Full transcript
0:00Carousels are one of the best ways to
0:01grow on Instagram. And in fact, in 2025,
0:04they have a higher average engagement
0:06rate than reals or single images. And
0:09while Instagram reels might average a
0:11slightly higher reach, carousel posts
0:13can be a really powerful tool for
0:14reaching your existing followers or for
0:17reaching new followers who are more
0:19interested in carousels than they are in
0:21reals. I believe that a healthy,
0:22well-rounded Instagram strategy that is
0:24setting you up for success is not just
0:27all about reels, but it also includes
0:29carousels. And so today, I'm going to
0:31share with you eight new styles of
0:33carousels that are effective reaching
0:35more people [music] and helping you grow
0:37your followers and customers. And I'm
0:39going to show you some examples for each
0:40style. As a business owner on Instagram,
0:42it's important to be consistent in your
0:45effort, [music] but adaptable in your
0:47strategies. And since 2022, carousels
0:50have been on the rise. Instagram
0:52admitted that they went too far in
0:54pushing reels out to too many people and
0:56oversaturating the platform with reels.
0:58And since then, they have been giving
1:00more reach and views to carousels. But
1:03since that announcement was officially
1:05made, the [music] number of people
1:06posting carousels hasn't risen at the
1:09same rate. Basically, what I'm saying is
1:11the supply demand difference is in your
1:13favor when it comes to carousels.
1:15[music] When we talk about reels, the
1:17supply demand is flipped. There's so
1:19much supply. With so many reels being
1:21posted, the demand just can't keep up.
1:23And that's why year overyear, reels
1:25[music] views continue to go down. But
1:27like I said, carousels is the opposite.
1:30Carousels are being pushed out to more
1:31people maybe than ever before. But
1:33there's not more people posting and
1:35creating carousels than ever [music]
1:37before. But here's the problem. If
1:38you're still creating and posting
1:40carousels today like you were in 2022 or
1:442023 or even 2024, you're going to get
1:47left behind because [music] what people
1:49look for and engage with when it comes
1:51to carousels has changed. And so I'm
1:53going to share with you eight new
1:55trending, popular, easy to create
1:57[music] carousels that you could apply
1:59to pretty much any niche and they're
2:01going to outperform the carousels
2:03[music] of the past. Before we hop into
2:05those eight, let me quickly define what
2:06are the carousels of the past. The
2:09carousels of the past are the carousels
2:11where it's a solid color background with
2:14an image of yourself cut out and some
2:16big text hook that says, "Three tips for
2:20losing weight."
2:22Boring. Instead, use one of the eight
2:24following ideas and your carousels will
2:26reach more people. Also, one more pro
2:28tip that's really important for me to
2:29note before we continue talking about
2:31these different kinds of carousels is
2:32that you should always add music to your
2:35carousel. Right before you press post,
2:37below the caption, there will be an
2:39option to add music to your carousel.
2:42When you do this, it will help you get
2:43more views, engagement, and followers.
2:45And that's because number one, just
2:47human nature, I am more likely to
2:49consume something and interact with
2:50something if there is an audio component
2:53to it. But number two, algorithmically,
2:56when you add music to a carousel, it
2:58makes the carousel eligible to show up
3:01on the reels tab. This might be a little
3:03bit confusing, but stick with me for a
3:04second. You know, as you're scrolling
3:06through the recommended reels, not the
3:08explore page, not the tab on your
3:11profile of all of your reels, but the
3:13recommended reels. For most people, it's
3:15in the fourth position down at the
3:17bottom of your screen. Well, when you're
3:18scrolling through that, of course, we're
3:20typically used to just seeing reels. But
3:22when you add music to your carousel,
3:25your carousel can actually show up as if
3:28it was a real and people can swipe
3:29through it just like they normally would
3:31and it's mixed in with all the other
3:33reels. This means it could provide a
3:34significant boost in reach or
3:36distribution to your post, which of
3:39course could turn into a significant
3:40boost in engagement and potentially
3:42followers. So make sure when possible
3:44you always add music to your carousels.
3:47But with all of that being said, let's
3:48talk about the eight different carousels
3:50that are super popular and super
3:52trending and pretty easy to make. Number
3:54one is what I call the hook slide
3:56carousel. Basically, this is a carousel
3:59that is only two slides long. The first
4:02slide is supposed to be a hook. It's
4:05supposed to be a headline or something
4:07that really grabs people's attention and
4:09encourages them to slide, thus
4:11interacting with your post. The second
4:13slide is the context or the background.
4:16A really easy way that you could do this
4:18is to take your existing reels. Maybe
4:21even take one of your existing
4:22high-erforming reels and make that reel
4:25your second slide. Then come up with a
4:29headline or a hook or some sort of
4:31catchy statement that's going to grab
4:33people's attention and create a first
4:35slide with that hook or headline on it.
4:37Then people will slide from the
4:39headline, first slide onto the second
4:41slide. It's a really easy way to
4:43recreate content and draw people in.
