
Open the Instagram app.
Press the “Create Post” button at the bottom center of your screen (square with a plus sign inside of it).
Select your first image.
Across from the words “Recents” and “Drafts” there will be a small circle with two squares in it. Press that button. From there you will be able to grab up to 10 images. Make sure you click the images in the order you want them to appear.
Press next at the top right hand corner of your screen.
Then, Instagram will give you some quick editing options. These filters aren’t used as often as they used to be in the beginning days of Instagram. It is more on trend to post unfiltered photos or photos that seem to be unfiltered. Less is more.
The options it gives you are:
Add music to your post by clicking the music icon at the top of the screen and searching the song you want to add.
Change the brightness and balance exposure with the “Lux” tool at the top of the screen (looks like a magic wand).
Choose a pre-made filter by swiping through the filter options.
Edit your image further by pressing the “Edit” button on the bottom left corner. This will allow you to create your own filter/ edit the finer details of the image.
NOTE: If you are posting a graphic, do not filter or edit the image. Leave it as it is. Most images can also be left unedited. If you are going to edit an image, use photoshop or another image editor that is higher quality.
Your Challenge: Make a carousel! 📸
Try your hand at creating a carousel! Post either images or a graphics and add music to it!
If you feel confident in creating carousel posts, challenge yourself by heading over to Canva to create a graphic carousel.
While I don’t have any Canva tutorial content, there are thousands of incredible content creators on Youtube and Tik Tok that do! Find their videos and see if you can learn a thing or two about Canva graphic creation for social media.
Happy posting!
