Creating an Instagram carousel post allows you to showcase multiple photos or videos in a single post. This offers a more dynamic and engaging experience for your audience! Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create and maximize the potential of a seamless Instagram carousel post:

Creating a Carousel Post on Instagram

Open your Instagram app and tap the "+" icon to create a new post.

Tap the square icon to select all the images or videos from your photo library, gallery, or media files. 

You can edit each photo individually with filters or adjustments.

After editing, add captions, hashtags, and locations before sharing​.

Content Ideas for Carousels

There are several pieces of content you can do that requires Instagram carousel templates. You can share "before and after" transformations, step-by-step guides, product showcases, or tell a story to make the carousel post engaging and informative.

If you are making Instagram carousel posts for a brand, consider user-generated content, behind-the-scenes shots, or personal stories to connect with your audience on a deeper level, like doing a "photo dump".

Design and Visual Consistency

Aesthetic is all the rage now to maintain a curated Instagram feed. Make sure that the photos, video posts, Instagram reels maintain visual consistency when looking at your feed like using the same filter, etc. Perfectly align content in terms of style, color scheme, and quality to ensure that carousel posts are cohesive on your Instagram account.

You can even use carousel templates from platforms like Canva or Adobe Stock to save time on design, or use Adobe Photoshop to maintain consistency. Alternatively, you can opt for your own Instagram carousel templates to create a seamless carousel post throughout your feed.

Engagement Strategies

Mixing images and videos keeps a content dynamic and holds the viewers' attention longer. Make sure that the first slide piques the viewers' interests so they continue swiping through all the slides. A good tip is to a call-to-action or hint aboutt more content in subsequent slides or even in the last slide to encourage comments or likes from your followers.

Technical Specifications

Instagram supports square, landscape, and portrait formats so you will need to make sure that all images or videos in the carousel posts are of the same orientation.

• Landscape: 1080 x 566 pixels

• Portrait: 1080 x 1350 pixels

• Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels

• Aspect ratio: landscape (1.91:1), square (1:1), vertical (4:5)

For video posts, 3 to 60 seconds duration is optimal, adhering to the aspect ratio and size requirements similar to images​.

How to Schedule an Instagram Carousel Post

Manually posting on Instagram is not always efficient. If you are a social media manager, you will need to be as efficient as possible so scheduling posts ahead of time helps in maintaining a consistent publishing schedule.

Schedule Instagram carousel posts to be published using third-party apps, like Later, to schedule Instagram posts. Facebook business suite also has a feature where you can schedule an Instagram post.

Remember, Instagram carousel posts are not just about showing off random images or videos; they're a tool to tell a story, showcase variety, and engage your audience more interactively.