4:46It's the same idea of like a YouTube
4:48video, right? YouTube videos have the
4:51thumbnail and the title. That's kind of
4:53like the first slide of this two slide
4:56carousel. It's a headline, a title. It's
4:59going to grab your attention. It's going
5:00to be really visually attractive. And
5:02then when you click on the YouTube
5:03video, here you are. I'm giving you the
5:05value. I'm actually teaching you
5:06whatever it is I'm going to talk about.
5:08In the Instagram example, the slide onto
5:11the second slide represents the click on
5:13the YouTube video and then people are
5:15watching your reel or they're reading
5:17your uh long text post or they're just
5:19consuming the content that you have to
5:21share. This kind of carousel is
5:22especially popular and effective if you
5:25are doing breaking news or some sort of
5:27actual headline related post. The second
5:30trending super popular form of carousel
5:32is what I call freeze frame carousels.
5:35These carousels are super effective if
5:37you're someone who has a podcast or a
5:39YouTube video or you do interviews.
5:41Basically, the idea here is it's kind of
5:44comic book style where you're getting
5:46two frames, a top half and a bottom half
5:49on each slide and instead of just
5:51watching someone talk, the closed
5:53captions of what they are saying in that
5:56frame is added on top of the video. I've
5:58seen this done super effectively. I've
6:00done this myself and I've even done this
6:02myself with some of my own podcasts,
6:04posting them on my own Instagram. Super
6:06effective, super easy to create. Idea
6:09number three is taking the carousels
6:10that used to work and creating a new
6:12refreshed version. So, in the past, like
6:15I described earlier, what used to work
6:16was a solid color background on every
6:19single slide and you just have, you
6:20know, text on every single slide and
6:22maybe there's a cutout of you on the
6:24first slide, but that's really it. Now,
6:27what people are doing is they're taking
6:29a popular carousel style called photo
6:31dumps, which is not one that I'm
6:32necessarily covering today, but photo
6:34dumps are popular in the travel niche.
6:37They're popular in the lifestyle niche,
6:39which I don't necessarily consider a
6:40niche, but I digress. Basically, photo
6:43dumps are where you take a bunch of
6:44photos from a recent vacation or maybe
6:47from the past month, and you just post
6:49them all, right? It's not one specific
6:51occasion that you're posting about. It's
6:53kind of like here's the last month or
6:54here's my trip and all the photos I
6:56took. Well, this third kind of carousel
6:59that I would recommend for you as a
7:00brand or business owner is to take this
7:03photo dump style carousel and just add
7:05text on top. Basically, the photo is
7:08visually appealing, engaging, and makes
7:10someone want to continue swiping and
7:12going through the post. But then the
7:14text on top is maybe telling a story or
7:17entertaining them or giving some tips.
7:19the account, her first 100K, is an
7:22awesome account. She's got like a
7:23million followers and she helps women
7:25make their first $100,000 and she's all
7:27about mindset and investing and saving
7:29and all of that stuff. She's really
7:30awesome. Check her out. And she does a
7:32ton of these carousels, these photo dump
7:35plus text style carousels, and they're a
7:37great updated version of what was
7:40effective a few years ago. Idea number
7:42four is one that won't necessarily fit
7:43for every niche or business, but it's
7:46collage style carousels. These carousels
7:49are super super fun to make. These style
7:52of carousels can be a really great way
7:54to highlight a recent vacation, maybe
7:56show some photos from an in-person event
7:59or meetup, or to just highlight a lot of
8:01different photos in a really interactive
8:03way all at once. There are some apps out
8:06there that will help you create these
8:07carousels, but the easiest way that I
8:09found to create these collage style
8:11carousels is actually right in Canva.
8:13Basically, just go to Canva and then
8:15create a new project with a custom size.
8:18Instagram now allows your photos to be
8:203x4. Three being the width and four
8:22being the height. So, if we convert that
8:24into pixels, that's 1080 wide by 1440
8:28tall. But for this collage carousel,
8:30instead of creating your custom project
8:32as 1080x440,
8:35you're going to make the width a
8:36multiple of 1080 based off how many
8:38slides you want the carousel to be. So,
8:41let's say you wanted to make a 7 slide
8:43carousel. Well, 7 * 1080 is 7,560.
8:48So, you would make your height 1440 and
8:50you would make your width in pixels
8:527,560.
8:54Then you can have fun with it. You can
8:56play around, add a bunch of photos and
8:57text and cutouts onto this really long
9:00horizontal image. And then when you
9:02export it, you can just cut the image so
9:05that each individual image is the right
9:08size for Instagram. You could manually
9:10do this in your photos app, but what I
9:12prefer to do is to use the website Pine
9:15Tools. Pine Tools has an image splitter
9:18tool where you can tell it how many
9:19images you want to be split and then it
9:21will automatically cut it for you and
9:23you can save it uh so that you have the
9:25individual images ready to be posted as
9:27a carousel. Carousel number five is what
9:29I call same meme, different meaning.
9:32Basically, you take the same meme and
9:35you just repeat it multiple times across
9:37multiple slides, but you change up the
9:39context or you change up the label or
9:41you change up what the meme is
9:43describing. This is a really great style
9:45of carousel because oftentimes people
9:47just want to see the different way the
9:49joke is applied. It can also be a great
9:51style of carousel because just memes in
9:53general are a super effective way to
9:55captivate people and make them laugh and
9:57be relatable and connect with people.
9:59And this is especially a great kind of
10:01carousel if you have different or
10:04competing ideal audiences. For example,
10:07a lot of my followers are content
10:09creators and a lot of my followers are
10:11small business owners. And oftentimes
10:13small business owners don't consider
10:14themselves content creators and content
10:15creators don't consider themselves small
10:17business owners. And so sometimes I will
10:19take the exact same meme and I will just
10:21swap out the word content creator with
10:24business owner and then post it as a
10:26carousel. So, one slide says one thing,
10:28one slide says another thing. Everyone's
10:30happy. I'm more likely to get shares and
10:32engagement, and it's a really easy
10:34carousel to create. Carousel idea number
10:36six is what I call a curated collection.
10:39And really, a curated collection of
10:41quotes or a curated collection of
10:43visuals. I find that this style of
10:46carousel is most effective when you just
10:48bring together a bunch of motivational
10:50quotes that really inspire you or that
10:53relate to your niche or you bring
10:55together a bunch of visuals that kind of
10:57describe your niche or describe common
10:59mindset shifts that people need to have.
11:02These curated collections, each slide
11:04doesn't necessarily talk to the next
11:06slide, right? You could see one
11:08individual slide and you don't need to
11:10see the slide before it or after it for
11:12that individual slide to be motivational
11:14or to make an impact or to really
11:16inspire you. Instead, each of these
11:18slides might all fall under the same
11:20umbrella. They might all be
11:22motivational. They might all be super
11:24funny. They might all be uh very
11:26philosophical, but because they're all
11:28under the same umbrella, they're all
11:29being posted together. And it's a super
11:31easy style of carousel to create. For
11:33this one, I encourage you to just ask
11:35yourself what quotes or phrases or
11:37verses are super inspirational and
11:39motivational to you and then just create
11:42a series of images that have on each
11:44image one of those quotes or
11:46inspirational messages and then post
11:48that as a curated collection. Carousel
11:51idea number seven is definitely going to
11:52take a little bit more work, but it is
11:54the interactive carousel. It's the
11:56carousel where swiping actually means
11:59something. Maybe on the first slide,
12:00people are prompted to pick a race car
12:02and then by the last slide, one of the
12:04race cars wins. Basically, the carousel
12:07itself is interactive in some way.
12:10There's a popular meme format that's
12:12going around right now uh where people
12:13take a trending audio and then the
12:15trending audio just loops back and forth
12:17between the lyrics and then the
12:18saxophone and then the lyrics and a
12:20saxophone. And so you make your first
12:22image uh yourself singing the lyrics and
12:24then you make the second image yourself
12:26playing the saxophone. And so people
12:27kind of swipe back and forth. It's
12:29interactive. It's fun. It's c.
12:39And then last but not least, the eighth
12:40and final carousel that is performing
12:43really well right now on Instagram. And
12:45this one is especially for those of you
12:47who do photography or videography or who
12:50create art. And it is what I call the
12:52flip book carousel. You know those flip
12:55books that you would create when you
12:56were little where you would take like a
12:57notebook or a sticky note and you would
12:59draw a little stick figure on the first
13:01one and then you draw another stick
13:02figure on the second one and then the
13:03third and then when you would fan the
13:05paper with your finger, it would make
13:06that stick figure do a little dance or
13:08like move around or like jump up and
13:10down or something. It's the same idea.
13:12What you can do on Instagram is you can
13:14tell your followers to hold their finger
13:16down on the little dots that are below
13:18the carousel and then instead of
13:20manually swiping one carousel at a time,
13:23they hold their finger down on those
13:24dots and they drag them back and forth.
13:26It basically moves through the carousel
13:28super quickly. And so you can create
13:30stop motion effects, you can create
13:32time-lapse effects, or you can show a
13:35series of photos in really cool,
13:37creative, and engaging ways. Now, I
13:39don't know about you, but I suck at
13:41graphic design. I can admittedly say
13:44that that is one of my biggest
13:46shortcomings, one of my biggest
13:47weaknesses when it comes to content
13:49creation. And yet, I'm still posting
13:51numerous carousels a week. And I'm still
13:54editing and graphic designing and
13:55creating probably 95% of them. And so, I
13:58want to encourage you to start messy,
14:01start sloppy, but just start
14:02experimenting, start having fun with it.
14:04Maybe if you felt burnt out about reels
14:07recently, this is going to be a great
14:08opportunity for you to experiment and
14:11bring some creativity and some fun and
14:13some joy back into the process of
14:15creating content for Instagram. Your
14:17carousels don't have to be perfect, but
14:20they have to be posted. Thank you so
14:22much for watching today. Don't forget to
14:23subscribe if you learned something new
14:24or if you enjoyed this episode. Every
14:26single Thursday, I put out a new episode
14:28just like this with some quick tips,
14:30ideas, or strategies for growing your
14:33business or brand on social media. Thank
14:35you so much for listening. Don't forget
14:36to subscribe and as always, happy
14:38networking.